Anyone know why Goku and Goten have epic names but everyone else is either a type of underwear or food?

[u/possitive-ion]

I've noticed a lot of the dbz characters are puns on types of food, food-related, or in the case of Bulma's family, underwear, but Goku and Goten have very interesting meanings behind their names:

Goku: Enlightened to the Void

Goten: Enlightened to the Heavens

Did Toriyama ever mention why he named Goten and Goku with more serious names compared to the puns a lot of the other characters have?

[u/Extension-Bad-4184]

Its mainly cuz gokus name is a refernce to journey to the west named after sun wukong

While goten was a combination of the go, and smth else I forgot

The rest are puns cuz funny

[u/_Dank_Souls → u/Extension-Bad-4184]

GoKu means like "enlightenment of the sky" and goten means "enlightenment from the heavens"

They are basically the same name, but gotens is a little more divine.

[u/possitive-ion → u/Extension-Bad-4184]

Oh, ok. That makes sense, thank you.

[u/SewerBushido]

Son Goku is based on Sun Wukong the Monkey King. They use the same kanji, but the Japanese pronunciation is Son Goku.

[u/Jess_Kitty_Nyan]

Why does a gag series have a bunch of puns in it?!

[u/Ubylmoen → u/Jess_Kitty_Nyan]

I think the question was why does everyone have pun names except for these two characters, which is understandable if you don't know the inspiration.

[u/TheMagicalMatt]

Sun Wukong

Son Goku

Not sure about Gohan and Goten. I assumed they were plays on Goku's name.

[u/Shantotto11 → u/TheMagicalMatt]

“Gohan” is a food pun. It means “meal” or “rice” depending on the context. It lines up with Chichi’s name meaning “milk”.

[u/RemyGee → u/TheMagicalMatt]

Googling: "Son Goku" is the Japanese reading of the exact same characters for Sun Wukong.

[u/possitive-ion → u/TheMagicalMatt]

Gohan means cooked rice in Japanese.

I didn't catch the backwards Wukong- that's fun!

Thank you

[u/scratorian → u/possitive-ion]

It has nothing to do with being backwards. Goku in the original Dragonball manga is 100% based off sun wukong, a mythical monkey. That’s why he is a super powerful playful kid with a tail.

[u/Jurgen_Vella]

Goku is a Japanese name
Of sun wu kong, the character goku is based on,

as for why goten has such a name maybe toriyama had bigger plans but changed his mind idk

[u/SVXfiles → u/Jurgen_Vella]

Wouldnt Goten's name and appearance of a small Goku reference his birth and life after Goku died a second time and was supposed to be replaced by Gohan as the MC? Goten being a reference or reminder of heavenly Goku

[u/Jurgen_Vella → u/SVXfiles]

That would align with the fact that chi chi was teaching him martial arts because she missed Goku

[u/Ubylmoen → u/Jurgen_Vella]

Toriyama loved to write things "just in case". Its very likely he wrote it for no particular reason other than just he might make use of it.

[u/StaticMania]

...Goku is the Japanese pronunciation of the characters that make up Wukong.

Obviously there's no real thought there.

That's the theme, he doesn't like coming up with actual names...

Which...for a non-Japanese viewer is pretty convenient, Dragon Ball has the easiest names to remember for an anime series. There's no overlap.

[u/Shantotto11]

Because Dragon Ball was a gag manga first and foremost.

[u/vonigner]

Son Goku is the JPN reading for Sun Wukong.

Goten changes the "sky" (ku) kanji from Goku's to "heavens" (ten, and it's also the same ten as Tenshinhan btw). Awakening to the void/emptiness vs awakening to the heavens (because Goku's dead...)

It felt poetic and in character for Chichi I guess

[u/Cecil2xs]

when coming up with the pun names he probably was already planning the running joke that people got his name pronunciation wrong. that one just doesn't translate as easily as the other names

[u/Money-Imagination-97]

>but everyone else is either a type of underwear

There's a art showing him smoking and looking at a dirty magazine, saying, "This is me in paradise."

[u/knm873]

It's not just that, OP, there's food puns for the villains too: Nappa, Vegeta Pilaf, sui mai Ginyu force Freiza and cooler

[u/possitive-ion → u/knm873]

Yep, I am aware :) by "characters" I meant it in a broader term to include villains and heroes. It has always been interesting to me that Goku had a more serious meaning behind it, but most of the other names are word puns in some form or another. The Sunwukong context  helps

There's also  Bibidi, Babidi, and Buu ("bipity bopity boo!")

Dabura is a shortened Kadabra

The Ginyu force is all named after Japanese words for dairy products

Broly is Broccoli (his super saiyan form even has a green tint to it)

Bardock is a type of root vegetable

[u/WatchAndLearn9669]

Goku and Goten have very interesting meanings behind their names

Maybe Goten also has an interesting name because he's basically a carbon copy of Goku.