DerGolem wrote:
I see August already has my back on this, but there is definitely more to the names of Japanese kaiju then simply their etymological point of origin. Gojira comes from the Japanese words for gorilla "Gorira" and "Kujira" for whale. And yet Godzilla is neither a gorilla or a whale. So the word is more than just a description of what the creature is, its a name. Furthermore its how its used. When Godzilla, Mothra, Gamera or whoever comes to town the people refer to them by name, they acknowledge that these creatures are individuals with separate identities. In contrast American giant monsters get no much treatment. Many of them aren't named at all but are rather simply referred to as "IT" "THEM" or "The Creature..." and those that are are usually given scientific names for classification purposes like "Graboid."

Timothy K. Beal in his book "Religion and its Monsters" has a very interesting chapter where he talks about naming monsters. He uses the UK movie "The Giant Behemoth" as an example pointing out how early on the monster is named Behemoth by the local fishermen, after the monster in the biblical Book of Job. Later however the scientists strip the creature of its mythical name describing it instead with the scientific moniker of a "paleosaur." This happens to occur in the same scene where the scientists also figure out how to kill the monster. Beal makes the point that in a metaphorical sense the act of un-naming the monster was essential to its destruction. As a mythical/biblical beast Behemoth was invincible, but as a mere "paleosaur" it became a simple animal and therefore could be destroyed.                         
You can paint whatever metaphors you want onto a monster. My point was simply that Japanese monsters also tend to have their job description built into their name.

And it's not like anglo monsters don't have names as well. Kong and Gorgo are names, not titles. (Gorgo's Mother is sort of both...) I forget whether it was Ymir or The Ymir, however.