Snoke is a Terrible Name and why

I've never liked the name "Snoke" for the big, bad, powerful evil villain of the ST. Somehow it just didn't have the same ring as Palpatine, Vader, Anakin, Tarkin, or what have you. It just always sounded silly (as did Dooku). It certainly didn't sound intimidating or dark.

I tried to put together why that is-- much of how a name sounds or feels is based on emotional association, either through similar words or through similar phonetic elements. Vader works because it reminds one of "invader". Palpatine and Tarkin work because they're mostly neutral but have an air of regency or dignity, sounding like actual names and in Palpatine's case having resemblance to the names of rulers and popes like "Constantine" and "Benedictine".

Snoke sounds goofy. The closest word to "Snoke" is "smoke". Which isn't particularly \*scary\* sounding per se. But let's break it down further phonetically.

The "Sn" phoneme is a fundamentally weak one for an intimidating character. Already the name is off to a bad start. Off the top of my head, these are to words that start with "sn" that we likely unconsciously, phonetically associate with "Snoke":

Snore

Snooze

Sneeze

Sneaky

Sneer

Snare

Snide

Snot

Snake

Snoopy

Snarl

Snail

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Many of these words have an association of goofiness. Others have an association of weakness or irreverence. Of the few that actually have a "dark", "aggressive", or "underhanded" association-- snake, snare, snarl, and sneaky-- none truly intimidate. Most are still associated with some sort of "cowardly" entrapment. Snake is probably the least "weak" association of these but it also isn't an especially strong word image and is often used dismissively, when cobra, serpent, etc are stronger words for the same thing (see G.I. Joe).

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Now let's look at the "oke" phoneme and its associations:

Joke

Croak

Choke

Coke

Stoke

Poke

Soak

Hokey

Toke

Woke

Smoke

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Again, none of these are really strong associations befitting of an intimidating, shadowy villain, except maybe "smoke", which is itself not a "strong" sounding word. And in the list are some that directly undermine that by subconscious association-- choke, croak, joke, poke, hoke-y.

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Anyway, that's a cursory look at why "Snoke" doesn't seem to work-- or at least never worked for me. It's just my attempt at putting a finger on something that's bugged me the moment the name was uttered onscreen.