Name lists

Vincent, what's up with the name lists in the playbooks?  Most of the books have two lists.  The Brainer has three.  The Chopper and Skinner have just one.  In some cases, I think that I see sort of a difference between the types of names in the lists, in others not.  Anything tricksy going on with that or is it just something mundane like a layout thing to take up the right amount of space?

To me, some of the playbooks having two lists simply is one male and one female, but with gender identity in AW being what it is it's not always easy to spot the difference, and sometimes they seem written to make you think "ok, this seems like the female list, oh wait, Smith? That's not female." just to mess with you.

Then again, the brainer has one male, one female and one other.
The driver has one with normal names, and one with car names.
The gunlugger has one "normal", and one dog list.
The hocus has one with weird words (that is, "not-at-all-names" words) and one with animals.
The operator is probably the most clear-cut male/female split.
The savvyhead seems to be "names based on first names" and "names based on surnames".

There's some kind of half-baked logic to almost all of them, but they've all got their own system.

Then again, the brainer has one male, one female and one other.
The driver has one with normal names, and one with car names.
The gunlugger has one "normal", and one dog list.
The hocus has one with weird words (that is, "not-at-all-names" words) and one with animals.
The operator is probably the most clear-cut male/female split.
The savvyhead seems to be "names based on first names" and "names based on surnames".

The driver has a list of old movie star names and one of car models.

It's interesting that you make the male/female distinction for the first two brainer lists. The "male" one is mostly common last names, not first names at all. The second list is uncommon female names. The last is weird names?

The operator is a bunch of references.

I'm guessing they all are part of the references without referents thing. It's interesting.

Hmm, you're right that the brainer "male" list is just last-names. I guess it has to do with the fact that one is more used to being introduced to male people with "this is Mr. Jackson" than the same thing happening with Mrs Jackson. So Jackson, standalone, has more male connotations to me. And then the second list is definitely more female-sounding names: Joyette, Iris, Marie, Amiette, Suselle and Cybelle. And yes, the third list could be weird names. The brainer is one of the classes that most lends itself to choosing the ambiguous or concealed gender options, in my experience.

I wasn't aware of the driver being old movie stars. And yes, the operator's are references but still sorted roughly into male/female imo.

I wasn't aware of the driver being old movie stars.

Sure, I'm actually bad at old movie names, but several popped out at me. Can anyone else fill in the rest?

Audrey Hepburn
Farley Granger
Sammy Davis Jr?
Katherine Hepburn
Marilyn Monroe
James Dean
Bridget Bardot
Paul Newman
Annette Funicello
Marlene Dietrich
Frankie
Marlon Brando
Kim
Errol Flynn
Humphrey Bogart

Kim Novak and Frankie Avalon, maybe?

He kind of looked like Farley Granger with his hair slicked back
She says I'm a sucker for a fella in a cowboy hat

They're all puns and references. Some inside jokes, like the savvyhead's, others that anybody might get, like the gunlugger's.

The battlebabe's went through like 3 revisions. They were the hardest to get right, and the ones I'm still least confident about. This is crazy-consistent with the battlebabe's troublesome place in the game.

Really? I feel like they're straightforward and very fitting. I couldn't feel the same with the Angel. They all sounded kinda too mundane to me...
And kudos for the driver names. I think they're the most elegant ones. But that's merely my opinion, mind you.