What's in a Name?

We all know what Leeloo’s first name means (Leeloominaï - 'precious gem'), and that the last portion of her name (Ekbat de Sebat) is actually an honorific meaning something akin to ‘highest honour’. But there’s been little to no information revealed or published about the meanings of her second and third names – Lekatariba Lamina-Tchaï. So I decided to do some research on the matter, and while I was initially disappointed in the distinct lack of results I found, eventually I dug deep enough and found an interpretation that far surpassed what I could ever have hoped or expected to uncover.

Firstly, Lekatariba doesn’t seem to be based on any known word of another language, as a whole. At least none that I could find. However, leka is a fairly common word in many Tanzanian dialects, including Doe, Gweno, Kutu, Lambya, Matumbi, Nyamwezi, Ruguru and Sumbwa, with the primary translation being ‘leave’. It also appears in the Swedish language as translating to ‘play’ and in South Africa, it means ‘stop’. And like leka, tariba also has an independent meaning, and bears a most interesting translation and etymology. Tariba is actually straight out of the Bible – it’s an Arabic word, a verb, meaning ‘to become poor’ or ‘bend to the dust’ or ‘to have much earth, be full of earth, have dust in his hands’. I found this discovery MOST exciting. So looking at the word or name Lekatariba as a whole, I’ve narrowed the overall translation of the word down to ‘humble servant of the earth’, or simply ‘of the earth’, ‘earthen’ or ‘earthy’. The leka portion is somewhat hidden in the translation, but it can be insinuated that she has ‘left’ (leave) the earth in which she existed or 'played', that she is from the earth or ‘of the earth’.

And next we have Lamina-Tchaï. This one also caused me some problems in the early stages of my research, but my ultimate findings were well worth the effort. Lamina was the easy part, and what I found just made way too much sense to ignore. While there are few similar words in other languages, there is a definite resemblance to an English word that initially doesn’t seem to really fit – ‘laminate’ or ‘lamination’. But once I really thought about it – to ‘laminate’ something is to provide it with a protective covering, and Leeloo was, in fact, sent to Earth as protection and defense against the dark planet, was she not? Therefore, I’ve concluded that Lamina means ‘protection’ or ‘defender’. But there’s more! 'Lamina' (formerly called ‘Lamina Ceramics’) is also a solid-state lighting technology company that designs and manufactures the brightest commercially-available light-emitting diodes or LEDs. So, Leeloo was sent to Earth as a defender against the dark planet, she was the defender against darkness, and subsequently, the 'defender of light'!

Which brings us to Tchaï. And I just about fell out of my chair when I found this one. Now, if you Google ‘Tchaï’, all you’re going to get is a couple of meaningless hits about Tchaikovsky, and I wasn’t able to find anything of any value researching name etymology or language references, except for one ridiculous article about a Cuban bug called ‘Atchai’ that lives in cigars and crawls into the mouths of smokers and takes control of their brain... THAT wasn’t working for me at all. And then I found it... by searching a slight variation on the word, ‘chai’ instead of ‘tchai’, I discovered that ‘chai’ also goes back in Biblical history, and is actually the Hebrew word for ‘life’. It is a symbol, meaning ‘life’, in the Jewish community, which represents living healthy, wealthy and wise. So, as a whole, we have Lamina-Tchaï, translating to ‘defender of light and life’.

And now, to finally bring it all together... I present to you, the FULL translation of Leeloo’s name, which, to my knowledge, has never before been revealed or interpreted:

Leeloominaï Lekatariba Lamina-Tchaï Ekbat De Sebat
Precious Gem of the Earth and Honourable Defender of Light and Life

I’m very excited about this revelation, and I welcome any and all comments or feedback about my findings. I hope everyone is as satisfied with this interpretation as I am.

Domo Danko,

T.