All true gamers know that Cloud’s last name is Strife, Lara’s last name is Croft, and Sonic’s last name is Hedgehog. So, it’s wild that few seem to know the last name of Mario, the second most famous video game character of all time.
The answer isn’t a simple one to give — because Mario somehow only got a last name many years into his life, but we do have the definite answer — and the hilarious story behind it.
What is Mario’s last name?
Mario and Luigi’s last name is Mario, meaning that Mario’s full name is Mario Mario, and Luigi’s is Luigi Mario. It might sound like I got hacked while writing this, so please allow me to give you the full bonkers story to back it up.
Mario began his life as Mr. Video, which then evolved to Jumpman, a sprite that Mr. Miyamoto said existed to have guest appearances in other games, as he does in Donkey Kong. Then, with Miyamoto’s smart decision to turn the sprites whose shoes we filled into actual characters we could identify with, he turned Jumpman into Mario, the pretty unorthodox plumber we all know and love.
Miyamoto named Mario after the landlord of Nintendo of America’s warehouse from back in the day. His name? Mario Segale. So, if you want to be annoyingly technical about it, you can believe that Mario’s first unmentioned last name was Segale.
It was only in 1993 that Mario got his last name. What’s funny is that this important piece of canon didn’t come from a beloved game, but rather from the undeservingly loathed and totally non-canon Super Mario Bros. movie.
And, like, it just makes sense. If they’re the Mario brothers, that’s because Mario is their last name. We don’t immediately get it just because when we hear Super Mario, our brains instantly trick us into picturing one super guy whose first name is Mario.
For the longest time, it was a great joke in a movie. One that even Miyamoto admitted in 2012 made him laugh out loud, but it was only that. Both Miyamoto and even the late great Satoru Iwata publicly assured fans that neither Mario nor Luigi had a last name.
Then, in 2015, something changed. Miyamoto appeared at a celebration of Mario’s 30th anniversary and announced that, after all, Mario and Luigi do have a last name, and it’s Mario. Did Miyamoto change his mind because both he and Iwata just found it too funny to not just make it true? We may never learn the answer to that question, but that would make for a great page in the book of game development canon.
Don’t believe me? Here’s the real Charles Martinet-voiced Mario Mario himself proving me right.
Tune in next time to learn if Sonic’s first name really is Maurice, and whether Link’s last name is Link or Zelda!
