Isso foi explicado em um romance de 2013 da EU / Legends, de John Jackson Miller, " Kenobi ", que abrange Obi A vida de Wan em Tatooine:
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Ele escolheu um nome Ben porque, como ele explicou em sua tentativa de meditação de entrar em contato com Qui-Gon:
Meeting her {{a teenage girl character named Kallie - DVK }} gave me a chance to finally use the name I chose. You’ll like this: Ben. I had seen it on the map at the property office in Bestine—there’s some mesa by that name. Satine used to call me that—it was a private thing. I like the sound of it.
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Seu sobrenome (Kenobi), ele não estava pretendendo usar em primeiro lugar, e se apresentou como "Ben".
Mas ... Kamehie (um adolescente com uma queda por ele) passou por sua cabana e o ouviu usá-lo quando estava tentando meditar e falar com Qui-Gon Jin através da força ... em voz alta.
But I guess I’d rather see, and do nothing, than not see at all. I’m missing so much of what’s going on in other places. I can’t live blindfolded. It’s not really the Kenobi way.
...
I guess I can become “the Intrepid Kenobi” if I must.
...
… wait.
Hold on.
…
Someone’s here!Sendo um adolescente tonto com uma paixão, obviamente na manhã seguinte, todos na comunidade de colonos por aí conheciam seu nome (Ben Kenobi).
“KENOBI.”
Annileen rubbed her eyes. “What?”
“Kenobi,” Kallie said, beaming across a cup of blue milk. “That’s his name.”
“What?” Annileen glowered at her daughter. Annileen had risen at the usual deathly hour, remembering Kallie’s absence from the night before. But the girl was here, now, at the breakfast table in the family quarters. Wide awake—and positively quivering with excitement.
“It’s his name,” Kallie said.
“Name? Whose name?”
“Ben’s name!”
Annileen stepped forward. “How do you know that?”
Jabe called from the larder. “She went to his house!” -
Como tal, foi assim que as pessoas em Tatooine passaram a conhecê-lo.
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Ele estava bem com isso (bem, resignado, mas não em pânico), porque aparentemente havia gazillion Kenobis em Tatooine já, felizmente era um sobrenome comum.
{{ continuing from the earlier quote when Kallie tells her mother }} Kallie took her mother’s vacant expression as a signal to go on. “His name’s Kenobi.”
“Someone called him that?”
“He called himself that,” Kallie said. “I couldn’t see who he was talking to—but he said it. He was just sitting there, talking about his day, and the people he’d met, and the Tuskens.”
Annileen looked at her with skepticism. “You’re not just making this up?” She tried the name out. “ ‘Ben Kenobi.’ ” She’d known other customers by the surname over the years, and seen it spelled several different ways on her receipts.
Jabe dabbed up the last of the gravy on his plate. “Lot of Kenobis around. There’s the couple near Bildor’s Canyon.”
“There was that podracer pilot,” Kallie interjected, excitedly.... e mais tarde no capítulo, quando Ben aparece na loja que pertence a essa família:
Orrin squinted. Well, I’ll be, he thought. He stood tall and waved. “Hey, Kenobi! Ben Kenobi!”
For a moment, the hooded man appeared to disappear back behind the dune. But when Orrin charged up the rise, he found Ben kneeling to adjust his boot. “I thought that was you,” Orrin said.
Ben stood. As Orrin shook his hand vigorously, Ben said, “I’m sorry. I thought I heard you say—”
“Ben Kenobi—that’s your name, isn’t it?”
Ben looked down, around, and back to Orrin. “Yes, but—”
“But what?” Orrin smiled.
“I was just curious how you heard it.”
“Oh!” Orrin laughed loudly and slapped Ben on the back. “You’ll find out when you go inside.” He turned toward the store, coaxing Ben along.
...
A high-pitched shout came from the Claim. “Ben!”
...
“I think you’re going in, brother.” Orrin put his hand on Ben’s shoulder. “Kenobi. There was a Kenobi down around Arnthout, sold damper coils for repulsorlifts. You any relation?”
“Anything’s possible.” Ben smiled narrowly, teeth clenched together, as Orrin pushed him toward the doorway....
... Ben said. Then he stepped inside the Claim.
“Kenobi!”
The man’s eyes widened at the sound of the name called out by the clutch of people at the end of the bar. But Orrin guided him inside.
Leelee Pace looked back from her packages and waved. “Hey there, Ben Kenobi!”
By the sundries aisle, Doc Mell told his child, “There’s that Ben Kenobi. I think he’s a doctor, too!”
...
Ben looked at Annileen—and then back at Orrin. The visitor was slightly bemused, Orrin was glad to see. It happened this way all the time. People came to the oasis wanting to keep to themselves, for whatever reason—not knowing that small-town life made privacy completely impossible. ... “You’re the fellow from yesterday,” the old man said, tugging at the sleeve of Ben’s robe like a tailor droid checking a seam. “You’re a Kenobi?”
Ben pulled his sleeve back. “I—”
“Hired a Kenobi once. Gormel, they called him. Thief. Stank of spice all the time. I fired him quicker than you can say your name.”... Ben said, his eyes settling on Kallie as she chattered with some teenage friends. “I think I know what happened now.”
“I’m sorry,” Annileen said. “Kallie came looking for us and ended up snooping. I’m mortified.”
Orrin gestured for others to leave the bar, making room for him and Ben. “Gossip gets around pretty fast where there’s not a lot goin’ on.”... e mais tarde, quando meditando (desta vez, silenciosamente!) para Qui-Gon, Kenobi observa:
It doesn’t seem that the girl overheard anything too revealing—or saw me holding Anakin’s lightsaber. The Force was with me there. And there are apparently a number of people around whose names sound like Kenobi, so nobody’s drawn the connection. Yet.