How Nintendo's Mario Got His Name

[jwdonal]

An interesting read...

http://technologizer.com/2010/04/25/mario/

[peppers]

he had a twin brother who always dressed in green?

[MetalSlime]

That article was way more in depth than I was expecting. Good read and pretty cool to see an actual picture of the guy.

[dr_sloppy]

he had a twin brother who always dressed in green?

Probably not. :-)

My guess is that it was the Japanese themselves who came up the name for Luigi: 類似(るいじ) which basically means 'to resemble/to be alike.' I love it when coincidences/humour affects something that ultimately turn out to become something huge and easily recognizable. :)

AFAIK, I once read that the reason for Donkey Kong being named Donkey instead of Monkey was due to some language-based probrem via a phone call between NoA and NoJ or something like that.

Pussy Galore: literally 'abundance of pussy.' (°-°;)

[peppers]

so the Japanese tern for look alike is actually pronounced exactly Luigi?

kinda like how Ohio means good morning (learned that from porn), that seems strange. Do they call Mario Mario in Japan? I somehow doubt マリオ is actually pronounced mario

[tokumaru]

so the Japanese tern for look alike is actually pronounced exactly Luigi?

They don't really have an "L", so it's more like "Ruiji". I didn't know it could mean that though.

kinda like how Ohio means good morning

It's not pronounced exactly like "Ohio" though.

I somehow doubt マリオ is actually pronounced mario

It is. But the "R" is more like Mario himself says it (when he goes "It's-a me, Mario!"), not the typical american "R", which requires lip movement. In japanese (and italian, I guess, portuguese for sure) the "R" is made by air passing between the tongue and the roof of the mouth when they are close together, without any lip movement.

[peppers]

kinda like how Ohio means good morning

It's not pronounced exactly like "Ohio" though.

Sounds the same too me, I picked that one up from bible black and have notased it in other stuff since then

[tokumaru]

Sounds the same too me

I believe that in english the "hi" is the accented syllable, while "ohayo-" has the last "o" as the accented syllable.

[peppers]

The emphasis on each syllable sounds identical to the way I pronounce the state compared to the way they pronounce it as a morning greeting, exact pronunciation varys regionally and from person to person though.

I'm not tryin to argue or anything and your post was informative I'm just saying I'm pretty sure its identical, kinda getting off topic but tepples will probably come by and split this topic later.

[dr_sloppy]

Most foreign languages really shouldn't be attempted pronounced like if it were English. English (and also some other languages as well) can be very difficult when it comes to vowels. Pronouncing 'ohayô' as 'Ohio' is just plain wrong, really.

I believe that in english the "hi" is the accented syllable, while "ohayo-" has the last "o" as the accented syllable.

[Dwedit]

Waluigi just seems like a horrible and lame-o character, until you notice that Warui is Japanese for "Bad". So Walulgi = Bad Luigi.
Also getting his own Pinball-themed track in Mario Kart DS didn't hurt.