Simpsons Names

Many of the characters on the Simpsons show were named by Matt Groening and are named after people in his family. He did refuse to name the grandfather after his own grandfather, Abraham, and asked the writers to choose a name. The writers, who had no knowledge of his grandfather's name, chose Abraham. The full name is Abraham Jedediah "Abe" Simpson II, but he is commonly called grampa. His parents were Orville J. Simpson and Yuma Hickman.

Four Simpson Facts

The show features clips from a movie starring McBain, a movie star in the same vein as Schwarzenegger and Stallone. These clips are dispersed among many episodes, but if you put the clips together, you can actually form a full coherent story.

Many characters are named after streets in Portland, Oregon.

As soon as Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons, was given a drawing of the characters in yellow by an animator, he knew it was perfect. The idea was that whenever someone was flipping through the channels, they would automatically know The Simpsons was on when they saw the yellow bodies flash by.

All, except one of the characters are a one finger short of a human hand. The only character to have five fingers on a hand is God.

Origin of the Simpsons

The inspiration for Homer Simpson came from a character in “The Day of the Locust” book, which featured a hopelessly clumsy and disaffected character named Homer Simpson, and Eddie Haskell in “Leave it to Beaver” TV Series.

Life in Hell started in 1977 as a self-published comic book written and produced by Matt Groening and was a story about life in Los Angeles and the things which Groening encountered at school, at work in a succession of seedy jobs, and in his personal love relationships.

The series reached the attention of James L. Brooks who commissioned Groening to create short skits for the Tracey Ullman Show. While waiting in Brooks’ office reception for the interview, Groening sketched out a number of basic designs which would go on to become the basis for The Simpsons. He walked in to the office, presented his 10 minute-old drawings and got the job.

He named the characters after members of his own family, his father Homer, mother Marge, and sister Lisa. He substituted Bart for himself. Bart Simpson was named as an anagram of “brat,” and Matt's older brother Mark produced much of the early inspiration for Bart’s attitude.

The entire Simpson family was designed so that they would be drawn very quickly, allowing the often tight budget to reach further, and be recognizable in silhouette. When designing Homer's hair he initially just sketched his initials, ‘M’ for the hairline and ‘G’ for Homer's ear. Matt Groening's initials still remain on the final character to this day. Marge’s hair was based on the iconic Elsa Lanchester hairdo as worn in The Bride of Frankenstein (1935), and on a similar style worn by Margaret Groening during the 1960s. Lisa’s hair was initially a cluster of hand drawn hairlines, but this was changed to the simpler ‘hexagon hair’ design before the pilot episode.

So far the show is still on the air after 500+ episodes and is regarded as the longest running animation series of all time.

Ten Interesting Names

Did you know the Comic Book Guy on The Simpsons has a name? It’s Jeff Albertson. Creator Matt Groening says, “I was out of the room when [the writers] named him. In my mind, ‘Louis Lane’ was his name, and he was obsessed and tormented by Lois Lane.”

2. Barbie’s full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. (Ken’s last name is Carson.)

3. Cap’n Crunch’s full name is Captain Horatio Magellan Crunch

4. Snuffleupagus has a first name - Aloysius.

5. In the Peanuts comic strip, Peppermint Patty’s real name is Patricia Reichardt.

6. The Wizard of Oz' full name is, Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkel Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs. Frank Baum’s Dorothy And the Wizard in Oz relates,
“It was a dreadfully long name to weigh down a poor innocent child, and one of the hardest lessons I ever learned was to remember my own name. When I grew up I just called myself O.Z., because the other initials were P-I-N-H-E-A-D; and that spelled ‘pinhead,’ which was a reflection on my intelligence.”

7. Mr. Clean's first name is ”Veritably.” The name came from a “Give Mr. Clean a First Name” promotion in 1962.

8. In a deleted scene in the 2006 Curious George movie, The Man With the Yellow Hat’s name was revealed as Ted Shackleford. The original scene was deleted.

9. The real name of Monopoly mascot Rich Uncle Pennybags is Milburn Pennybags.

10. The policeman in Monopoly is Officer Edgar Mallory.