What's with the names? Ricardo -> Ricardus???

[MachThree]

Maybe I'm missing something, but how did the guy who in 1864 is being called Ricardo end up in 2007 being called Ricardus by Jacob and Ilana?  Why the name change?

[SQUIRT199]

Maybe I'm missing something, but how did the guy who in 1864 is being called Ricardo end up in 2007 being called Ricardus by Jacob and Ilana?  Why the name change?

Ricardus is Latin, (others language)

Ricardo is Spanish (1876 Canary Islands talk)

[laklost]

I just take it to mean he is a man of many ages.

[Xentro]

I was actually thinking that it's been a while, since Jacob and Ricardus met. (and now it isn't possible anymore) So he calls him by his old name and doesn't say Richard ...

[Kinuvia]

Maybe I'm missing something, but how did the guy who in 1864 is being called Ricardo end up in 2007 being called Ricardus by Jacob and Ilana?  Why the name change?

I seem to remember Juliet saying at one point that if you were an "Other" you had to be able to speak Latin.. so Jacob uses the Latin version? One of those unsolved questions that may not be answered perhaps.

[BobBX542]

I think he told Illana to ask for Ricardus so that Richard would know it was him she was looking for, and not some other person who might have been on the plane named Richard. I don't see this as being one of the big issues, I wouldn't be too concerned with why someone is being called a slightly different name 140 years later. BUT, that is just my opinion. Some people weren't concerned with how the Black Rock got into the middle of the island, or how the statue got destroyed, but i thought that was a big deal to find that out.

[RM]

Yeah, I think it's Ilana who is the one who speaks Latin, so Jacob used that version when he spoke to her.  Has Jacob ever actually spoken Richard's name in any other instance?  We saw him ask Richard what his name was here.  [Which means, he wasn't specifically bring Richard to the Island, right ... just anyone?]

[BobBX542]

Yeah, I think it's Ilana who is the one who speaks Latin, so Jacob used that version when he spoke to her.  Has Jacob ever actually spoken Richard's name in any other instance?  We saw him ask Richard what his name was here.  [Which means, he wasn't specifically bring Richard to the Island, right ... just anyone?]

RM, that is a really good point. I hadn't thought about it, but is it possible that Jacob doesn't know who the people are that he's bringing to the island?? I'm sure that at some point he had to know, hence the light house, but it just hit me that he might not know specifically who he is bringing there.

[spencer]

Because of the constant Latin reference, maybe we'll see Jacob's backstory as a Roman or Greek, even Egyptian.

[RM]

Yeah, after someone else -- ?Creflo? -- pointed out that the knife that MIB gave Richard (and, we're assuming, also the same knife that Dogen gave Sayid) is itself Roman, that maybe it's Jacob and MIB who are the original Romans.  They may just be the latest iterations guardian/captive of the Island with Tawaret and the Smoke Monster being even older spirits.  [And, for me at this point, Jack and Sawyer will be the next set of replacements.]

So if Latin is Jacob's native tongue, that would be why he taught it to the Others, and why he's the one referring to Richard as "Ricardus".