Thanos, the Mad Titan, has one of the most threatening names in Marvel Comics. In Greek, the name “Thanos” is a short form of the personal name “Athanasios,” which means “immortal.” The name, however, is also derived from the name “Thanatos,” a Greek mythological figure who carries humans off to the underworld when their lives are done. For Thanos, therefore, his name literally means “death.”
This leads to the obvious question: what kind of parents would name their son death? After all, Thanos isn’t an alias the he took on later in life, but the name given to him at birth. As it turns out, there is a reason behind Thanos’ unusual name – and it is both inspiring and tragic.
According to the miniseries Thanos Rising by Jason Aaron and Simone Bianchi, Thanos was born on Titan, one of the moons of Saturn, to a family of Eternals. In the Marvel Universe, the Eternals are an offshoot of the human race, genetically engineered by the god-like Celestials early in humanity’s evolution with great powers and a human-like appearance. The Celestials experimented on other groups of species, producing the grotesque Deviants, and introducing the capacity for super-powered mutations in another group that eventually evolved into humans.
The Eternals eventually left Earth for Titan where they established another colony. The Eternal Mentor (A’lars) settled on Titan where he married and had children with a woman named Sui-San. Sui-San gave birth to Thanos, but it proved a difficult birth as Thanos got tangled in his own umbilical cord. Upon saving him, the doctors discovered Thanos possessed a Deviant gene which gave him his unusual purple appearance. The doctors were horrified by Thanos’ form and expressed regret that he would live. However, his father A’lars had a very different reaction.
Upon seeing his son, A’lars called him “perfect” and “strong” for being “the child who refused to die.” To honor him, A’lars called his child Thanos, or, “The Child Who Refused to Die.” Thus, Thanos initially gained his name out of love – as A’lars likely intended his name to reflect the Greek word for “immortal.”
Almost immediately, however, Thanos’ name gained a very different meaning from his mother. Wanting Sui-San to see their child, A’lars presented Thanos to her – but instead of expressing relief or joy, Sui-San snatched a scalpel and tried to stab Thanos, claiming she saw “death in its eyes.” A’lars and the doctors managed to subdue her, but Sui-San went insane and was committed to an asylum.
Years later, a young Thanos would visit his mother frequently in the asylum although she made no indication that she was aware of his presence. Thanos indicated he had dreams of his mother trying to kill him and was so disturbed by the images that he refused to sleep. Tragically, this revealed that while Thanos did not remember why his father (who grew cold and distant from him over the years) gave him his name, he did have some trace memories of what his mother tried to do to him, and thus equates his name more with “death” than “immortality” – a meaning that would come to define his life.