Characters Name Meaning In Languages, Cultures And Brands

Discussion regarding the entirety of the franchise in a general (meta) sense, including such aspects as: production, trends, merchandise, fan culture, and more.
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Re: Characters Name Meaning In Languages, Cultures And Brands

Post by Piccolo Daimaoh » Tue Jun 29, 2010 12:41 am

In Japanese, "Goten" is a word for "palace", "Gohan" is a word for "cooked rice" and "Goku" is a word for "word" (...) or "phrase". That's all I got for now. :P

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Re: Characters Name Meaning In Languages, Cultures And Brands

Post by Goku100xKamehameha » Tue Jun 29, 2010 12:47 am

Piccolo Daimaoh wrote:In Japanese, "Goten" is a word for "palace", "Gohan" is a word for "cooked rice" and "Goku" is a word for "word" (...) or "phrase". That's all I got for now. :P
That's what the characters names inspired by in the first place!

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Re: Characters Name Meaning In Languages, Cultures And Brands

Post by Piccolo Daimaoh » Tue Jun 29, 2010 12:48 am

Goku100xKamehameha wrote:
Piccolo Daimaoh wrote:In Japanese, "Goten" is a word for "palace", "Gohan" is a word for "cooked rice" and "Goku" is a word for "word" (...) or "phrase". That's all I got for now. :P
That's what the characters names inspired by in the first place!
For Gohan, yes. But for Goku and Goten, no.

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Re: Characters Name Meaning In Languages, Cultures And Brands

Post by Goku100xKamehameha » Tue Jun 29, 2010 12:51 am

I thought so but really, why are you wrote Gohan then?

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Re: Characters Name Meaning In Languages, Cultures And Brands

Post by Piccolo Daimaoh » Tue Jun 29, 2010 12:52 am

Goku100xKamehameha wrote:I thought so but really, why are you wrote Gohan then?
Because you asked what do Dragon Ball character's names mean in certain languages.

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Re: Characters Name Meaning In Languages, Cultures And Brands

Post by Goku100xKamehameha » Tue Jun 29, 2010 12:59 am

Well, not the obvious ones

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Re: Characters Name Meaning In Languages, Cultures And Brands

Post by Tanooki Kuribo » Tue Jun 29, 2010 5:53 am

In Italian "Piccolo" means "tiny". It would have been hilarious if they went about calling him tiny!

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Re: Characters Name Meaning In Languages, Cultures And Brands

Post by The Time Traveller » Tue Jun 29, 2010 5:59 am

Piccolo Daimaoh wrote:In Japanese, "Goten" is a word for "palace", "Gohan" is a word for "cooked rice" and "Goku" is a word for "word" (...) or "phrase". That's all I got for now. :P
I thought Gokuu meant sky...

Goku is also the drinking sound! GOK GOK GOK GOK. I'm sure those of you who watch Japanese TV have seen the KIRIN adverts.

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Re: Characters Name Meaning In Languages, Cultures And Brands

Post by Piccolo Daimaoh » Tue Jun 29, 2010 6:02 am

The Time Traveller wrote: I thought Gokuu meant sky...
Nah, "sora" is sky.

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Re: Characters Name Meaning In Languages

Post by rereboy » Tue Jun 29, 2010 6:06 am

TripleRach wrote:
Shiyonasan wrote:Coincidentally, pan in both Spanish and Japanese means bread. Then in English it means, well, you know...
That's actually not a coincidence. It's a loanword in Japanese, and I believe it originated from either Spanish or a related language.
I think it originated from the Portuguese word for bread: pão.

The Portuguese were the first Europeans to reach Japan, so there are a few words in Japanese that originate from Portuguese.

If you want to know more, see for example this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_w ... ese_origin

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Re: Characters Name Meaning In Languages, Cultures And Brands

Post by desirecampbell » Tue Jun 29, 2010 7:32 am

Piccolo Daimaoh wrote:
The Time Traveller wrote:I thought Gokuu meant sky...
Nah, "sora" is sky.
also means 'sky', and can mean 'satoru' (A kind of rice?) which is why you'll see Goku referred to as 'Sato Sky' all the time.

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Re: Characters Name Meaning In Languages, Cultures And Brands

Post by Piccolo Daimaoh » Tue Jun 29, 2010 7:42 am

desirecampbell wrote: also means 'sky', and can mean 'satoru' (A kind of rice?) which is why you'll see Goku referred to as 'Sato Sky' all the time.
Wrong.

"空" can be read as "sora" meaning "sky", or "kara" meaning "emptiness". "悟" ("go") is used to write the verb "悟る" ("satoru"), meaning "understand" or "realize".

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Re: Characters Name Meaning In Languages, Cultures And Brands

Post by Goku100xKamehameha » Tue Jun 29, 2010 8:02 am

Tanooki Kuribo wrote:In Italian "Piccolo" means "tiny". It would have been hilarious if they went about calling him tiny!
Kaboom already said that!
Kaboom wrote:Aside from translating to "another world" in Namekian, "Piccolo" is the Italian word for "small," but more specifically in this particular case refers to a type of tiny flute. From this stems the instrument-themed names of King Piccolo's various demon spawn.

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Re: Characters Name Meaning In Languages, Cultures And Brands

Post by Timo » Tue Jun 29, 2010 9:37 am

"Popo" is German slang (but not an insult or anything, mostly used by kids) for "Butt". Strangely no one makes fun of it.

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Re: Characters Name Meaning In Languages, Cultures And Brands

Post by Tanooki Kuribo » Tue Jun 29, 2010 10:58 am

OK, this might be a stretch but, what about Broly? In English "brawly" means big and muscular... just like Broly himself! :o

I guess the only thing that would shoot my suggestion down is that his name is pronounced bro~lee and now braw~lee. But in the English dub they pronounce it Braw-lee... right?

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Re: Characters Name Meaning In Languages, Cultures And Brands

Post by ThunderPX » Tue Jun 29, 2010 11:38 am

Tanooki Kuribo wrote:OK, this might be a stretch but, what about Broly? In English "brawly" means big and muscular... just like Broly himself! :o

I guess the only thing that would shoot my suggestion down is that his name is pronounced bro~lee and now braw~lee. But in the English dub they pronounce it Braw-lee... right?
Actually, all those old magazine articles about Super Butoden 2 always call him "Brawley", don't they?

Also, it's been a while since I've seen any of the Broly movies, but I believe the English dub calls him "Bro-lee", as I was taken aback by the pronunciation after going with "Braw-lee" for a while myself.
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Re: Characters Name Meaning In Languages, Cultures And Brands

Post by Goku100xKamehameha » Tue Jun 29, 2010 9:36 pm

The only thing I can think about Broly is Broccoli, which we already know.

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