I don't know where the name Servalan came from but it's my favourite B7 name. It misdirects the ear in two way. The 'serv' sound makes you think servant or service or serf, or even slave, and the whole world sounds like the name of a mainframe computer (to me). So the first interesting thing is the way the name points up Servalan's two strongest characteristics - dominance and physicality - by contrast with a name that is submissive and incorporeal.

However I think the role of Servalan as it played out, also teased us with the opposite characteristics, submissiveness and intellectual coldness. And the name 'Servalan' fits those two hidden aspects of her character.

I think this is probably all coincidence, if you pick enough names some of them have to have hidden 'meanings' that you didn't mean to put there. That doesn't take away the force that the name has though.

Alison

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