Referring to character: "Son" vs "Goku" vs "Son Goku"

[JulieYBM]

Not to mention none of us are on personal terms with guy. We should be as polite to him as we are with calling Toriyama 'Toriyama' and not 'Akira'.


And to repeat myself, people do refer to their friends by last names. I saw it a lot in high school. There was a guy we all called 'Carney' (or maybe it was 'Carnie') instead of 'Ryan'.

[linkdude20002001]

Yeah, it happens all the time in high school. And in the English dub of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yugi calls Seto Kaiba by his last name. Is that weird? Does it bother fans? Nope.

[Mewzard]

I guess it's weird to me because, despite having two names (epic reveal!), I'm almost exclusively referred to by my first name by all my family, friends, teachers, and most people I meet. Well, one new teacher is an exception, as she prefers using last names as a sign of respect.

My only problem with calling Goku "Son" comes with when there's more than one Son: Son Goku, Son Gohan, Son Goten, etc. But, even then, it's not too much of a bother.

[Gaffer Tape]

Alright! Now there's a logical reason I can get behind! And it only took us three pages to get to one!

[JulieYBM]

Ah, but how often do the others get called 'Son'? Not to mention if the topic's about Gokû, it's safe to assume 'Son' means 'Son Gokû'.

[DemonRin]

Well, My thing is... NOBODY in the series itself EVER calls Gohan or Goten "Son"/

The ONLY character who is EVER referred by ANYONE as just "Son" is... well, Son Goku!

With the exception of Kai now, I don't watch the series in English or even with subtitles, so I'm used to him being called "Son" quite often by Bulma and Piccolo. It's just... normal to me...

[Rory]

It just comes down to not being an idiot.
My friends who called me McHugo don't do it around my family, because that'd cause confusion.
In the same way, when they're not talking exclusively about Gokuu, fans don't tend to say Son.

[gokuhan72]

Just saying Son sounds weird to me.

Son Goku and Goku is fine with me.


I say Goku as I have never fully experienced the Japanese version of DB nor the manga

[Adamant]

Yeah, it happens all the time in high school. And in the English dub of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Yugi calls Seto Kaiba by his last name. Is that weird? Does it bother fans? Nope.

And hell, to continue that example, don't most Yu-Gi-Oh fans call the character "Kaiba" instead of "Seto"? Even though Mokuba is also named Kaiba? Does that confuse anyone?

[Puto]

People aren't normally called by last name in English. For example, this guy is always called "George". And this guy is always called John. Right? Ri...ght?

[Fox666]

Well, you might as well call someone by his last name as a form of nickname...

[Mountain]

It's not so much that i'm annoyed when people call him just "Son", but really why would you do that? Most people know him as Goku, or Son Goku. It's just somones excuse to be cute.

What are you talking about...?

[TripleRach]

It's just somones excuse to be cute.

On South Park, is it cute when people say "Cartman" instead of "Eric"?
On The Simpsons, is it cute when people say "Smithers" instead of "Waylon"?
On Family Guy, is it cute when people say "Quagmire" instead of "Glenn"?
And most importantly, on Futurama, is it cute when people say "Fry" instead of "Philip"?

There are all sorts of examples, fictional or otherwise. Most people just call me "Rachel", but at least one friend likes calling me "Miss Oliver" or "Miss O." My male relatives are sometimes called "Oliver" or "Ollie" by their friends.

But you know, I've always found it bizarre that FUNimation completely omitted Gokuu's surname (until very recently, anyway), and then turned around and gave a surname to a bunch of other characters ("Hercule Satan", "Bulma Briefs", possibly "Tien Shinhan").

[The Time Traveller]

I sometimes call him Son to help established that he's Son Goku, if someone asks I just say "Son is what Piccolo and Bulma usually refer to him as."

It's not an excuse to be cute, it's what some characters call him and it rubs off on some people like that.

Like the fans who call him Kakarrot.

[Rory]

Like the fans who call him Kakarrot.

I'm amazed that that hasn't been brought up yet.

[TheGreatness25]

I don't get the fans that call him "Kakarrot" but that's fine with me lol I just look at it as Piccolo being a polite and formal type of guy, same goes for Tenshinhan whenever he does it. As for Bulma... I really don't know why she calls him "Son-kun" instead of... "Goku-kun" I guess.