The Origin of Donkey Kong’s Name
Thursday, May 17th, 2007 at 9:23pm by ナオミ
Thanks to our tipster dubnobasswithmyheadman, Infendo has decided to dust off an old chestnut and try once again to solve the mystery of where Nintendo’s beloved gorilla got his strange, biologically incorrect name. A page at neomarxisme brings up a possible link to Donkey Kong’s name and a folk tale that’s very popular in Japan that’s called “The King has Donkey Ears,” or 「王様の耳はロバの耳」.
Other research from wikipedia shows two more theories about our furry friends nomenclature:
…Both theories agree that the “Kong” portion of the name is due to the character being a gorilla. The mistranslation theory suggests that the game was supposed to have been named “Monkey Kong” and that due to a mistyped fax, blurred fax, or poor phone connection, the game’s name was changed to Donkey Kong. The other theory is that Shigeru Miyamoto, the game’s inventor, used the word “donkey” to convey a sense of stubbornness and the name “Kong” to invoke the image of a gorilla.
Neomarxisme’s theory is definitely interesting, but since I’ve yet to find conclusive evidence proving any of the three ideas, we’ll just have to wait ’till we have an opportunity to ask Miyamoto-san himself.
May 17th, 2007 at 11:22 pm
Donkeys aren’t monkeys! Quit messing with my head!
May 17th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
Woot! I got on infendo! One less thing to do before I die, etc…
BTW, the neomarxisme theory and wikipedia theory #2 can actually support one another. They both claim the same basic motivation for the name. Neomarxisme just goes a bit further to give a possible inspiration for the name as well.
May 18th, 2007 at 2:19 am
damn that fax machine
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http://www.howtogetfreewiipoints.com
May 18th, 2007 at 7:59 am
I dont even need to read this to know it is
Donkey – Stubborn
Kong – Monkey
Yes that is the actual reason according to Shiggy
May 18th, 2007 at 10:14 am
ConManDude is right, I know this for a fact.
May 18th, 2007 at 11:56 am
The name is just too funny and too Japanese to be a blurry fax accident, I say…
May 18th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
yes, it is stubborn monkey. one reference for the interview with shiggy when he says thi sis the “history of videogames”, a big fat book published at the beginning of the gamecube era
May 18th, 2007 at 1:27 pm
Hey Kyle, I know that monkey. His name is Donkey.
And yes, I’ve heard Shiggy himself say that he named the character Donkey because of stubbornness.
May 18th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Considering Miyamoto testified in court (when king kong’s movie studio sued for copyright infringement) that “donkey” represents stubborn and “kong” is a generic term for an ape in Japan, we better believe that.
That’s from The History of Videogames, which someone mentioned… But they didn’t mention that it was a court, which means Miyamoto can never say anything to the contrary.
May 18th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
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