What's in a name?

“That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” -William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

We all know that Luka is a man of many identities. He changed his appearance constantly and even his voice. He used various aliases and even went as far as legally changing his name. But why? And is there meaning behind his name? Luka Rocco Magnotta. What a beautiful name he chose for himself! I imagine there aren’t many Luka Magnottas in the world, whereas there are probably thousands of Eric Newmans. So there’s one likely reason right there. He wanted to be unique, memorable, to stand out from the ordinary. Plus he choose such an exotic sounding name but one which rolls so nicely off the tongue. I don’t know about all of you, but I can’t stop saying it over and over in my head. “Luka Magnotta, Luka Magnotta, Luka, Luka, Luka Luka Luka…” Over and over it repeats in my head and it just sounds so beautiful to me. He really chose a name with a nice ring to it. Plus a porn star needs a nice name.

I know many of us realize that we would not have these feelings for Luka if it wasn’t for his beauty, but how many have stopped to wonder if you would feel this way if he had a different name? If he were only known as Eric Newman do you know for certain you’d feel the same? Personally Newman makes me think of the fat mailman in Seinfeld.

Maybe Luka didn’t want to share a name with another killer, Eric Harris comes to mind, from the Columbine shooting. Maybe he wanted to be the only killer by his name.

It would not be surprising if Luka’s main motivation for changing his name was to disassociate himself from his past; his fraud charges, his family.

But why the name Luka Rocco Magnotta? Where did it come from? There was a news article that speculated that he got the last name Magnotta from a Ripper video game from the nineties when he would’ve been a teenager. A game about a serial killer who dismembers his victims and notifies news outlets of his killing spree. This seems to fit, but does this mean Luka was planning to become a killer years ago when he first started using the name Luka Magnotta, before he even changed it legally? Or does it just mean he had a fascination with killers? It’s all speculation anyway. No one even knows if he ever played that video game.

Then there’s the beautiful name Luka. One day a few weeks ago, I was on YouTube searching for Luka videos and I stumbled across the song “Luka” by Suzanne Vega.  Before I even read the comments for the video, I thought it sounded eerily like Luka, and it is from 1987, a year that seems to be of great musical interest to Luka. I really don’t think this can be a coincidence. Here are some of the lyrics to the song:

My name is Luka
I live on the second floor
I live upstairs from you
Yes I think you’ve seen me before

If you hear something late at night
Some kind of trouble. some kind of fight
Just don’t ask me what it was
Just don’t ask me what it was
Just don’t ask me what it was

I think it’s because I’m clumsy
I try not to talk too loud
Maybe it’s because I’m crazy
I try not to act too proud

They only hit until you cry
After that you don’t ask why
You just don’t argue anymore
You just don’t argue anymore
You just don’t argue anymore

Yes I think I’m okay
I walked into the door again
Well, if you ask that’s what I’ll say
And it’s not your business anyway
I guess I’d like to be alone
With nothing broken, nothing thrown

Just don’t ask me how I am
Just don’t ask me how I am
Just don’t ask me how I am

Then I have another theory. We know that Luka is obsessed with Karla Leanne Homolka, who also has a unique, somewhat exotic sounding name. Notice that both of their first and last names end in A. Also notice how they have the exact same number of syllables in both their first, middle and last names. If Luka really was that obsessed with Karla, I doubt that this could be coincidence. For example, look at my alias “Lexa Mancini”; it’s certainly no coincidence that my name is very morphologically similar to “Luka Magnotta”…Same initials, same number of syllables, same number of letters in our first name and same last letter of our first name. My name was carefully selected and crafted to be as humanly possible to Luka Magnotta without being blatantly obvious. I felt it was a way to feel closer to him. Plus I needed to make sure it had good etymological meaning. (I’m a huge fan of linguistics, symbology, and etymology, in addition to psychology, if you couldn’t tell.) My interpretation of the meaning of my name is “Dark, left-handed one”

What does Luka’s name mean?
Luka means “Man from Lucania”. Lucania is an ancient district of southern Italy. Luka apparently wanted to be European, so it’s no surprise he would pick a European name. There’s also Mount Lucania, which is the third highest mountain in Canada. Again fitting for Luka, a Canadian boy. Mount Lucania is named after the ship the discover had sailed in, the RMS Lucania, which was the largest passenger liner of her time (pre-Titanic); a world traveller, just like Luka. Rocco means “battle cry”, so maybe he was saying to the world, listen to me, look at me, or I will battle. Magnotta is an Italian name, again no surprise given Luka’s interest in Europe; it actually means “Germanic”.

So what’s in a name really? Are names all that important? I venture to say yes, the symbolism can be great and they can affect people’s perceptions of a person.