Bakugan & Name Meanings | BB
Dan Kuusou: "Dan", or rather, "Danma", is written with two characters meaning "bullet" and… "horse", for some bizarre reason? Yeah, I don't know either. It might have been chosen because or the word "bakudan", meaning "bomb", but don't quote me on this one. The English dub changes it to "Daniel", meaning "God is my judge". A much more acceptable name meaning, in my opinion. As for "Kuusou", it's written with two characters meaning "sky, empty, void" and "fidelity, honor". Basically, "treacherous". Yeesh. Is often rendered in English as "Kuso", implying short vowels instead of long ones, which has caused some people to think that the writers named their main character "shit". Of course they didn't; they aren't stupid.
Runo Misaki: "Runo" means "of lapis lazuli", while "Misaki" is written with two characters meaning "beautiful bloom", which is kind of strange because that's usually a first name, not a surname.
Chouji "Marucho" Marukura: "Chouji" is written with two characters meaning "symptom, sign, omen" and "cure". As for "Marukura", it's from two elements meaning "circle" and "winehouse, cellar".
Julie Hayward: "Julie" is from a Latin name meaning "devotee of Jupiter". Either that or "beardless", but I like the first meaning better. "Hayward" is from two Old English elements meaning "enclosure, fence" and "guard". The English dub for some bizarre reason changes it to "Makimoto". This name is usually written with two characters meaning "pasture" and "origin", which kinda preserves the meaning? Still don't get why the change was even made, though.
Shun Kazami: "Shun" means "noble steed" in Japanese. Yes, really. As for "Kazami", it's from two elements meaning "wind" and "to see". Interestingly, he's basically the only one of the OG Battle Brawlers whose name references his attribute in any way, which indicates to me that he was created much later in development. Considering Ventus was created so much later it wasn't even on the first Ability cards, that tracks.
Michael & Alice Gehabich: I'm going to explain both as a double feature. "Alice" is from a Germanic name meaning "of noble sort", while "Michael" comes from a Hebrew phrase meaning something like "who is like God?". Neither of these forms are used in Russia; the correct Russian forms would be Alisa and Mikhail. As for Gehabich... Why oh why do I do this to myself? Everything about this surname is some variety of incorrect.
Okay, strap yourselves in. "Gehabich" is not an actual name that exists. That be should be a "v", for one. For another thing, that still comes out to "son of Geha", which still doesn't exist. I mean, I know Cyrillic "n" and "v" look like Latin "h" and "b" and that could lead to confusion, but that would still be Genavich, which. "Gena" does exist, but it's a short form of Gennady. It's a nickname, not a name. It is possible that the writers were going for "Gennadyevich", but even then that's still a patronymic, not a surname. A male patronymic, while we're at it. It makes sense for grandpappy, but for Alice the feminine form would be "Gennadyevna". Is Alice trans? (I mean, considering Masquerade it would make sense.) The actual surname forms are "Gennadiev" and "Gennadievna" respectively. This kind of tracks when you stop to consider why the writers might have made that choice, because in Russian the first name + patronymic is used as a general respectful form of address, so it's possible that someone working on the show once heard a Russian name but never saw it written down or even understood how it worked.
Chan Lee: Again, I have no idea what is going on here. Both "Chan" and "Lee" are surnames in Chinese. Move over, Cho Chang, you've got serious competition.
Julio Santana: "Julio" is a Spanish form of "Julius", which I explained back when I talked about Julie's name, while "Santana" is a contraction of "Santa Ana".
Klaus von Herzon: "Klaus" is a German diminutive of Nicholas, which is in turn from a Greek name meaning "victory of the people". It was popular in Germany from the 1930s to the 70s and basically dropped off the map ever since. "von Herzon" is most likely a misspelling of "von Herzen", meaning "from the heart" in German. "Von" is also a particle that would once precede the surname of a noble family.
Billy Gilbert: "Billy" is short for "William", which in turn comes from two Germanic elements meaning "will" and "helmet". "Gilbert" is also a Germanic name, and comes from two elements meaning "pledge, hostage" and "bright". Weird.
Komba O'Charlie: "Komba" means either "galago, bushbaby" (a type of primate similar to a lemur), or "to hollow out, to empty" in Swahili. "O'Charlie" is ultimately from the Germanic name Karl, which simply means "man".
Joe Brown: "Joe" is short for "Joseph", which ultimately comes from a Hebrew word meaning "to add, to increase", while Brown is self-explanatory. In the Japanese dub he's named Joe Osamu, which is from two Japanese elements meaning "castle, fortress" and "govern, reign".