Dragon Ball is a series full of references and secrets. When Akira toriyama created this product, put a lot of care in the details and one of the sections in which this is most noticeable is in the names of its protagonists. And it is that, almost all the names of the main characters of Dragon Ball have a story behind and we want to help you understand it so that you can better appreciate the work that the Japanese artist did. If you’ve ever wondered what do the names of the heroes of Dragon Ball meanToday you will have doubts because we bring you a special report in which we explain the origin of the most outstanding ones. But before we start, we inform you that we have also told you what is the meaning of the name of the villains of Dragon Ball.
Goku
The name of the protagonist of Dragon Ball has several different meanings depending on whether we pay attention to his saiyan name, Kakarot, or his earthly name. Kakarot is inspired by the way to pronounce carrot in English (carrot). Akira Toriyama made multiple references to foods with the names of the Dragon Ball characters and this is just the first.
Secondly, Goku it has two different meanings. To begin with, the word Goku is used in Japan to express the amount of rice a person needs to eat for a year. In addition, Goku is also a term that refers to the heaven in the Asian country. It is important to internalize these two meanings because later we will see that they were key when creating the children of the hero.
Chichí
The woman who managed to conquer Goku’s heart also has a name with a very particular meaning. While it is true that Chichí in Spanish sounds very similar to the infantile way of referring to the vagina, the truth is that Akira Toriyama wanted to refer to another female organ with this name. And it is that, in Japanese, Chichi is synonymous with breasts, but also of animal milk, hence in Latin America its name was translated as Milk (milk in English).
Gohan
If before we told you that Goku is the amount of rice necessary to feed a person for a year and we told you that it was important to remember it, it was because Gohan is directly related to that. The word that gives name to the firstborn of Goku is the term used to call the rice in japanese. In addition, Gohan also translates as lunch, so it is clear that Toriyama wanted rice and food to be common elements in this family star of his series and hence their names and the indignities that occurred between combat.
Goten
Goten As such it does not mean anything in Japanese, but if the kanjis of his name are separated we can understand the references that Akira Toriyama made in relation to Goku with whom he was his second son. Kanji Have can be translated into Spanish as paradise u other life, while Go it can be used to refer to the ability to understand something. So that, Goten would be synonymous with understanding paradise, which is directly related to the meaning of heaven that can be given to the name of his father.
Videl
Continuing with the protagonist family, we now focus on Videl, Gohan’s wife. The origin of his name is directly related to that of his father, Mr. Satan. Satan is one of the names given to the Christian devil and Videl is nothing more than a anagram of devil.
Bread
Finally, to finish with the family of the main protagonist of Dragon Ball, we meet Pan, Goku’s granddaughter. His name does not have much mystery since, as in Spanish, Bread is the Japanese word used to refer to bread. So we find a new food in this family.
Vegeta
Although he was introduced as a villain at the beginning of Dragon Ball Z, Vegeta ended up becoming a hero. The origin of its name is quite simple and is related to food again. For his creation, Akira Toriyama took the first six letters of the word Vegetable, vegetable in English. As a curious fact, when he later introduced himself to his brother, he wanted to complete the word and hence they named him Tarble.
Bulma
More comical is the name of Vegeta’s wife. For Bulma, Toriyama took as a reference the word Bloomers, which is what those are called shorts that some women wore as underwear or pajamas. Stay with this detail because it is important in your family.
Trunks
The firstborn name of Bulma and Vegeta has a very similar origin to that of their mother. If Bulma got her name from a type of female underwear, Trunks owes it to a type of male underwear. And it is that, Trunks can be translated as boxer briefs or as sports shorts.
Noise
The little daughter of this marriage between Vegeta and Bulma also owes her name to underwear. In this case, you have to pay attention to the way of pronouncing Noise Japanese. In the Asian country there is no sound for the letter ele and it is replaced by that of the soft r, which is why Bulla is pronounced as “Bura”, which is nothing more than a way of abbreviating brassiere (pronounced “burasiere” in Japanese). In this way we can say that Bulla means bra.
Bardock
As a good Saiyan, Bardock, Goku’s father, also owes his name to a vegetable. In this case, Toriyama was based on the English word Burdock, which means burdock in Spanish. This popular vegetable in the Middle Ages is hardly used in the West anymore, but in Japan it is still quite common even today.
Gine
For her part, Goku’s mother has another name that turns out to be an anagram. And it is that, Gine is a modified form of negi, which is the word with which the Japanese refer to the spring onion.
Kale
We have already seen that those of the saiyan have their origin in food and that of Kale is no exception. Literally, Kale is a kale in Japan, so we are not facing a name with too much mystery.
Caulifla
For its part, Kale’s inseparable companion owes its name to another vegetable. And it is that, Caulifla comes directly from the English word cauliflower, or what is the same, cauliflower in Spanish. What a name for the first woman to reach the super saiyan level in Dragon Ball.
Cabba
This other saiyan from Universe 6 of Dragon Ball Super also owes its name to another vegetable, do you already understand the importance of Vegeta’s name? Cabba is a diminutive of cabbage, which means cabbage in English.
Krillin
Again we find a name whose origin is given by the Japanese way of speaking. Krillin in Japanese is pronounced as “Kuririn”. To understand its true meaning we must divide the name in two. On the one hand we have the Japanese word Kuri, which is translated into Spanish as chestnut, a joke of Akira toriyama on the shape of the character’s head. On the other, we have the ending Rin, which would be the same as the word shaolin if we look at its Japanese pronunciation. So we would find that Krillin is the shaolin of the chestnut.
Piccolo
This great ally of the Z Warriors owes its name to a small wind instrument namesake. But Piccolo He is not the only Dragon Ball character with this type of name since his bandmates also had names of musical instruments: Cymbal means timpani, while Tambourine refers to the tambourine.
Yamcha
Yamcha is another name made up of the abbreviation of two words. The first one is a yamuimo, what does it mean sweet potato. The second is ocha, a kind of japanese green tea. The combination of sweet potato and ocha tea is very popular in Japan and it is quite common to take it as an aperitif.
Have shin han
Very curious is the case of the name of this Dragon Ball hero. For his creation, Akira Toriyama borrowed the Chinese expression “Tien chu fan”, What is it a type of fried rice, but he changed the kanji to make it sound the same without being spelled the same way.
Chaoz
For its part, Ten Shin Han’s companion also owes its name to another typical food from some Asian countries such as China, Korea or Japan. Chaoz means jiaozi, Or what is the same gyoza or japanese dumpling.
Muten roshi
Muten roshi it is actually a translation of the Spanish dubbing and the character in the original version is simply called Roshi, which is nothing more than the Japanese pronunciation of the word “Laoshi”, What does it mean teacher. On the other hand, this character is also occasionally named as Kame sennin, what would be translated the hermit of the turtle, which made us known in Spain as Tortuga Duende and Maestro Tortuga during the first bars of Dragon Ball.
Yajirobe
The name of this comical character literally means balance. But Yajirobe is also the name of a traditional Japanese toy which consists of a kind of small bamboo scarecrow that maintains balance despite moving from one side to the other, something similar to what in Spain we know as tentative.
And so far our review of meaning of the names of the heroes of Dragon Ball. If this report has been interesting to you, we remind you that you can already read another of our articles in which we will explain the origin of the villains in this series created by Akira Toriyama.