mental_floss magazine
SUBSCRIBE >
GIFT SUBSCRIPTIONS >
DIGITAL SUBSCRIPTIONS >
subscriber services >
1. All the Simpsons, excluding Bart, were named after the family members of creator, Matt Groening. Father Homer Groening, mother Marge and sisters Lisa and Maggie.
2. Nemo, the clown fish in Finding Nemo was named after Captain Nemo, a character in Jules Verne’s novels: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island.
3. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were each named for a different Renaissance artist: Raphael, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Leonardo.
4. Huckleberry Hound was named after Huckleberry Finn, from Mark Twain’s novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
5. Calvin and Hobbes were named after John Calvin, the 16th C. French theologian, and Thomas Hobbes, the 17th century English political philosopher.
6. Yogi Bear was named after Yogi Berra, the Yankees’ hall-of-fame catcher.
7. Pepe Le Pew was named after Pepe le Moko, the protagonist in a novel by Henri La Barthe of the same name. Moko is slang for a man from Marseilles.
8. The Chipmunks were named after three Liberty Records executives: Alvin Bennett, Theodore Keep and Simon Waronker. Liberty was the real trio’s original label, before they were turned into cartoon stars.
9. Garfield was named after creator Jim Davis’s grandfather, James Garfield Davis, who’d been named after U.S. President James Abram Garfield.
10. Bullwinkle J. Moose was named after Clarence Bullwinkel, a car dealer that the moose’s creators, Jay Ward and Alex Anderson, knew. (BTW: the J. is from Jay, I believe.)
If you have others to add to this list, by all means, slap ‘em down in the comments. We’d love to hear about them!
Comments (17)
Comment
- Follow mental_floss
I should hope #3 goes without saying!
There are some obvious Disney characters that take their names from famous literary characters: Scrooge McDuck, Iago (Aladdin), etc. One of the Color Kids in Rainbow Brite is named Red Butler, and one of Strawberry Shortcake’s friends is named Huckleberry Pie.
posted by Celeste on 9-19-2007 at 1:40 am
I like the names Chip ‘n Dale… From Thomas Chippendale.
posted by dfv on 9-19-2007 at 2:04 am
Well, you should hope #3 goes without saying, but actually, it should go without saying that Donatello was a sculptor, not painter.
posted by MrWH on 9-19-2007 at 4:07 am
The characters from Scooby Doo were allegedly supposed to represent the 5 colleges in and around Amherst, MA.
Scooby – UMass
Shaggy – Hampshire College
Fred – Amherst College
Velma – Smith College
Daphney – Mount Holyoke College
This may fall under the “urban legend” post, but it’s interesting how closely the characters fit the stereotypes of those schools.
posted by Bill T. on 9-19-2007 at 6:13 am
The J. in Bullwinkle’s name does represent Jay Ward. In fact, anytime any character’s middle initial is mentioned it is always J.
posted by Bassman on 9-19-2007 at 7:26 am
Bassman is incorrect.
Jesus H. Christ comes to mind — the H standing for “Hallmark” because God cared enough to send the very best.
Ok. I think it was a flashback to the Scooby Doo cartoons.
Sorry. I shouldn’t hit SUBMIT but I will. I need a nap!
posted by WizardBoy on 9-19-2007 at 9:50 am
Foghorn Leghorn was named after Sen. Claghorn- a loud caricature of a Southern Senator- who was on the old Fred Allen radio show. Most of the characters in Donald Duck cartons are obvious (Scrooge McDuck, Ludwig von Drake, etc). Of Huey, Louie and Dewey; Huey was for Huey Long, Dewey was for Admiral Dewey and I don’t remember about Louie. The Simpson character Milhouse von Houton is an amalgamation of Nixon and one of the Manson family girls.
posted by Harold on 9-19-2007 at 11:12 am
Some might find it interesting that the Latin translation for the word “nemo” means “no one,” so the title Finding Nemo actually means Finding No One.
posted by SLB on 9-19-2007 at 1:35 pm
As much as WizardBoy’s post makes seems to imply that Jesus Christ was an animated character, I have to agree with him about Bassman’s assertion.
Wile E. Coyote’s middle initial was defnitely not J.
posted by Bill T. on 9-19-2007 at 1:59 pm
Wow. I forgot how to type for a few minutes there. Sorry.
posted by Bill T. on 9-19-2007 at 2:06 pm
Um, I think Bassman meant within the Rocky & Bullwinkle cast of characters. Not every cartoon character ever.
posted by Celeste on 9-19-2007 at 3:20 pm
What bassman was saying was that anytime a character’s middle initial is mentioned *on the “Rocky and Bullwinkle” show*, it was J. (Bullwinkle J. Moose, Rocket J. Squirrel, etc.), not any animated character anywhere.
posted by Dave H. on 9-19-2007 at 3:22 pm
RE: SLB’s Comment above.
Yes. At the beginning of the movie Marlin and his wife bicker about naming the kids. She chooses to name one of them, and uses a name that means “no one” (or no name in some translations I’ve heard.) So she manages to fail to name all of the kids, just one of them is not named in a different language. (forgive my shaky plot recollection if the name comes from Marlin instead.)
Other names:
Huey Freeman from the Boondocks is named for Huey P. Newton – A founder of the Black Panthers.
Woodstock from Peanuts is named for the rock festival at Yasgur’s farm in New York in 1969.
posted by mungley on 9-19-2007 at 4:51 pm
ah, I forgot Woodstock! Of course, thanks mungley. There’s some other great ones here, too. Senator Claghorn begot Foghorn, wow, who would have guessed that.
posted by David on 9-19-2007 at 5:39 pm
Just because this is one of those things that will bother me all week if I don’t say something: The fish picture used isn’t Nemo. It’s his dad, Marlin.
posted by Angelica on 9-20-2007 at 4:02 pm
Boris Badinov (probably) came from an old Russian musical piece called Boris Gudanov by Mussorgsky.
posted by Majbuzz on 9-21-2007 at 7:36 pm
I’m looking for a cartoon that I use to have on my old computer. I can’t recall the characters name, so cannot find again. It;s a cat and has a male characters name. This cat chases a bird into the yard of a large dog who calmly takes the cat and puts him through punishments, like pulling him through a small hole in the fence. The cat yells out “NO not the fence, NOt the fence etc. Very funny! If anyone knows what it is called please send me an email. Thanks.
posted by Sandra on 11-6-2007 at 4:31 pm