Why the frick does Wheland (or other homophones) turn up in SF so often?

I am reading "A Circus of Hells" by Poul Anderson the moon Flandry is sent to explore is called Whelan.

In Alien the company is called Weyland Corporation, ditto Predator.

And then we get the ragbag from wikipedia "Wayland, a fictional planet in the Star Wars franchise"...Cadmann Weyland in Beowulf's Children..

Not to mention the the Lay of Weyland, which wasn't quite what I expected.

Anyway, something like copyright on the name is needed, so sf writers have to actually use their imaginations.
-- not_morrison_rm, Oct 31 2016

Wayland the Smith https://en.wikipedi...i/Wayland_the_Smith
Maybe it's a nod to this Norse myth? [jutta, Oct 31 2016]

What [jutta] said.

<makes obeisance to She Who Must Be Obeyed>
-- 8th of 7, Oct 31 2016


How can I have never heard of Wayland, "the weird and malicious craftsman"? My whole life I have been digging stuff like this, but never Wayland.

Sometimes it feels like I slipped into a parallel dimension very similar to the previous one, but with some stuff that is new to me.
-- bungston, Oct 31 2016


Wheland though isn't a homophone with weyland etc. because wheland has an h in it. Sloppy diction.
-- calum, Oct 31 2016


Possibly, the speaker is american ... not really their fault that they can't speak the language very well.

More deserving of pity than condemnation, but it's much more fun to condemn them anyway.
-- 8th of 7, Oct 31 2016


Yes.
-- 8th of 7, Nov 01 2016


No no no. It's a cheap Disneyland knockoff--Whee-Land.
-- RayfordSteele, Nov 01 2016


//How can I have never heard of Wayland//

He doesn't advertise. And you have to know the right people to get a franchise.

Puck, for example.
-- pertinax, Nov 01 2016


// He doesn't advertise. //

Not just that ... if you try to look him up, he's indistinguishable from all the other "Smith, W" entries.
-- 8th of 7, Nov 01 2016


One would think that reading (weird and malicious) after his name would give it away, but no.
-- bungston, Nov 01 2016


//Copyrighting the name "Wheland"//

Presumably, the very fact that Wheland and its variants are such common currency means that it couldn't be copyrighted, no?

Incidentally, if writers want to nod to other Norse characters of note, they could try Theothim (the healer who dealt with Beowolf's piles, and also his gout) or Aethryd Strangtherm (who worked both as a hewer of wood for longboats and, in his spare time, as a sort of agent for the Valkyries, ensuring that went to the right battles).
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 01 2016


My understanding is that the Valkyries had their own transport.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 01 2016


Well, "ride" would imply bicycle, motorbike, or horse. Or camel, I suppose, but camels seem awfully gangly to be anywhere near a battle.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 01 2016


Pimp My Ride of the Valkyries.
-- DrBob, Nov 02 2016


No, but I think it made the cover of Newsweek.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Nov 02 2016


Back then, of course, the mag was named 'Oldstrong.'
-- RayfordSteele, Nov 02 2016



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