Dragon Ball Earthling Name Generator

Generate Dragon Ball Earthling names that follow Akira Toriyama's rules for humans: dim sum and tea for Yamcha's crowd, Chinese dishes for Tien and Chiaotzu, rice and bread for the Son family, underwear for the Briefs, colors for the Red Ribbon Army and school supplies for Gohan's classmates. Canon names plus hundreds of original puns for OCs, Xenoverse characters and fan fiction.

About Dragon Ball Earthling names

Saiyans get vegetables and Frieza's race gets cold puns, but Dragon Ball's Earthlings are named after almost everything else on the menu. Yamcha is yum cha, the Cantonese tea-and-dim-sum meal, and his companions Puar and Oolong are teas. Tien Shinhan is tenshinhan, a crab-omelet rice dish, Chiaotzu is jiaozi, Krillin blends kuri (chestnut) with Shaolin, and Launch is lunch. The Pilaf gang are rice and shumai, Chi-Chi means milk, Gohan is cooked rice and Pan is bread.

Outside the kitchen, each human faction has a theme. The Brief family are underwear: Bulma is bloomers, her mother Panchy is panties, her sister Tights, her daughter Bulla (Bra) and her son Trunks. Red Ribbon officers are colors and metals (Red, Blue, Silver, Violet, Magenta, Carmine), Gohan's classmates Erasa and Sharpner are school supplies, Androids 17 and 18 were born Lapis and Lazuli, and Videl is an anagram of devil to match her father Mr. Satan. Even the Penguin Village cameos follow suit: Arale is arare, and Senbei Norimaki is a seaweed-wrapped rice cracker.

This list gathers the notable humans from Dragon Ball, Z, GT, Super and the games, then adds hundreds of original puns on Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Western dishes, teas, desserts, stationery and uniforms, mangled the way Toriyama mangles them so they read as names rather than menu items.

How to choose Dragon Ball Earthling names

• Start from a cuisine, not a single dish: Yamcha's whole group is Cantonese tea-house food, Tien and Chiaotzu are Chinese dumplings and rice plates, so an OC who trains with them should come from the same menu (Wonto, Hargo, Shaolong).
• Bend the word until it looks like a name: drop the last syllable (Tenpura, Sashim), swap a vowel (Karaag, Pekin) or write it the way it sounds in Japanese (Purin for pudding, Beikon for bacon, Kechap for ketchup).
• Match the theme to the character's family or job. A Capsule Corp relative should be underwear or hosiery (Bokusa, Garta, Sokku), a Red Ribbon officer a color plus rank, a student from Orange Star High a stationery item (Penshil, Kreyon, Stapla).
• Martial artists and tournament fighters usually get plain one- or two-word names with no surname (Nam, Pamput, Spopovich); save full names like Arale Norimaki for comedy relief or Penguin Village cameos.
• Keep Saiyan vegetables, Namekian snails and Frieza Force fruit off the table so your human OC does not read as an alien; if a word is already a Saiyan name (Kale, Cabba, Daikon) pick a different dish.

Frequently asked questions

What are Dragon Ball Earthlings named after?

Mostly food, but from the whole menu rather than one aisle: Yamcha, Puar and Oolong are tea-house words, Tien Shinhan and Chiaotzu are Chinese dishes, Krillin is chestnut plus Shaolin, Launch is lunch, Gohan is rice and Pan is bread. Smaller groups have their own themes: the Briefs are underwear, the Red Ribbon Army are colors, Gohan's classmates are school supplies, and Mr. Satan's family are devils.

Is Krillin's name a food pun?

Yes. Kuririn combines kuri, the Japanese word for chestnut (a nod to his bald head), with the rin of Shaolin, the temple associated with martial-arts monks. His daughter Marron continues the joke, since marron is French for chestnut, and his wife Android 18's real name is Lazuli.

How do I name an Earthling OC for Xenoverse or fan fiction?

Pick a dish, tea, dessert or household item that has not been used in canon, then shorten or respell it so it reads as a name: Tenpura, Hoisen, Purin, Erlgray, Penshil. Keep it one or two syllables longer than a nickname and avoid vegetables, which would make the character sound Saiyan.

Why is Bulma named after bloomers?

Toriyama gave the entire Brief family an underwear theme as a running gag: Bulma is bloomers, her father is Dr. Brief, her mother Panchy is panties, her sister is Tights, her son is Trunks and her daughter is Bulla (Bra in Japanese). Any new Capsule Corp relative should follow the same rule.

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