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I call him "Son Goku", when saying his name out loud, since that's the way it's done in the danish manga and dub, so saying "Goku" is just weird to me.kaialone wrote:I dont really mind.Wether its "Goku" "Son" or "Son Goku" its all correct.I for example tend to call him "Son Goku" and soetimes only "Goku"
She/Her Don't forget to take your estrogen! As off topic as it may be, congrats on the 5000th post!JulieYBM wrote:Everyone else has already said it...but 'Son Gokû' is his name. Eastern names are written with the family name first. Some character's call him 'Son[-kun]' or 'Son Gokû', others 'Gokû' or 'Gokû-sa'. His name is his name is his name. If I'm referring to him through the eyes of Bulma I might call him 'Son-kun', if Piccolo or Tenshinhan 'Son'. If I'm just being a lazy dog I'll write 'Son', because that's only three keys. :p
I knew plenty of people in school by their last name, rather that their first name. It's just some people's shtick, espicially on a sports team.
Oh my, what a topic to become 'Born 'n Bred Here'. O.oRory wrote:As off topic as it may be, congrats on the 5000th post!JulieYBM wrote:Everyone else has already said it...but 'Son Gokû' is his name. Eastern names are written with the family name first. Some character's call him 'Son[-kun]' or 'Son Gokû', others 'Gokû' or 'Gokû-sa'. His name is his name is his name. If I'm referring to him through the eyes of Bulma I might call him 'Son-kun', if Piccolo or Tenshinhan 'Son'. If I'm just being a lazy dog I'll write 'Son', because that's only three keys. :p
I knew plenty of people in school by their last name, rather that their first name. It's just some people's shtick, espicially on a sports team.
She/Her Don't forget to take your estrogen! 
It was Son-Goku, Son-Gohan and Son-Goten.Michsi wrote: Interesting fact, in the german Version "Son" and "Goku" weren't seperate words. He was actually named Songoku. And his kids Songohan and Songoten.
At least, that's how I remember it.
Satan wrote:Lortedrøm! Bøh slog min datter ihjel! Hvad bilder du dig ind, Bøh?! Nu kommer Super-Satan og rydder op!
Just to preempt anyone asking why people don't call him "Goku Son" in English, it should be pointed out that while it's typical in English to write the names of modern (ie post-Meiji Restoration) Japanese people in Western order, the names of pre-modern Japanese figures and modern people from other Asian countries such as China or Korea are still written in English with the surname first. For instance, in English you'll hear of Tokugawa Yoshinobu rather than "Yoshinobu Tokugawa", or Hu Jintao and Kim Jong-il rather than "Jintao Hu" or "Jong-il Kim" (it's also by no means universal for the names of even modern Japanese people to be written in Western order). Goku's namesake Sun Wukong is both ancient and Chinese, so naturally you don't see his name written "Wukong Sun". It makes sense to treat Goku's name the same way. Though is should be noted that at the end of the series, Goten is seen wearing a shirt that says "Goten Son".DemonRin wrote:Goku, Gohan, and Goten all have "Son" in front of their names because its their surname. It's their "Last" name so to speak. If their names were translated out to Western name order, it'd be "Goku Son" "Gohan Son" and "Goten Son".
Well, there's also the various characters from Penguin Village, and "Ten" might be Tenshinhan's surname, since Chaozu and the tournament announcer call him "Ten" ("Ten-san" or "Contestant Ten") and in the anime he says something about the Shishin no Ken being the secret technique of the Ten School of martial arts. There's also Mo Kekko, and maybe some other random people.I have no idea why the Son family are the only characters who are given surnames, but there you go.
Does she? That's really neat. That seems oddly thought out for a Toriyama manga.Herms wrote: Videl does tell Gohan that it's rare these days for people to have surnames, so this is addressed in the series, if not actually explained.
Yeah, Videl works out that Gohan is probably the son of the former tournament champion Son Goku because they have the same surname, and there aren't that many people with any surname at all. Also, in the SEG: Character Guide, Toriyama says that in the region where Mister Satan and Videl live people don't have surnames, which is why Satan's real name is only "Mark" (and not "Mark Satan" as some people have mistakenly thought), and Videl's name is just "Videl". So this indicates that a lack of surname is at least in part a regional thing, which fits in well with how everyone in Penguin Village has them, but elsewhere it seems nobody does. I guess just going by what we see in the series that there aren't too many regions that have them. I suppose the region Grampa Gohan came from must be another.Turtle Marked Stone wrote:Does she? That's really neat. That seems oddly thought out for a Toriyama manga.
Herms wrote:Yeah, Videl works out that Gohan is probably the son of the former tournament champion Son Goku because they have the same surname, and there aren't that many people with any surname at all. Also, in the SEG: Character Guide, Toriyama says that in the region where Mister Satan and Videl live people don't have surnames, which is why Satan's real name is only "Mark" (and not "Mark Satan" as some people have mistakenly thought), and Videl's name is just "Videl". So this indicates that a lack of surname is at least in part a regional thing, which fits in well with how everyone in Penguin Village has them, but elsewhere it seems nobody does. I guess just going by what we see in the series that there aren't too many regions that have them. I suppose the region Grampa Gohan came from must be another.Turtle Marked Stone wrote:Does she? That's really neat. That seems oddly thought out for a Toriyama manga.
Anyway, I'd assume the "out-universe" explanation for the rareness of surnames is that it's just less work for Toriyama if he only has to come up with a given name for each character and not a surname to boot.
Women don't necessarily have to take the surname of their husbands. And that tradition may not even exist in the Dragon World, since there are regions without surnames (and I think I recall Videl saying in the Boo arc that surnames are rare nowadays).linkdude20002001 wrote:Exactly. His name is Son Gokuh. The Sons are the only ones with a surname. And for whatever reason, Chichi didn't take on the name. Neither did Videl. But it might be because of the tradition to give part of your name to your son (children?). I remember something reading about that. that also explains why we have GOhan, GOkuh, and GOten.
Holden Caulfield in [b][i]The Catcher in the Rye[/i][/b] wrote:I hope to hell when I do die somebody has sense enough to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddam cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody.
dbgtFO wrote:I call him "Son Goku", when saying his name out loud, since that's the way it's done in the danish manga and dub, so saying "Goku" is just weird to me.kaialone wrote:I dont really mind.Wether its "Goku" "Son" or "Son Goku" its all correct.I for example tend to call him "Son Goku" and soetimes only "Goku"
Of course that's only when speaking in my native language...
Kentai wrote:Son Gokuu is a fascinating character anyway, because he is - at face value, anyway - an idiot savant. The victim of violent head trauma as an infant [...] he's a simple bumpkin with a fair share of brain damage who's natural talents to work out what's wrong compensate for his broad lack of common sense. But he's also a fighter, through and through [...] he fight until he has, in no uncertain terms, beaten his enemy on terms they can both acknowledge. He doesn't want to kill anyone, or even prove that he can win... he just wants to know he can. He's an ineffably charming bastard who's manly leanings were really incendental, and yes, the fact that he was voiced by a squeaky woman made the combination perhaps all the more charming.
Bulma, Tenshinhan, and Piccolo all refer to him by his surname. Bulma almost exclusively so. Trunks refers to him as Son-san at least once. So, no, it's not just some fans trying to be cute. It's his legitimate name and is often used by other characters to refer to him.Gaffer Tape wrote:I don't even see how that could be considered annoying, given that several characters in the series do refer to him as "Son," so it's not as if fans of the Japanese version are going out of their way to somehow separate themselves from dub fans.
