Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of The Mandalorian.The Season 3 finale of The Mandalorian came full of surprises and twists, but the biggest one didn't come until one of the last scenes when Grogu was baptized and adopted by Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal/Brendan Wayne/Lateef Crowder), now christened Din Grogu. No, not Grogu Djarin. Din Grogu. Many of us had to go back many times in the episode just to make sure we'd heard correctly when the Armorer (Emily Swallow) announced the child's full name since no one expected the family name to be Din instead of Djarin. No one had any clue about it, but this is the way.
This reveal about the actual family name of our beloved clan of two caught all of us by surprise, but is a nice addition to Mandalorian lore. We've known about the Mandalorian social structure and how it works for some time now, though it's always nice to learn new things and how wide this corner of the Star Wars galaxy is. Mandalorians have been around for a long time now, but this is the first time we see a family name work the other way around, with Clan designation coming before a personal name.
How Do Family and Clan Designations Work for Mandalorians?
The very first Mandalorian we ever met was Boba Fett (Jeremy Bulloch) when he appeared in The Empire Strikes Back. More than two decades later, we met his father, Jango Fett (Temuera Morrison), and that was enough for us to assume that names worked for Mandalorians as they do in the rest of the galaxy. It's pretty much safe to say that no one ever even thought about how Mandalorian names worked before this week, but this is exactly why The Mandalorian is such an awesome series.
Up until now, every Mandalorian we've met so far has a first name and a last name — or at least they seem to have. They are a tribal society, meaning that names and designations are important as a way of organizing themselves, and that's how Clans and Houses were established in the first place. In Star Wars Rebels, for example, we hear Mandalorian weapons expert and artist Sabine Wren (Tiya Sircar) mention she is part of Clan Wren, which, in turn, is part of House Vizsla. That's two last names, but she carries just one. We've met members of Clan Vizsla, too, another part of House Vizsla, but they don't carry the name twice, only once. We've known Pre Vizsla (Jon Favreau), Paz Vizsla (Tait Fletcher), and, now, young Ragnar Vizsla (Wesley Kimmel).
Another important Mandalorian Clan we know is Clan Kryze, part of (you guessed it) House Kryze. The most prominent member is, of course, Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff), whom we've known since her teenage years in The Clone Wars, but, back then, two other members of the family were introduced to us: her sister, Duchess Satine Kryze (Anna Graves), and their nephew, Korkie Kryze (Whit Hertford). What's interesting here is how Bo-Katan herself adds another layer to how Mandalorians carry their names. "Bo" is a nickname given to her by Satine when they were young, an affectionate way of calling someone "little," so she's technically called "little Katan") and her sister also had her first name and last name Kryze.
Is There Precedent for Clan Name Coming First?
All that goes to say that there's no precedent in Mandalorian culture for surname coming before what's supposed to be a first name, but that doesn't mean it can't exist. The Star Wars galaxy is huge, and there are countless ways to name someone, name-surname just being the most common.
It may well be the most common due to the similarity it bears to our world. Things start being fun when we learn how things may exist beyond these rules. For example, we're about to meet someone with a very weird, but super cool name when Ahsoka debuts in August: Grand Admiral Mitth'raw'nuruodo. You may know him as Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen). In Chiss culture, the family name comes before the first apostrophe, the given name comes between them, and a social factor suffix comes after the second one. To make things easier, they adopted what's known as "core name," an abbreviation that works as a more socially palatable way to address someone.
We don't even need to go to fictional galaxies to find different ways of naming someone, we have plenty in our world. For example, people in Ancient Rome carried their family names in the middle, meaning that "Julius" was Caesar's surname, while Gaius was his given name. Nowadays, Japanese names traditionally show family names first — they used to invert this for English versions, which is now abolished.
So Are Mando and Grogu Part of Clan Din?
Technically speaking, and according to what we currently know about Mandalorian lore and naming system, their Clan is supposed to be designated as Clan Din. Until we hear these words said out loud, though, we can't be sure. "Din" could still be akin to a tile of sorts, or even a nickname like "Bo," so it's better not to rush into changing your social network handle to something like "Din John" or "Din Mary," for example. Who knows what that might mean? What we do know is that, ultimately, "Din Grogu" does sound better than "Grogu Djarin." Yes, it looks unusual when we read it, but, when spoken, it's closer to the way "Din Djarin" sounds. Both given names are two-syllable words, making it simpler to understand that they belong to the same Clan.
Those are the aspects of Mandalorian culture that we expected to be addressed in Season 3 of The Mandalorian, with different Clans showing different customs. This revelation about the inverted order of given name and surname would still come as a surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. Right now, it adds variety to an already complex culture and makes its lore richer, but we can't help but feel that it's not enough to fill the void of what might have been. Unfortunately, the series chose to pursue different paths and storylines, but perhaps we'll learn more about Mandalorians in further seasons — if we get them.
All three seasons of The Mandalorian are currently available to stream on Disney+.
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