Okay so here’s my reasoning on why I chose the first name John for the Professor in my fanfic.
I won’t bore you with details but basically, I tried to cast a net out and get as much canon material as possible. There was never a mentioned name for the Professor so that was an immediate bust. I didn’t like the idea of taking the name Drake from the anime adaption either. I finally settled on looking at his evil counterpart, Professor Plutonium, and thought I would investigate “Utonium” and see where that got me.
Well, Utonium isn’t real so that was immediately a dead end. However, Plutonium is a real chemical element! I figured since Plutonium is the Professor’s evil counterpart then I could search for other chemicals or elements that neutralize or play a part in disarming Plutonium itself. This led me first to Gadolinium!
Which is not a good first name at all!
However, the person who first discovered Gadolinium was named Jean Charles de Marignac. Meanwhile the mineral gadolinite, a mineral in which gadolinium is found, was named for the Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin.
SO. Jean and Johan are both different forms of the name John.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to name the Professor that yet so I went back to see what else Plutonium doesn’t get along with.
Thorium was the next stop!
Examined and determined to be a new element by Jöns Jacob Berzelius.
So.
John.
Again.
I stopped at this point and basically went: John! John it is!