“Survivor 46” players reveal their merge tribe name nominations

The entire cast — even the ones that didn’t make it that far — share what they wanted to call the merge tribe.

The merge! It’s a huge part of any Survivor season, and a big landmark moment for any player that makes it that far. But the 12 contestants that made it through merge-atory on Survivor 46 don't have time to celebrate. Not only do they need to strategize and solidify their place within the game, but they also have to get to what’s most important of all — figuring out their new tribe name!

This was always a big to-do in early Survivor seasons, and there would often be at least one person very hilariously upset their suggestion was not taken for the merge tribe name. However, in recent years, the merge tribe name debate and discussion many times does not even make it to air. With that in mind, we took the discussion straight to the players themselves, asking all 18 of them right before the season began what they would like to name the merge tribe.

Who wanted to secretly name the tribe after their dog? Who had a special plan to pay honor to a fan favorite from the past? And who uncorked what would be the most unwieldy tribe name ever? See all the merge tribe nominations in the video below, including the ones from contestants that never even made that far. You can read their answers as well, which is a good thing because we had technical difficulties on Soda Thompson and Liz Wilcox's videos, so you'll just have to imagine what those two Nami legends looked like while delivering their responses.

Moriah Gaynor

My pitch is going to be Opus. Magnum opus is a great work, so I'm kind of going to phrase it as we are a great tribe, and Magnum is just way too long. However, the real reason is that my dog's name is Opie and we call him Opus. So it also involves me playing it real deep and not telling anyone my dog's real name this entire game. So it might not happen.

David Jelinsky

K’Nale. For Keith. Keith's death, that was such a tragic death. It kind hit the Survivor community. Keith was someone that everybody loved. Nobody didn't like Keith. He was hilarious. I feel like I should just spit one time for him. But I want to pay homage to the greats. And I'm not necessarily saying Keith was a great game player, but he made it pretty far every damn time he played. So Keith was a great guy.

Jess Chong

I think we should call it Bor Bor. That's my dog's nickname. His name is Boris, but I call him Bori, Borby, or Bor Bor. Who can argue with a dog like a pet name? B-O-R-B-O-R. Doesn't it sound exotic?

Ben Katzman

What if we call the merge tribe the Vaha Tribe, for Van and Halen?

Kenzie Petty

I did think about this. I had a really hard time because I wanted something that didn't sound like Merica, that just… I didn't want that. So I'm just going to go with my first dog's name. Her name was Akasha, and we're going to go with that.

Bhanu Gopal

The nomination name for the merge tribe would be Mandara, M-A-N-D-A-R-A. It's Mandara in an English way, but Mandara in an Indian way, meaning the red flowers, which are growing on the island. The beautiful red flowers. That's what the tribe name is.

Tiffany Nicole Ervin

Okay, this might sound so stupid, but I want to name the tribe Juju, because that's my dog's name and I miss her and I love her so much. And I feel like if our tribe name is Juju, then that's going to give me good juju and it's going to help me make it to the end of the game.

Tevin Davis

I want to call the tribe Singa, very selfishly because I'm a singer and I just want a nice Ebonics way of calling my tribe Singa. But also, Singa means sun. And I like the sun. I like sunshine. I like bright, happy, and so Singa just seems like what we should do. But I also feel like they're always like, “What was y'all's tribe name? What's ours? Let's fuse them together.” Which is cute, but can we just be Singa?

Venus Vafa

So there's a Fijian word called Lasu, and I was planning on telling everyone that it means family and trust, but really what it means is false promises, deceptiveness, and untrustworthiness. That's what I would probably name the tribe is Lasu, and I would gaslight people into thinking it means something pleasant like family.

Hunter McKnight

I actually never really thought about what the tribe name would be because I know there's going to be so many opinions, but coming to Fiji, they say this word all the time: Bula. I don't even know what it meant for a large portion of the time, but I've figured out it's just a gritting of hello. And so I think that it fits. It's the word I've heard the most while I'm out here.

Randen Montalvo

The name I could think of is the Drama Kings and Queens. There's a whole lot going on inside of us. I can tell.  I can't wait to see it come out.

Maria Shrime Gonzalez

It would be called Seleju. My oldest son is Sebastian, and my middle son is Leo, and my youngest is Julian. So it would be Seleju, and I don't know, let's just say it's Fijian for "stronger.”

Q Burdette

I haven't really thought that far of a tribe name. What I have thought about is my alliance names. I'm going to have the Brodys, I have all those things. I’m one of 17 kids, I have tattoos all over me that represent it. So me and the tattoo girl, we might be Ink: the Ink tribe.

Tim Spicer

I would throw this name in the merge hat, either Essence or Oneness, because I think by now we're moving as one, but we're kind of moving against each other. And then I'd say Essence, because we've all made it to this point that we really dreamt of. When I pledged at Morehouse, it was about essence of oneness. What do we all need to do to make it to the next night, or to make it to the next day? So I see Essence or Oneness as one of those names that could possibly fit the merge tribe.

Jem Hussain-Adams

It's whatever “welcome” is in Fijian would be our tribe name. I think it's a perfect name for a merge tribe because it's all of us from different tribes, and here we are. We should feel welcome.

Charlie Davis

Oh man, if I could make a Taylor Swift reference the tribe name, I would just be… you can vote me out. That's a win. That's a win right there. It might be pretty tough. I don't know. I could work something out. Maybe like the first letters of all her albums, mix 'em up. Might be tough to word scramble "Swift" into a fake Fijian word. I don't know if there's enough vowels there, but I could think of something.

Soda Thompson

I guess Bula because people keep saying it over and over again. And we could shout it, like, "Bula Bula Bula Bula!" And make jokes, "Bula Bula Bula Bula rockin' everywhere."

Liz Wilcox

This is the thing I’ve thought about the most. I really want to name it “Pel Say Ah”, and that is just a play on words for my daughter’s nickname. Her name's Chelsea, I call her “Chelsea Pelsea” and I was thinking: Well I can’t just say Pelsea, because that doesn’t even sound, you know, island-like. And so I thought: Well what if I split it into three words, like Pel-Say -Ah? I could tell them that it means “Hope restored”, and that’s a throwback to Russell Hantz and “Keep hope alive."

Everyone’s always saying, “Don’t lose hope. When you lose hope, you lose the game.” And so, hopefully, I can craft that story, and say, “Oh yeah, it means ‘Hope restored’. We’ve made it to the merge, our hope is restored. We are going to make it to the end now. At first it was, ‘Oh, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t want to be first boot, this kind of sucks, this is scary, ah!’ But now, we’re at the merge, our hope can be restored, and we can move forward.” But, really, it’s just my kid’s nickname, and she’s gonna frickin’ love it.

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