In Dragon Ball, people are also going about their daily lives on Earth. There are numerous parallels between the characters and the real world – but one thing is missing from most people, which Son-Goku has.
Why is Son-Goku so special? Unlike most other characters in Dragon Ball, Son-Goku has a last name. In chapter 425 of the Dragon Ball manga, Videl reveals her colleague Son-Gohan as Saiyaman and speculates that Son-Goku is his father.
She comes to this conclusion because Son-Goku and Son-Gohan share the same family name. She mentions that nowadays, there aren’t many people who have a last name.
Therefore, it’s no coincidence that we don’t know the last names of Bulma, Vegeta, and the others. They simply don’t have a last name. Akira Toriyama, the mangaka of Dragon Ball, was only able to get creative with the first names.
You can watch the trailer for the latest Dragon Ball movie here:
Last names are a rarity in Dragon Ball
Are there other people with last names? Son-Goku’s family is not the only one with last names that we encounter in Dragon Ball. Akira Toriyama revealed in the Super Exciting Guide: Character Volume (via Kazenshuu) that it is especially uncommon for families to have last names in the area surrounding Mr. Satan’s residence.
Therefore, there are other families that possess a last name. Some examples we know from the anime are:
- The inhabitants of Pinguinhausen, as they come from the universe of Dr. Slump and other rules apply to them
- The Money family from the 9th Dragon Ball movie. Presumably, the last name indicates their wealthy status.
In the community, there has been a rumor that Bulma’s family last name is Brief. However, that is just her father’s first name. Characters like Tao BaiBai and Tenshinhan also don’t have a last name. Their name is their entire first name.
So what is his last name? Son-Goku’s last name is Son. That’s why his children also have Son in their names. Only Chi-Chi seems to have decided against adopting Son-Goku’s last name upon marriage.
That is also why Piccolo, in Japanese, sometimes just calls Son-Goku “Son”. In Japan, it is indeed more polite to address others by their last names.
Also, Pan, Son-Goku’s granddaughter, almost received the same last name as the Son family. But for that, she would have had to be born a boy. Chi-Chi already had the fitting name for the newborn: Dragon Ball: Son-Goku’s granddaughter could have been named quite differently according to Chi-Chi
