マリオ – Super Mario Bros. Character Names in Japanese
One day the Mushroom Kingdom was invaded by a giant magical turtle. This turtle named Bowser turned the mushroom people into rocks, brinks, horsetails and so on. The only one that can bring the mushroom people back to their original form and save the Mushroom Kingdom is Princess Peach. Unfortunately she was captured by Bowser so it is up to Mario to save her, defeat the Turtles and bring peace back to the Kingdom. Or so the story goes.
The original Super Mario Bros. video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System or NES first came out in 1985. There has been lots of additions and changes to the series and story since then. However much has stayed the same also. Today let’s take a look at some of the most important characters in the series and origin or meanings of their names.
INDEX
マリオ – Mario
First we have Mario of course, which is the main character of the game and most iconic Nintendo character. In Japanese there actually is not any difference between the English and Japanese version. You would just call Mario, マリオ.
In Japan, many Japanese male names will end in the o sound. Just like Mario! Coincidence? Probably. But who knows…
No actually, when Mario was introduced to Nintendo of America offices people there started calling him Mario. That was because Mario looked like someone that was working in the warehouse at Nintendo of America. At that time Mario actually did not have a name set yet so Mario stuck. I wonder whatever happened to the guy in the warehouse?
How Mario AKA Jump-man was created
During the original Donkey Kong where Mario first showed up, he was actually known as ジャンプマン, or in English Jump Man! The reasons are probably pretty obvious, but basically the only thing Mario could do back then was run around and jump over things. Mario has come a long way and through the 40 years or so he has been around has acquired lots of skills!
マリオ – Super Mario Bros. Items in Japanese
Speaking of Mario skills, even before he came to the Mushroom Kingdom Mario was had a number of trades under his belt. We will get to that in a moment.
Mario was suppose to be Popeye
So, you may or may not know this but the original Donkey Kong was actually suppose to be a Popeye game! Nintendo at the time was a licensee of the Popeye franchise. So, looking at the success of other arcade games like Pacman, decided to make a game based off of Popeye. The main character would be Popeye which was trying to save Olive Oyl from Bluto. But, for one reason or another they ended up replacing these three characters with Mario, Pauline, and Donkey Kong.
Mario’s Design and Life as a Carpenter?
During the design process since Shigeru Miyamoto only had 16 bits to work with, he had to find unique ways to use those pixels. Basically, because of the limitations visually he ended up with a large nose, mustache, red hat, white gloves and overalls. This difference in color as Mario, or then Jump-man made it easier to see him move with the limited frames and pixels.
ルイージ – Luigi
Luigi is an integral part of the Super Mario Bros. series. Even if he has been absent from some major games in the series like the original Mario 64.
https://japaneseuniverse.com/2024/02/18/pac-man-in-japaneseconcepts-behind-development-to-global-icon/Well, he won’t be absent from this article even if there is not much to say about his name. Just like Mario, or マリオ Luigi is exactly the same in both Japanese and English. ルイージ is how you would say the name of the green clothed plumber in Japanese.
キノピオ – Toad
キノピオ or kinopio is what Nintendo calls Toad in Japan. The anthropomorphized mushroom as been in all or most of the games from the very beginning.
So, if we break down the name, キノピオ, we soon are able to recognize his mushroom origins. In Japanese the word for mushroom is きのこ. There is no mystery that the キノ in キノピオ comes from きのこ.
Also, I may be imagining it or I may have heard it suggested that since キノピオ is close to ピノキオ which is Pinocchio in English, there maybe some relation. Again, anyone’s guess is as good as mine.
キノピコ – Toadette
キノピコ or kinopiko is the female version of キノピオ. Just like many male names in Japanese end in お many female names end in こ. So you can see the contrast easily between the male キノピオ and female キノピコ.
ピーチ姫 – Princess Peach
Princess Peach is the catalyst for all of Mario’s adventures. She always seems to get kidnaped by King Koopa and then Mario and Luigi embark on an adventure to save her. Well, for some of the games that is not always the exact plot but we get the idea.
In the past in the US, we knew of Princess Peach by the name of Princess Toadstool. I believe that was her last name, but I am not sure. Anyway, she was always known by Princess Peach in Japan. The Japanese name for Princess Peach is ピーチ姫.
クッパ – Bowser
I remember as a child calling Bowser King Koopa and being made to feel that Bowser was the more distinguished way to refer to him. Well, I have news for anyone who has had the same experience. In Japanese the only name he goes by is Koopa.
So in Japanese you would say, クッパ which means just Koopa. Or you can even call him 大魔王クッパ for King Koopa. Here the 大魔王 means something along the lines of Demon King or even Great King of Evil which would be closer.
Well, we got the King part, how about クッパ? That is a good question. I have not been able to find definitive proof, but it is said his name comes from the Korean dish, Gukbap. In Japanese this is this is called クッパ also. So, the story goes that one of the developers wanted to eat クッパ or was eating it when they came up with the name.
ヨッシー – Yoshi
Yoshi is probably my favorite Mario character. With his ability to each enemies, flap his legs to fly for a moment, throw eggs, there is so much charm in Yoshi. So as much as I would love to give a long explanation about his name there is not too much to say about it’s meaning.
Yoshi is the same word as in both English and Japanese. In Japanese you say ヨッシー. This can be tricky though if you are just learning Japanese since it is spelled like an everyday Japanese name in English, but it is pronounced more like a nickname if you are speaking Japanese than a real name.
In Japanese よし is part of several first names and some last names. For example, 義則 for a first name, 吉川 for a last name. Japanese names don’t generally have the the small っ in them or do they lengthen the い sound. The word ヨッシー then would be closer to a nickname of a Japanese person. This also actually makes the English pronunciation of Yoshi closer to the Japanese one instead of if Nintendo decided to call Yoshi よし instead.
To dig deeper into Yoshi’s name, think of the iconic sound in Super Mario World Yoshi makes. That sound sort of sounds like it is saying ヨッシー. Not the actual phonetic sound but the intonation and rhythm.
カメック – Kamek
カメック is how you say Kamek in Japanese. This wizard, witch-like creature is still some sort of a turtle creature. We can see that in his name which is a derivative of the Japanese word for turtle, 亀
ワリオ – Wario
ワリオ or Wario is an interesting character. If you take the M in Mario and flip it over you get the W in Wario. Just like if you were to flip Mario’s good nature upside down to get the rude and crude Wario.
The names contrasting each other also work well in Japanese. The word for bad in Japanese is 悪い. The swapping out of マ for ワ is suppose to show that Wario is a bad dude.
ワルイージ – Waluigi
For ワルイージ (Waluigi) the same logic is used as with ワリオ. But it is a lot more obvious. In ワルイージ the ワル is taken directly from the word 悪い and also tells you that this is the opposite to Luigi.
ドンキーコング – Donkey Kong
Finally we have Donkey Kong which has been around since the very beginning in the first game where Mario showed up. Donkey Kong is more or less in a world of his own. Other than the various party, sports and Mario Kart games he has mostly been on his own adventures. So I was not sure if I should include him here, but I though why not.
ドンキーコング is how you say Donkey Kong in Japanese. It is the same in both languages but the origin of the name has an interesting story to it. Basically, the creator of Mario, Shigeru Miyamoto.
Basically he thought of Kong as a way to refer to a gorilla and wanted to use that in the name. He also wanted to give a name to Donkey Kong that would be represent him as a dumb gorilla. So Miyamoto san looked up まぬけ or moron in the dictionary and found that the word donkey also could mean まぬけ and decided on using it for his character. After coming to America however he was told over and over that donkey did not mean moron. But, figured that was ok since quirky name would be more memorable.
If you want to learn more Japanese I reviewed a dictionary of grammar series which I personally recommend and use myself.
