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It may seem like a dumb question, but there are high ranking people in the media world who say that Mickey Mouse does not have a last name. Thus I'm hoping for clarification.

In an interview with Game Informer, Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of Mario (of Super Mario Bros. fame), stated that Mario and Luigi didn't have last names*, just like Mickey Mouse:

But, just like Mickey Mouse doesn't really have a last name, Mario is really just Mario and Luigi is really just Luigi.

Is Miyamoto right? Does Mickey Mouse not have a last name?

* Miyamoto changed his mind in 2015 and now the character is named Mario Mario.

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  • 28
    Mr. Mickey MOUSE?
    – Ken Graham
    Jun 21, 2016 at 2:45
  • 11
    His last name is "Mouse". Just like how Kermit the Frog's middle name is "the". Jun 21, 2016 at 11:06
  • 3
    It is not so different than Mr. Smith (short for blacksmith), Mr. Carter (one who moved goods by cart), or Mr. Carpenter. Humans have many surnames based on occupations and many of the Disney characters have surnames based on their species or genus. :) Jun 21, 2016 at 16:21
  • there's nothing requiring that a name must have a last name. Many people like Indians have only a single given name.
    – phuclv
    Jun 22, 2016 at 3:05
  • 1
    Falsehoods Programmers Believe About Names (but also applies to non-developers)
    – phuclv
    Dec 7, 2017 at 10:30

1 Answer 1

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+200

In the Mickey Mouse cartoon world, anthropomorphic animals all seem to be named after whatever kind of animal they are. Thus, we get Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, etc. As far as we can tell, these names really are intended to act as family names. (Note that Pluto, the only animal on these shows that acts like an animal, also has no last name.)

For starters, most of Mickey's family also shared the name Mouse with him. One exception is his older sister, who in turn has two younger children. All three of them are named Fieldmouse, implying that Amelia Mouse married someone named Frank Fieldmouse (who has never been shown in a cartoon, so we don't know).

In addition, Mickey has starred in a couple of cartoon shorts where he's been referred to as "Mr. Mouse", such as the early short film Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip. This only makes sense if that's his last name.

If Mouse is his last name, though, it's a very common one, because everyone in Minnie's family also has the last name Mouse: Marshal Mouse and Matilda Mouse are Minnie's grandparents, Marcus Mouse is her father, and so on.

Other "families" follow the same pattern: all of Donald's relatives are named "Duck", except for his distant Scottish relatives the McDucks. There are also family friends of the Ducks named the Goose family, the Gander family, etc.

The most interesting case is Goofy -- originally he was Dippy Dawg, but is mostly referred to as just Goofy on-screen. Over the years, he's been alternatively called Goofy Goof (implying that Goof is his species), or Goofus D. Dawg. But officially, he seems to be the only major Disney character that really doesn't have a last name.

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  • That's probably "Dippy Dawg" and not "Deputy Dawg" (which seems to be an unrelated cartoon).
    – Stephan B
    Jun 21, 2016 at 5:00
  • 4
    Goof is not his species. Just like Pete's species isn't Pete. In Goof troop and the Goofy movies, they all have real last names.
    – cde
    Jun 21, 2016 at 5:06
  • 4
    Same as Pepa Pig Jun 21, 2016 at 5:56
  • 26
    @randal'thor Bambi has no family. #RightInTheFeelings
    – Gusdor
    Jun 21, 2016 at 9:02
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    because pluto isn't anthropomorphic . He's actually just a dog.
    – KutuluMike
    Jun 21, 2016 at 21:09

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