Akira Toriyama, the creator of Dragon Ball, is known for naming characters and attacks after real objects and people. This is also true for the Kamehameha, one of the first attacks Son Goku learns from his master Muten Roshi.
Where does the name of the attack come from? Kamehameha is a longer term made up of several words. The words have meanings in Japanese that correspond to the attack:
- Kame means turtle and refers to the Lord of Turtles, Muten Roshi, who invented the attack.
- Hame comes from Hametsu and means destruction. It describes quite accurately what the attack does.
- Ha can be translated as wave, indicating the energy form of the attack.
But the attack is not just a string of words; it is also the name of a real person. In Dragon Ball: Super Exciting Guide, it was explained where the name really comes from. Akira Toriyama thought about a name for the “Ha” attack and asked his wife, Nachi Mikami, for a suitable name.
She came up with the idea of naming the attack after the first king of Hawaii. Kamehameha the First actually has an unusually long name, but his title was easy for Toriyama’s wife to remember.
The last anime Toriyama worked on is Dragon Ball Daima. It is currently streaming on several services:
Toriyama has a penchant for special names in Dragon Ball
Are other names also inspired by real people? Toriyama is known for drawing inspiration for the names of his characters from real objects:
- Bulma’s family is named after underwear. They have names that translate to slip, tights, swim trunks, or bra.
- Many of the Saiyans are named after vegetables. For example, Son Goku’s real name is Kakarot, which stems from carrot.
- Boo and his creators are named after a spell from a Disney movie.
- Son Goku’s family is also named after food. Son Gohan comes from rice, Pan from bread. Only Son Goten does not correspond to any food.
- The Ginyu Force is named after dairy products like butter, cream, and cheese.
Even in Dragon Ball Daima, one of his last projects, Toriyama was inspired by spells for the names. The ruling demons are indeed derived from spells like “Abra Kadabra” or “Open Sesame”.
If Son Goku’s granddaughter had been a boy, he would have fit in the family name-wise as well. Chi-Chi suggested a name to Videl during the announcement of her pregnancy that would have continued the tradition: Dragon Ball: Son Goku’s granddaughter could have had a very different name according to Chi-Chi
