The Walking Dead Changed Negan's Name at the Last Minute

Robert Kirkman explains coming up with the name "Negan."

By Cameron Bonomolo

The Walking Dead #95 marked the first time anyone uttered the name "Negan." While the bat-swinging Savior wouldn't appear in the flesh until issues later — in the brains-bashing issue #100 — the line was a hint of what was suggested by the title of volume 16: "A Larger World." But the name-dropping panel, which happens when Paul Monroe, a.k.a. Jesus, leads Rick Grimes' group to the Hilltop colony, underwent a last-minute alteration to change Negan's original name: "Naygus," inspired by the similarly-named Grand Nagus who lived in the Nagal Residence on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

"Negan, if in name only, is introduced in this issue," writer Robert Kirkman notes in The Cutting Room Floor feature included in The Walking Dead Deluxe #95. "It's cool seeing the characters mention him without him actually being introduced."

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(Photo:

The Walking Dead Deluxe #95

- Image Comics)


Kirkman continued, "Originally he was named Naygus, but it turns out that's the leader of the Ferengi people from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. So his name was changed before it saw print, thankfully, when I realized I wasn't coming up with a cool sounding name from scratch as I thought, and was actually just recalling something that lived deep within the recesses of my superhero, horror, and sci-fi addled brain."

The colorized reprint isn't the first time Kirkman disclosed this tidbit of Walking Dead trivia. (If anyone ever asks, "What was Negan originally named in The Walking Dead?" Now you know the answer.) 

Related:

On a 2016 episode of Talking Dead, Kirkman explained he "wanted the name to sound negative in some way, so I was calling him 'Naygus' for a long time, which is just a word I thought I pulled from thin air." After realizing "Nagus" was a Star Trek term, however, Kirkman recalled, 'I can't call him Nagus. So then I was like, 'Okay, Negan. That sounds fine.'"

The Walking Dead Deluxe #95 is on sale now from Image Comics.

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