Where do the Angels get their names from?

Question

The names of the Angels are something to behold, truly. In some cases, the names for these Angels are an understatement for the power that these beasts carry with them to the battlefield. But another thing doesn't make sense to me, where do the names for the Angels come from? (Like Ramiel and Zeruel)

Does it work similarly to Pacific Rim, in the way that Tendo Choi names the Kaiju coming out of the breach? (i.e. "First Seen, First Named"?), or is it more of a religious prophecy tied to the Angel's order of appearance?

Answer 1

Seele has knowledge of when the Angels will appear based on the Dead Sea Scrolls. (That they have knowledge of the order of Angels from the Scrolls is indicated in an ep. 23 conversation. In an earlier episode, there is also an indication that Seele is expecting an Angel to appear at a certain time; I do not have access to the anime right now and cannot find the exact reference.) With this in mind, it is not surprising that the Dead Sea Scrolls also probably contain the names of the Angels.

It is unlikely that Seele was only provided with knowledge of the order of Angels and not their names. Note that Kaworu speaks of the descendants of Lilith in one of his conversations with Shinji. Lilith is the name of one of the first Angels, and as Kaworu is an Angel, his usage of the name indicates that it probably is not just a name that Seele assigned, but rather, a real one.