Earthrealm guys/gals with full names:

Sonya Blade
Jackson Briggs
Johnathan Carlton
Kurtis Stryker
Liu Kang
Kung Lao
Kuai Liang
Hanzo Hasashi
(technically) Shang Tsung
Hsu Hao

Might be forgetting some..

Without:


Kano O'Reilly
Kabal I dunno, Kasey Stone, lol
Mavado..err..Derek Mavado?
Kira D. Ominatrix
Kai B. Poning Yoo
Jarek Jenkins
Michael Grimm (Kobra)

I believe that some individuals like Shao Kahn got two names because the name wouldn't be logical in terms of naming backgrounds if it was just Shao for example. Shao means 'laughing' and Kahn means 'emperor'.

The most of the Earthrealm warriors already have a surname: Kurtis Stryker, Kuai Bi-Han, Kuai Liang, Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, John Carlton, Jackson Briggs, Shang Tsung, Kung Lao and Hanzo Hasashi. I suppose the rest characters don't have a surname in common because they have been either too evil or divine to be called by a codename, they are inhuman and don't follow the same patterns and rules that we do in Earthrealm or NRS haven't gotten a chance to introduce them well enough just yet. Recently we just got the names of Sub-Zeroes.

Speaking of names, doesn't anyone find it weird that the Sub-Zero brothers don't share the same family name? While Bi-Han may sound like a first name, Kuai Liang sounds like first and last (or is that last and first in Chinese?).

I suppose Bi-Han is Noob Saibot's calling name and his full name is Kuai Bi-Han.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking... but I find it weird that NRS doesn't make a direct link between them. Why would you refer to one character by his calling name, and the other one by his full name? Sense, it makes none.

KHAN means Mongolian tribal overlord, eventually the ruler of the Golden Horde. Like Genghis Khan, which means Great Khan. The real name of Ghengis Khan was Temujin. KAHN means something else differently. It appears as a name in several southeastern languages, can't remember wether Thai or Malay.

So don't use KAHN when referring to Mongols.


SHAO is the pronounciation of XIao meaning little. It can very well be homophonous to laughing in a different dialect.

Actually Razor asked me about this once. Chinese names work ona syllable basis. So Bi Han (not Bi-Han as it is entirely pointless to use - in chinese names, ala Shang-Tsung in MK1 promos and toys) might very well be Bi Han Liang or Kuai Bi Han.

Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_given_name

And note that Chinese and us, Hungarians (shameless self-promotion) use name order the other way around. John (János) Smith (Kovács) would be Smith (Kovács) John (János) if I were to take an English example.