The Mandalorian Season 3 Finale’s Major Grogu Change Doesn’t Make Sense

This Star Wars article contains spoilers for The Mandalorian season 3

Season 3 of The Mandalorian ended with the defeat of Moff Gideon and the reclamation of Mandalore. Bo-Katan Kryze and the Armorer have reignited the Great Forge, ready to usher in a new era for the planet and its people. In a really sweet moment, we finally get to see Din Djarin formally adopt Grogu as his own child so that he can become a Mandalorian apprentice. As part of the adoption, the Armorer stands in the Living Waters and christens the little Baby Yoda with a new name. But it’s Din Grogu rather than Grogu Djarin, which doesn’t actually make much sense based on what we know about Mandalorian culture and tradition?

Up until now, the Star Wars universe has mostly named characters based on the traditions of English-speaking countries where a first name precedes a surname or family name. The Skywalkers and Fetts are the most well-known examples, but this appeared to be true even among the Mandalorians with clan and house names coming after the first name, such as in the case of Bo-Katan Kryze, Paz Vizsla, and even Sabine Wren. Because of this, we, like many other fans, assumed this whole time that Din was his first name, not his surname or clan name.

That said, this method of naming doesn’t seem like a unique tradition of Djarin’s covert considering that Paz’s son is named Ragnar Vizsla, not Vizsla Ragnar or Paz Ragnar. The show also doesn’t make it clear whether there are different naming traditions for foundlings versus biological children within the covert. With all of the Mandalorian lore shared over the last three seasons, there’s been no indication that this covert names their children any differently than other Mandalorian clans or houses.

So why do Djarin and Grogu now share a first name? Who knows! Is that just how names worked on Dijarin’s original homeworld of Aq Vetina before he was adopted by the Mandalorians and brought to Concordia? Maybe it will all be explained to us next season as Djarin trains Grogu in the ways of the Mandalorians and the pair help out the New Republic. Or given the Mando-verse’s track record of featuring important Grogu and Djarin character moments in spinoff series, maybe it’ll be explained upon in Ahsoka. Given their new job tracking down Imperials in the Outer Rim, it wouldn’t be totally out of the question for Djarin and Grogu to show up in that spinoff series, which is out in August.

The Star Wars universe is built on the importance of names and family ties, so it’s not trivial to wonder why this specific name was chosen for Grogu as he begins his training as an apprentice. As great as it would be to be able to just ignore this bizarre name change and focus on Djarin and Grogu’s future as father and son, master and apprentice, it’s now an important part of Grogu’s character arc and therefore deserves an explanation.

The Mandalorian season 3 is streaming now on Disney+.