Why aren't animal characters given proper last names?

MegaHiro91

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Bugs Bunny, Lola Bunny, Taz the Tasmanian Tiger, Porky Pig, Peppa Pig, Sonic the Hedgehog, Shadow the Hedgehog, Knuckles the Echidna etc etc.

From the example above it is a common practice, with VERY rare exceptions, that animal characters are always named after their own species, which always bugged me because a name is not just a name, it's your identity. So are you telling me that Bugs being a bunny is all we need to know about him? Or that he is related to Lola Bunny and all other bunny characters named Bunny? What about Porky and Peppa, are they related?

I ask this because, for one I figure that we do this to make it easier for kids to identify what animal these characters are (which didn't help me as a Danish kid since Echidna was kept in English in Sonic X so I had no idea wtf an echidna even was). Secondly... we don't do the same with human characters? They often either just have first names or when they DO have last names they aren't just called Chris Human or Chris the Human. Is that because kids know what a human is so that is redundant but they can't see that Bugs is a bunny or that Sonic is a hedgehog?

All I'm saying is that if this is the reason, then for one we don't give kids enough credit. Second, I think we should start treating animal characters with the same respect we do human characters. So no more of this "your species is your name"-bs, NO, from now on we should start giving them proper last names. I mean they did it with Miles Prower and Amy Rose, so why not Sonic Windchest, Knuckles Ironhaust, and Shadow Nightshade or some sh*t like that?
 
All those characters were designed and named with "kids gotta like them" in mind, going for the simple and educational route. If you look for more mature games with animal characters they do have last names, night in the woods for example.
 
Interesting, I kinda like them though. Like what @Logi said here, that's probably the reason why. Not sure what else can I say here, but interesting thread
 
Tails has an actual proper (albeit punny) name. Miles Prower.

[edit]
Derp you said that and somehow my ADHD ass glossed right over the last paragraph of your post.
 
I honestly doubt the creators of those characters put much thought into it. They just went with something that sounded OK, rolled of the tongue easily and wasn't confusing. Human characters in the Mario universe don't have last names either because they simply don't need them.
 
yeah i agree we should start giving our pets last names too. and honestly i dont see why we havent already because were out here acting like theyre part of the family but then leave them these pathetic one word monikers like buster or mittens as if theyre street urchins with no lineage. we should give them the same respect we do our human family members its really insulting why deny him the dignity of being mr mittens henderson a full fledged entity with a social presence beyond just "the cat" in family conversations? and with a system like this in place you have to go all the way you cant just be selective about it. which is why when luna muller marries the neighbors dog buster thompson she should take his last name (muller-thompson since her family insisted on the hyphen classic in laws) and then theyd have to decide if their puppies would take the thompson name or if its split by birth order. and then and when they outlive their owner some soulless dog relative might try to get custody of change the name of the legacy thats been passed down for so long so in order to prevent that from happening we need legal documents birth certificates marriage licenses divorces (because lets be real some of these animals cant make it work long term) and at a certain point youre going to have a situation where some dude is forced to pay alimony for his ex wife's cat because technically under law he was the one who adopted it and he will be in court explaining why sir snuffles martin is entitled to half the estate
 
From the example above it is a common practice, with VERY rare exceptions, that animal characters are always named after their own species, which always bugged me because a name is not just a name, it's your identity.
yeah i agree we should start giving our pets last names too

No, i'm still me if it's 1 name or 100 names, there would just be a lot more paper needed if i have to fill out a form.

For cartoon characters they are... cartoons. It's more funny to identify them as their species. And for animals... you can give them as many names as you want, but it will only confuse them. One name seems sufficient to them for getting their attention.

Your name at least in the US, usually consists of 3 names. These are YOUR PERSONAL name, your FATHER's name, and then your FAMILY name. Given these names you can build the entire family/tree, including parents grandparents, offspring siblings, cousins, etc. (If you have enough names/information that is)
 
No, i'm still me if it's 1 name or 100 names, there would just be a lot more paper needed if i have to fill out a form.

For cartoon characters they are... cartoons. It's more funny to identify them as their species. And for animals... you can give them as many names as you want, but it will only confuse them. One name seems sufficient to them for getting their attention.

Your name at least in the US, usually consists of 3 names. These are YOUR PERSONAL name, your FATHER's name, and then your FAMILY name. Given these names you can build the entire family/tree, including parents grandparents, offspring siblings, cousins, etc. (If you have enough names/information that is)
Well YOUR first name is usually enough for people to get your attention right? So let's delete the rest, it's unnecessary (I kid ofc ;P) I wasn't the one suggesting giving real life animals last names though, though I agree it would be more dignifiying if, when talking about them in a conversation, we adressed them as more than just "the cat" or "the dog" or "it". I mean imagine a reverse world where animals have US as pets. Would you be okay with just being "the human"? As for cartoons and it just being funny to identify them after species. You know a joke wears out the more you use it, right? And we have used this "trope" so much now it just screams being uncreative. Like you couldn't be bothered to think of something else. Like how Superman's name is boring because... well he has SUPER powers and he's a MAN, so Superman it is. See? Absolutely NO thought.
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yeah i agree we should start giving our pets last names too. and honestly i dont see why we havent already because were out here acting like theyre part of the family but then leave them these pathetic one word monikers like buster or mittens as if theyre street urchins with no lineage. we should give them the same respect we do our human family members its really insulting why deny him the dignity of being mr mittens henderson a full fledged entity with a social presence beyond just "the cat" in family conversations? and with a system like this in place you have to go all the way you cant just be selective about it. which is why when luna muller marries the neighbors dog buster thompson she should take his last name (muller-thompson since her family insisted on the hyphen classic in laws) and then theyd have to decide if their puppies would take the thompson name or if its split by birth order. and then and when they outlive their owner some soulless dog relative might try to get custody of change the name of the legacy thats been passed down for so long so in order to prevent that from happening we need legal documents birth certificates marriage licenses divorces (because lets be real some of these animals cant make it work long term) and at a certain point youre going to have a situation where some dude is forced to pay alimony for his ex wife's cat because technically under law he was the one who adopted it and he will be in court explaining why sir snuffles martin is entitled to half the estate
Oh I am 100% with you here!! It doesn't stop at cartoons! We should grant our pets more dignity as well!
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I honestly doubt the creators of those characters put much thought into it. They just went with something that sounded OK, rolled of the tongue easily and wasn't confusing. Human characters in the Mario universe don't have last names either because they simply don't need them.
Well that's the issue then right there isn't it? They didn't put much thought into it. Now that I think about it I have the same problem with characters who are just named after what they eat. Like if Pooh was named Mr. Honey, or Bugs was called Mr. Carrots. I know it is educational to make kids remember what the animals eat, but to me good storytelling - and in turn naming conventions that you gave a thought for more than just 2 seconds - ranks above something being done just for educational purposes.
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Sonic's last name is Hedgehog. I don't make the rules.
Touché my dude.
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Tails has an actual proper (albeit punny) name. Miles Prower.

[edit]
Derp you said that and somehow my ADHD ass glossed right over the last paragraph of your post.
Haha it's fair, I do the same all the time.
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Interesting, I kinda like them though. Like what @Logi said here, that's probably the reason why. Not sure what else can I say here, but interesting thread
Haha yeah it wasn't meant to be taken 100% seriously and I hope that was apparently from my tone of writing by making it sound overly serious, but still a fun topic to discuss.
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All those characters were designed and named with "kids gotta like them" in mind, going for the simple and educational route. If you look for more mature games with animal characters they do have last names, night in the woods for example.
Fair point, I guess I don't play many mature games with animals then. But like I replied elsewhere, I still think it's a lazy anming convention even if done for educational purposes, like if you name an animal after what they like to eat e.g Mr. Carrot or Mrs. Honey.
 
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Easier than having a proper first name.

Like, Mario's family name is never displayed (and no, Mario Mario is mostly japanese devs having an oversight about how name worked because they use the family name first).
 
In Korea, 21% of people have the family name Kim; another 15% have Lee. In India, 9% have Patel (that's a huge number of people). In Vietnam, 40% have Nguyen.

Some surnames are just very common in some places. Bunny is probably just common for rabbits; Bugs and Lola most likely aren't related (at least not through immediate genetic connections). Same for the Pigs, Hedgehogs, and others.
 
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it's probably one of two things. either they couldn't come up with a last name. or they wanted you to know what the character is supposed to be. if knuckles wasn't called knuckles the echidna, i would just think he is a hedgehog like sonic. i never heard of that animal until knuckles came along.
 
Easier than having a proper first name.

Like, Mario's family name is never displayed (and no, Mario Mario is mostly japanese devs having an oversight about how name worked because they use the family name first).
Mario Mario makes sense though? The first game starring both brothers is called Mario Brothers. Which either means that Mario is an egotist who decided to use his own first name along with the fact that they are brothers, as the title. Or, their last names are in fact Mario, meaning they are indeed the Mario Brothers. You can then argue what parents would give one of their sons the same name as his first and last name, but then again in Danish we have nursery-rhyme called "Birgitte Birgitte Bergøje" about a girl who, you guessed it, has the same first and middle name.
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it's probably one of two things. either they couldn't come up with a last name. or they wanted you to know what the character is supposed to be. if knuckles wasn't called knuckles the echidna, i would just think he is a hedgehog like sonic. i never heard of that animal until knuckles came along.
So what you are saying is they use the naming convention as an excuse to be as abstract with animal design as their imaginations will let them? "Nobody can really tell this is supposed be a [insert animal species] so I'll just name it [insert animal species] to clear up the confusion".
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In Korea, 21% of people have the family name Kim; another 15% have Lee. In India, 9% have Patel (that's a huge number of people). In Vietnam, 40% have Nguyen.

Some surnames are just very common in some places. Bunny is probably just common for rabbits; Bugs and Lola most likely aren't related (at least not through immediate genetic connections). Same for the Pigs, Hedgehogs, and others.
Sure, I'm aware that many last names are common in many countries without people necessarily being related. Still, in a world inhabitted by (as far as we know) only two anthropomorphic bunnies (correct me if I'm wrong, I am not up-to-date on my Looney Tunes lore) both Bugs and Lola's last names are "Bunny" which makes that name a 100% naming rate.
 
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Mario Mario makes sense though? The first game starring both brothers is called Mario Brothers. Which either means that Mario is an egotist who decided to use his own first name along with the fact that they are brothers, as the title. Or, their last names are in fact Mario, meaning they are indeed the Mario Brothers. You can then argue what parents would give one of their sons the same name as his first and last name, but then again in Danish we have nursery-rhyme called "Birgitte Birgitte Bergøje" about a girl who, you guessed it, has the same first and middle name.
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So what you are saying is they use the naming convention as an excuse to be as abstract with animal design as their imaginations will let them? "Nobody can really tell this is supposed be a [insert animal species] so I'll just name it [insert animal species] to clear up the confusion".
yeah, pretty much. would you know what knuckles was based on by design and the name "knuckles" alone? i sure didn't. i don't think i would know what sonic is either with out the full name of the game.
 
yeah, pretty much. would you know what knuckles was based on by design and the name "knuckles" alone? i sure didn't. i don't think i would know what sonic is either with out the full name of the game.
No, I wouldn't, I thought Echidna was just a name since I never heard of that species before. Then again before I knew English I also just thought that Mouse was Mickey's last name... I mean it is, but I didn't know it was the English word for "Mus", because in Danish he is never called "Mickey Mus", he has always just been Mickey Mouse. Didn't help that he was black either, because as far as I was concerned mice were grey or white and didn't have perfect round ears, so it was only the tail that gave it away.

Sonic though was always obvious to me. I think I was like "well what other animal has spikes?"
 
No, I wouldn't, I thought Echidna was just a name since I never heard of that species before. Then again before I knew English I also just thought that Mouse was Mickey's last name... I mean it is, but I didn't know it was the English word for "Mus", because in Danish he is never called "Mickey Mus", he has always just been Mickey Mouse. Didn't help that he was black either, because as far as I was concerned mice were grey or white and didn't have perfect round ears, so it was only the tail that gave it away.

Sonic though was always obvious to me. I think I was like "well what other animal has spikes?"
sea urchins and sandslash. which is probably the pokemon that introduced me to the concept of hedgehogs. i think.
now, for the first part of your text.
exactly. echidna does sound just like a regular last name. names are one of the weirder things to deal with in translating from one language to another. they typically don't change unless pronunciation rules dictate for it to be so. japanese words require every syllable of a word to have a vowel in it. [from what i remember] you don't need to do that in english.
 
It is an ancient rule set by Tony the Tiger himself, way before we were born...
The GOAT
Tony The Tiger Nod GIF by Frosted Flakes
 
yeah i agree we should start giving our pets last names too.
this is an interesting point and a nice immediate example point as to OP's topic

as a libran bitch however i now devil advocate and think of the inverse:

The character Cat from the show Red Dwarf, is just called Cat. They do not have a last name. They are simply and solely known as Cat.

as a fan of the show i feel it would be wrong if Cat had a last name though i cannot really ascertain why.

so ig what i am getting at is: <firstname><lastname> is a kind of human-centric and likely western expectation/imposition of the defacto 'what we should be referred to as' convention. maybe its okay not to have a lastname and maybe its okay to have like fifty lastnames 🤷‍♀️
 
Diddy Kong and Dixie Kong are a couple yet they're not related at all despite sharing the Kong name.

Maybe it's more of a clan than a family name (like the Kremlings).

Knuckles The Echidna may be actually Knuckles (from) the Echidna (tribe).
 

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