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KSP- Name Origin


HellboundBait

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So i was watching the Inter-stellar quest series by Scott Manley when I realized something... I have no idea where the original name "Kerbal" came from. Does anyone have any clues as to where the developers came up with this/found this? I've looked around but I haven't been able to find anything on this. So what I'm asking is if anyone has a link to a post which might tell me this or for someone who might know post here and let me know? I'm dying of curiosity now!

-Thanks

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When they were little, the game's creator/brothers HarvesteR and Moach used to play with little matchstick astronauts, which they called "Kermans." "Kerbal" is the adjective form of Kerman, though most players don't know that, so everybody calls the little people Kerbals. :)

(Note: I heard this story a very long time ago, and might be mis-remembering some of the details.)

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They mashed the keyboard?

Oh wait...

When they were little, the game's creator/brothers HarvesteR and Moach used to play with little matchstick astronauts, which they called "Kermans." "Kerbal" is the adjective form of Kerman, though most players don't know that, so everybody calls the little people Kerbals. :)

(Note: I heard this story a very long time ago, and might be mis-remembering some of the details.)

So...No?

Hmm...

So KSP's creation was fate!

FATE I TELZ YAH.

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When they were little, the game's creator/brothers HarvesteR and Moach used to play with little matchstick astronauts, which they called "Kermans." "Kerbal" is the adjective form of Kerman, though most players don't know that, so everybody calls the little people Kerbals. :)

(Note: I heard this story a very long time ago, and might be mis-remembering some of the details.)

No, even in the game it is stated that they are named Kerbals, and on the website too.

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Just to correct some misremembered facts:

HarvesteR and Moach were teenagers when they sent up kit-rockets, not "little".

They used kitchen-foil "astronauts", not matchstick figures.

And finally, they called the race "Kerbo", with an adjectival form "Kerbal", and gave them a titular suffix "Kerman". ("Kerman" isn't part of their name, it's a title, along the same lines as "Mister", "Sir", "Commander" and so on.)

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When they were little, the game's creator/brothers HarvesteR and Moach used to play with little matchstick astronauts, which they called "Kermans." "Kerbal" is the adjective form of Kerman, though most players don't know that, so everybody calls the little people Kerbals. :)

(Note: I heard this story a very long time ago, and might be mis-remembering some of the details.)

No!!! This is the "Legend & the Truth".,.,.,.from the "Big Banana",,,,Just messin' with ya

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That's it, mark this day, from now on KSP is on par with Star Trek and Star Wars, the fans debating background lore and correcting each other! :D

Hopefully our official tie-in literature will be much better, though :P

Although Timothy Zahn and Michael Stackpole really know their stuff, at least. But this is a discussion for another thread.

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  • 2 years later...

I made my account just for this.

Well, this is *very* late and I don't even play KSP (Though I love watching people play it), In Looney Tunes' 1953 "Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century" cartoon., Duck Dodgers (Daffy Duck) says, while explaining how to get to planet X; "Starting from where we are, we go 33.600 Kerbal miles due up! [...]"

I wonder if this is just a coincidence, or had some influence into naming it, seeing as the whole episode is centered on the space adventures of Daffy Duck and Porky Pig.

Video for reference ( happens at 2:25 ):

 

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At first I thought "Kerbo miles", but then with the volume up and a pair of headphones ... "turbo miles".

Apparently we've been here in discussion before too.

 

So, launching little 'Kermans'. First in rockets (discounting the Chinese repelling the Mongols in 1232), it's close in my mind to 'Germans'.

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