Is there a reason the Wachowskis chose the names Smith and Anderson?

Question

The obvious reason and what I would assume is most likely is the frequency of these names in at least the United States:

Rank    Name     %
1.      Smith    1.006
2.      Johnson  0.810
3.      Williams 0.699
... 
11.     Anderson 0.311

Smith is the most common last name, meaning there would be a lot of them. I had also assumed having similar names would make them more difficult to track in a hacker world. Do any of these assumptions make sense? Many movies shy away from using incredibly common last names, although I have no source for this.

Is there a reason the Wachowskis chose Smith and Anderson for the characters' names in The Matrix?

Are you asking why the program called "Smith" named himself Smith, or why the Wachowskis chose the name Smith for the character? — Jason Baker, Jan 31 '17 at 17:20
@JasonBaker why the Wachowskis chose the name Smith for the character? Or the book writers if you must go back that far. — William, Jan 31 '17 at 17:20
As Jason Baker says, if you change the title to clarify that "they" refers to "The Wachowski Sisters (Formerly The Wachowski Brothers)", it would be a bit clearer. — DisturbedNeo, Jan 31 '17 at 17:42
Also having the same question in your main body of text. Currently, the only question in the body is "Do any of these assumptions make sense?" Which isn't exactly a question that's answerable on this site, if at all. — DisturbedNeo, Jan 31 '17 at 17:43
"John Smith" is a slightly less common (in America) fake name after "John Doe." Google image "John Smith id card" ( https://www.google.com/search?q=%22john+smith%22+id+card&source=lnms&tbm=isch ) — Yorik, Jan 31 '17 at 21:17
@Yorik source? yes but individually they are the most common first names and last names. — William, Jan 31 '17 at 21:48
I gave a source (the link). Here's another: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/alias — Yorik, Jan 31 '17 at 22:40
@Yorik no source that John Smith is less common the John Doe. — William, Jan 31 '17 at 23:03
William, @Yorik is at least partially correct; "John Doe" is defined in the New Oxford American Dictionary with a specialized North American Law definition as follows: "an anonymous party, typically the plaintiff, in a legal action." Also: "(informal) a hypothetical average man." By contrast, "John Smith" does not appear in the dictionary at all. Now as to which name is used more often to provide a fake name where a real name is required, is a different question; but "John Doe" actually means "a hypothetical average man." — Wildcard, Feb 01 '17 at 02:24
Do you know that great scene in “Die Hard” when agent Smith and special agent Smith are introduced? — Holger, Feb 01 '17 at 08:32
I like how the percentile is 1 and 0, after all, the matrix is just 1's and 0's — sch, Feb 01 '17 at 08:55
@Wildcard: "John Smith" appears in the dictionary under "alias" — Yorik, Feb 01 '17 at 15:26
@Wildcard: you can start with my link to one above. I found 3 different ones that use John Smith in their example of an alias. I will leave it to you to re-find all the examples of John Smith as the prototype common alias using Google Books and a very simple 4-word search. — Yorik, Feb 01 '17 at 20:24

DisturbedNeo · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-31T17:41:21.640

66

You might find this page useful. It details even vague connections, themes and references that each name in The Matrix has, including some for Thomas A. Anderson, those mainly being:

Thomas means "Twin", in reference to the fact that he's been "living two lives", one as Thomas and the other as Neo.
Thomas is also the name of one of Jesus' disciples, namely "Doubting Thomas", who did not believe Jesus had died and been resurrected until he saw the holes in Jesus' hands, much like Thomas A. Anderson never believed he was the One until he himself died and came back to life after being shot full of holes.
Anderson means "Son of Man", in keeping with the whole "Messiah" theme that goes on throughout the trilogy (I mean movie, just one movie, there's only one movie).

As for the Agents, the whole point about them is that they have common, boring anglo-saxon surnames, such as Smith, Jones, Brown, etc.
You might find that one of the reasons they picked Anderson as a surname for Neo was simply because they'd used up a bunch of other common names for Agents and Anderson was simply next on the list. Neo's exact surname may not ultimately be all that important, though I have to say hearing Smith call him "Mr. Anderson" is a nice touch that probably wouldn't have worked with many other surnames.

edited Jan 31 '17 at 17:41

answered Jan 31 '17 at 17:35

DisturbedNeo

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I have always loved the way Hugo Weaving drawls Anderson, i.e. "Mister Annnnderson". – Binary Worrier Jan 31 '17 at 17:41
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@BinaryWorrier also how he says "Mordor" in LotR (as Elrond) : Mor-r-r-dor-r-r – Integration Jan 31 '17 at 18:35
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I dunno if they picked the common names on purpose but it's pretty effective at driving home the idea that anyone could "turn into" an Agent at any time, and that they're "all the same," as Morpheus puts it. – Devsman Jan 31 '17 at 20:28
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Now imagine Elrond giving the "virus" speech to Frodo. "...I realized that you're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium... but you hobbits do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consumed and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus. Hobbits are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague and we are the cure." – Schwern Jan 31 '17 at 22:03
@Schwern, but are there viruses in Middle Earth, even in Elvish lore? – Wildcard Feb 01 '17 at 02:27
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@Schwern "Welcome to Rivendell… Mr. Anderson." – Feb 01 '17 at 04:39
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@BinaryWorrier "Mister Arrrrragorn... Welcome back. We... missed you." – Feb 01 '17 at 04:39
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aNdErsOn, spells Neo in the right order, it has Neo hidden right in there. THomas andEsON, hads all the letters needed for "The One" (albeit out of order). Neo is an anagram of One as well. Might be coincidence, but I doubt it. – CyberClaw Feb 01 '17 at 10:52
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A can't ever talk to someone named, or hear the name, Anderson without hearing it in Hug Weaving's voice. – Wayne Werner Feb 01 '17 at 15:45
I don't think that this had anything to do with the choice but anders is the German word for different. – Armin Feb 01 '17 at 23:18

score 58 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 31 '17 at 19:22

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I'm unclear whether it's a case of the tail wagging the dog, but it's notable that Agent Smith's car (in Matrix Reloaded) has the plate IS5416 (Isiah 54:16)

"Behold, I have created the smith who blows the fire of coals, and produces a weapon for its purpose. I have also created the ravager to destroy..."

This seems a pretty solid description of Agent Smith's role in the world of the Matrix and would explain the choice of name.

That being said, it's certainly possible that having created a character called Smith, that the Wachowskis then went looking for biblical reference that had the word "smith" in and got lucky.

answered Jan 31 '17 at 19:22

Valorum

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Why would agents even use cars? Although I suppose constantly jumping around and taking over nodes in the matrix might cause instability in the system. Still, it seems redundant. – Integration Jan 31 '17 at 21:45
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@Withywindle - So that they can transport prisoners. – Valorum Jan 31 '17 at 21:54
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@Withywindle In answering "Why are there only three Agents at a time in the Matrix?" I supposed that Agents are disruptive and used sparingly. The Matrix is an illusion for the benefit of the humans trapped inside it. Agents doing super-human feats and taking people over risks whole point of the Matrix. Instead, they'd prefer to act as part of the Matrix taking on the plausible shadowy government "Men In Black" role which means driving a car. They'd use their powers when they decide it's worth stopping an even greater disruption. – Schwern Jan 31 '17 at 21:56
I would agree with this answer but I tend to think now a days that agent Smith is the chosen one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkMU1mKdwPI – William Jan 31 '17 at 22:09
@Schwern: that’s a founded assumption. Recall, at the beginning of first movie, they only take over other people when there are no witnesses around (members of the resistance don’t count). At the end, after Neo has proven how dangerous he is (he managed to win a fight against an agent), they don’t care anymore, jumping around mindlessly. – Holger Feb 01 '17 at 08:38
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@schwern - Have you ever woken up and realised it's not Wednesday, it's actually Thursday and can't for the life of you remember what you did yesterday? That's because you spent the day being an Agent. There's quite a lot of people out there (especially those that work from home) that wouldn't even notice they'd lost a day – Valorum Feb 01 '17 at 10:09
@Holger it does seem that as the amount of node-jumping increased the stability of the Matrix became an issue. However, Matrix instability is expected as part of the runtime - hence the purpose of the One. Smith, although, is an unknown variable and the effects are quite destructive. I suppose the question is if the node-jumping introduces instability with increased frequency, or if there is a limit of jumped nodes that, when reached, causes some kind of exception (out of memory?). – Integration Feb 01 '17 at 16:59
If it's a biblical reference in relation to The Matrix, it's almost certainly valid. – DisturbedNeo Feb 02 '17 at 11:29
@Valorum There's quite a lot of people out there (especially those that work from home) that wouldn't even notice they'd lost a day If they have a remote job (which would be most people who work "from home" as opposed to "at home"), they will notice when they see a bunch of emails from their bosses asking where they are :P – xDaizu Jun 06 '18 at 14:40
@xDaizu - Assuming you have a boss, obviously. – Valorum Jun 06 '18 at 14:43

Is there a reason the Wachowskis chose the names Smith and Anderson?

2 Answers2