Wait a second, it really means nothing more then oh really? What a let down.
@omae:
My bets are on, it doesn't mean much more than Oda's free spirit. The early chapter titles included a lot of animals which prompted his "I like animals" statement in SBS. We've seen this through the countless color spreads and especially in-between the mini-arcs where as Ubiq put it best:
'The crew sips tea with hyenas and other crap'
While it could mean heirarchy or relations of family and business or something of that nature, sure, I'll leave that up to speculation, but as far as it having a serious deeper meaning (like Kaku inherited the ancient spirit of the giraffe and Croc the crocodile) I'm not so sure that's where it's headed.
Well, I agree that the reason why he chose animal names is because he loves them. If he would love plants as much he would probably just have changed animal names for plant names. I didn´t speak about the motives using animal names I spoke about deeper meanings for what the animal names are used for.
And I surely think that there is a deeper meaning. Didn´t believe that before Robin´s flashback. But I assumed it. The core point are that Ao Kiji and Aka Inu are not their real names. They are Kuzan and Sakazuki. Their promotions didn´t just give them the rank of Admirals but also title´s which include animal names. There must be a reasoning behind it.
Furthermore as I´ve often expressed my personal opininon is that the Three Admirals are one of the Three Powers which seem to be a construct that was made up as a response to the Great Age of Pirates. What leads me to this assumption are the Shichibukai. I have doubts to believe that the Shichibukai concept was using in the centuries long existence of the WG. I really thing it is something as a response to these difficult times for the WG.
And if you now look back at the Admirals again, Ao Kiji, Aka Inu and Ki Zaru have animal names. But Sengoku back when he was an Admiral didn´t (at least last time I asked I was told that Sengoku has no animal components in it). So this means that the current animal naming for Admirals is a development of recent history. Just as the Shichibukai.
And surprise the Shichibukai also have animal names. I really doubt that Sir Crocodile is his real name. I think it´s a prestigeous (sp?) name that was given to him to show his new role as a Shichibukai. Of course this is an assumption but I don´t see any reason why it shouldn´t work.
That´s why I consider the Three Admirals to be one of the Three Great Powers. The animal names is the connections between all of them. And that´s what I consider Dragons name to be too. It´s just my personal assumption but I think that since he´s a revolutionist who tries to bring the WG down, he can´t think to high of the Three Great Powers. And as a direct response to that concept he gives himself another animal name. But he doesn´t chose a random minor creature but the creature that probably is the top creature in mythology and owns them all, the dragon.
Well yeah, promised to not do it and yet again I went down the road. But that´s actually what I see consider to be the deeper meaning behind the animal names. That so many CP9ers have somehow animal themes has nothing to do with it. They have animal powers but not animal titles (how I call it).