10 Cartoon Characters Whose Names Have An Actual Meaning

Have you ever thought about what the names of cartoon characters actually mean? Why is the world’s most famous cat’s name Tom? Or what’s the idea behind names like Moana or Gru or even Pumbaa? Did the writers just see a name that they liked and decide to use it or is there research involved? It turns out there’s more meaning to it all than it might seem.

Let’s go through some of the names of cartoon characters and see what was behind the creators’ choice. The list of characters that could be tackled in such a list is long and it’s difficult to stop with just 10. Here are some of the more intriguing names and their backstory.

10 Simba

This one’s a no brainer. Simba means “lion” in Swahili. At the same time, Simba can also mean a “bloodthirsty person,” a “cruel person,” and a “courageous person”. Putting the real meaning of the name aside, it’s very hard to associate Simba with cruelty or bloodthirstiness.

Simba is the lion who had to be smacked in the head with a stick by a monkey to remind him that he’s an actual king. If not for this, he’d still be chilling with his smelly pals, enjoying a diet of bugs, and living his best Hakuna Matata life.

9 Pumbaa

This warthog is full of surprises. He’s scared of crowds but fights against hyenas like a lion. His farts are nuclear weapons but his heart is so big that he didn’t think twice before he rescued Simba from those vultures.

He’s the one who offered Timon his friendship and helped Simba feel at home. He’s curious about sparkling dots in the night sky and suggests that they are “balls of gas burning billions of miles away.” He humbly calls himself “Mr. Pig” and yet his name means “foolish, ignorant, and stupid”.

8  Tom

Oh, this cat. The master of chaos and mayhem. Truth to be told, the name of this character is so simple that no one even questions it. Well, it’s Tom and that’s it. Actually, Tom is the short form of Thomas and the name has more than one meaning. In the early 20th century, Tom meant “show-off” or a “boyish boy.”

In Hebrew, Tom means “innocence” and “purity”. If we’re talking about Thomas though, the name’s origin is Greek and means “twin”. The cat we all love might be a rascal but he has a pure heart, even if he himself forgets about it sometimes.

7 Jerry

Where there’s a Tom there’s a Jerry. Unlike Tom or Thomas, the name Jerry has several meanings and almost none of them have anything to do with the Tom and Jerry character. Jerry is a gender-neutral English name. In the 19th century, Jerry was a name for a chamber pot. Later it was used as slang, meaning “to understand”.

There are too many meanings for this name, but the one that hits the spot for this mouse is “a funny guy”. As bonus info, Tom and Jerry were originally named Jasper and Jinx. Guess who is who!

6 Aang

Aang is the bold kid with awesome blue tattoos, love of nature, and a pure, innocent heart. He is also the Avatar, which means he can bend all four elements and kick some a*s if you get on his bad side.

Besides all this, his name is the perfect description of his character. Aang means “peaceful”. Fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender will know that Aang fought for peace until his last breath. Even in his great victory over the Fire Lord, Aang chose to take away his bending and not kill him.

5 Zuko

Zuko, the moody teenager who happened to be a Fire Nation prince, is one of those characters who you hate at first, but then end up rooting for. That’s Zuko in a nutshell. Zuko means “Glory” and he hunted Aang to get that glory and make his father restore his honor.

An exiled little prince full of pride and purpose, to prove his father wrong, Zuko turned into a Team Avatar member, Aang’s fire bending teacher, and his best friend. He ended up getting all the glory in the world for doing the right thing, not letting the world be burned to ash.

4 Tamatoa

Tama Toa is a Maori name and it means “male warrior,” while Tamatoa (one word) means “trophies”. The second definition says it all. Tamatoa, of Moana fame, is a coconut crab who’s obsessed with being shiny. He decorated his shell with every shiny thing he could get his claws on, including Aladdin‘s lamp (Easter Egg alert).

He prides himself in his camouflage, hypnotic abilities, and eating his grandmother. He’s a great singer and is “beautiful, baby” but his greed plays a bad joke on him. While he was busy chasing the fake heart of Te Fiti, Moana and Maui stole the Hook, Tamatoa’s greatest treasure.

3 Moana

Moana is a unisex name that is common in Polynesia and Hawaii. It means “ocean”. In the original version of the script, Moana is described as the only girl of the family with five brothers. She’s a sailing champion and almost never gets out of the water.

The version everybody saw and loved concentrates more on her journey, but the relationship with the ocean clearly shows that she was chosen to restore balance in this world. She would have never succeeded if it wasn’t for Hei Hei, of course, but she did great anyway.

2 Minions

These yellow bundles of joy and mayhem, with an enormous amount of knowledge, each have their own names, like “Kevin” or “Bob” or even “Stuart”. These oversized Tic Tacs with huge glasses, cute jeans and a hair or two were called Minions for a reason that goes deep into French history.

In the sixteenth century, minions were the favorites of high-ranking persons in France. In the royal court, they served as advisers, and guardians and were members of the King’s retinue.

1 Gru

Gru is the Italian word for crane. The Despicable Me character even looks like one and although there is another translation of this name, this speaks well to this character. G.R.U., as an acronym, also translates as the main intelligence directorate in Russian. As it turns out, Gru is a crane-like man who is a spy, or something like this.

He confessed to being one in the first Despicable Me, before Edith turned Agnesse’s unicorn into ash with a laser. He also did very well as a father, husband, brother, and even as a magical fairy princess.

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