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This might be a stretch, but is Mazer Rackham's name derived at all from "Ockham's Razor" -- the scientific principle that states that when all possibilities are explored, the best answer or solution is the simplest (or something like that)? It seems that Mazer Rackham followed that principle in his victory over the Buggers in the 2nd invasion.
OSC REPLIES:
There is a sort of euphonious similarity between "Mazer Rackham" and "Ockham's razor," but it is pure coincidence (or unconscious resonance). The name "Mazer" came from the name of an old building on the Brigham Young University campus and the first president of BYU, for whom it was named; the name Rackham came from the children's book illustrator. The names were chosen simply because they sounded good to me and suggested a combination of national heritages in a future in which cultures and races have hodged and podged. But it might well be that the reason the name sounded good to me was because of the familiar phrase "Ockham's razor."
Or not.