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I always thought this quote from Scott Pilgrim to be right, since I had no reason to think otherwise:

Scott Pilgrim about Pacman

Did you know that the original name for Pac-Man was Puck-Man? You'd think it was because he looks like a hockey puck but it actually comes from the Japanese phrase 'Paku-Paku,' which means to flap one's mouth open and closed. They changed it because they thought Puck-Man would be too easy to vandalize, you know, like people could just scratch off the P and turn it into an F or whatever.

-- Scott Pilgrim vs The World

But an exchange with another user made me second guess the whole thing. Was it maybe something the writers came up with? Or maybe they were referencing a widespread urban legend?

Can any of you shed some light over this trivia? Was his name originally Puck-man? And if so, was it changed for the stated reason?

Note: This is independent of it coming from "paku-paku" or not, though answers can glance over that if they think it's relevant.

Jason C
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xDaizu
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    Are you asking if pac-man was called puck-man, or if the name puck-man came from 'paku-paku'? – Kruga Apr 03 '17 at 10:49
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    oh look, it's the least useful lightswitch. (they're standing in this scene.) – Woodrow Barlow Apr 03 '17 at 13:55
  • @WoodrowBarlow Could be something you don't really want everyone messing with (but isn't essential). – JMac Apr 03 '17 at 16:01
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    @JMac: yeah, the actual story is that the scene was shot in a frat house, the frat had moved the lightswitch up because they liked to throw big houseparties but got fed up with people accidentally leaning up against the wall and switching the lights. this tickled edgar wright (director), so he put it in the movie. [partial source](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446029/trivia?item=tr1434387). – Woodrow Barlow Apr 03 '17 at 16:07
  • This is already answered, but on a side note the elf in Berserk is named Puck, and it must be because of Paku-Paku as he speaks and tells jokes all the time. – Shautieh Apr 04 '17 at 04:22
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    @Shautieh I think Berserk elf Puck is named after Shakespeare's fae Puck (Midsummer Night's Dream i think?), who in turn might have been lifted from fae legends? – Weaver Apr 04 '17 at 07:48
  • Oh I didn't know but pucks seem to be celtic faeries indeed ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puck_(mythology) ). Both correspond well to Berserk's Puck, it could be an intended double entendre, or just a coincidence concerning paku-paku. – Shautieh Apr 05 '17 at 04:22
  • Were you the Pac-Man guy? – Alexander Torstling Apr 06 '17 at 11:09
  • If the Puck Man story is true then somebody should have informed the makers of Chicken Shift. – GordonM Apr 06 '17 at 14:26
  • I don't care to get into an edit war with you, xDaizu. I'm just curious why you're so reluctant to fully quote the opinion that made you doubt Scott Pilgrim. The specific criticism of the "Puck Man" claim is relevant to the discussion, IMO. – Shokhet Apr 07 '17 at 22:35
  • The claim that paku-paku is Japanese for flapping your lips is wrong. It isn't and the claim doesn't make sense considering the old name was "puck" and in Japanese it would have been doubled, similar to many games with "doki-doki" in the name. – dont_shog_me_bro Feb 07 '21 at 16:43

2 Answers2

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Was his name originally Puck-man? And if so, was it changed for the stated reason?

In a 2010 interview with Wired (archive link), the creator of Pac Man, Toru Iwatani, explicitly verified this:

Wired.com: And of course, the game was originally called Puck-Man, but the name was changed for America because someone might vandalize the “P” and turn it into an “F.”

Iwatani: Yes, the U.S. subsidiary said that that would be bad. We wondered, what should we do? And decided to change it to “Pac.” Then, after the American version came out with the “Pac” spelling, we used that for the entire world.

So, yes. The name was changed to reduce potential vandalism, and yes, the name was originally Puck Man, the Wired article actually has an image of an original Puck Man console:

enter image description here

There are plenty of images of original Puck Man consoles floating around elsewhere, as well.

Jason C
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85

YES.

Namco's Japanese Pac-man flyer, 1980 If the only thing suspicious here is the PAKU -> PUCK transformation, consider this website's picture of a Pac-man poster, also featured right above this text. In smaller katakana symbols above the large PUCK MAN title, beginning and ending with stars, is パックマン (pakkuman). 'Pakkuman' sounds like a word that could easily originate from paku paku, and the company itself provides the English transliteration to Puck man.

If, on the other hand, you're looking for a confirmation from designers that they based pakkuman on paku paku, here's an excerpt from a Bandai Namco website describing Pac-man (emphasis mine):

迷路に並んだクッキーをパクパクと食べる愛らしい姿と、パワークッキーで攻守逆転の痛快さは男性ファンだけでなく、女性ファンをも魅了しました。

Transliterated by Google Translate as (emphasis mine):

Meiro ni naranda kukkī o pakupaku to taberu airashī sugata to, pawākukkī de kōshu gyakuten no tsūkai-sa wa dansei fan dakedenaku, josei fan o mo miryō shimashita.

Partial translation of the first part of the quote by Google Translate (up to and including taberu):

eating cookies lined up in the maze

Other Pac-man related products also contain the phrase paku paku in their description or title. This could, however, still mean that the origin story is made up and has only been later adopted by Bandai Namco. Although I hope it is sufficient to at least show that this concept of Pac-man being related to the expression paku paku exists as valid in Japan and is firmly in the realm of possibility.

If there is doubt about what paku paku means, according to Jisho.org it means

1 flapping open and closed (e.g. mouth)

There could be a more direct quote from the creators themselves. I didn't do a very thorough search.

can-ned_food
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user25972
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    It's supposed to be a pun. 「パックマン」(pakkuman) is literally the English words "Puck Man" written in katakana, meaning the Japanese name is a transliteration of the English, not the other way around. The pun is that「パック」(pakku) sounds similar to 「ぱく」(paku). – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Apr 03 '17 at 17:29
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    @BlueRaja-DannyPflughoeft (or whoever) Wait. I don't know any Japanese at all. Is パクパク the same as ぱくぱく? Because パクパク = "pakupaku" according to the translate snippet in the answer, but then at the jisho.org link it says "pakupaku" is something different: ぱくぱく (but jisho.org does say パクパク人形 = "puppet with a moving mouth"). Oh, or... is that the whole point with the pun thing? Trying to understand the answer. – Jason C Apr 03 '17 at 19:37
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    @JasonC: Yes they are the same. Japanese has multiple writing systems, similar to "print vs. cursive" in English but more nuanced. See [here](http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/362) for more info. – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Apr 03 '17 at 19:52
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    @JasonC ぱくぱく is pakupaku, while パクパクis pakupaku using the alphabet that's used to spell words borrowed from foreign languages (this is not a joke). So パックマン (Pakkuman) is written as a word that comes from a foreign language and is indeed how one spells "Puckman" in Japanese.. – Peter Apr 04 '17 at 00:15
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    @Peter Ahhh, I think I understand now: the indication that it is a transliterated word gives it the double-meaning of both the native concept *and* the foreign one, hence the pun. If I've got that right, it sounds like Japanese opens up a whole new world of great puns. The possibilities for bilingual [dad jokes](https://www.reddit.com/r/dadjokes/) are truly terrifying. – Jason C Apr 04 '17 at 00:31
  • @BlueRaja-DannyPflughoeft perhaps my phrasing wasn't the best. Whichever way around it is transliterated, my point is addressing the question's quoted argument that Puck cannot be viably transcripted as pakku in a Japanese language context. – user25972 Apr 04 '17 at 03:58
  • @xDaizu thanks. If your question is about Pac-man's original name, consider that your quote of Ethan's comment may be unrelated to what you're asking. – user25972 Apr 04 '17 at 04:03
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    @user25972 The quote was actually edited in by another user. I removed it and tried to rephrase the whole thing. Sorry if my question was a bit confusing about its focus. My own inexperience. Despite that, **I think your answer is very valuable** and completes with information about the *pakku-pakku* point. Also, the picture is great (that nose!) :) – xDaizu Apr 04 '17 at 07:36
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    Katakana is as i understand it used for foreign words, emphasising native words, and most onomotopaea(sp?), so generally many levels of subtlety available. – Weaver Apr 04 '17 at 07:55
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    @xDaizu that's absolutely fine, SE questions can be quite the metamorphing beast sometimes but it's all with the goal of better clarity. Welcome to Skeptics! – user25972 Apr 04 '17 at 08:03
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    [Pakupaku taberu (パクパク食べる)](https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=%E3%83%91%E3%82%AF%E3%83%91%E3%82%AF%E9%A3%9F%E3%81%B9%E3%82%8B&tbm=vid) basically means "to munch" or "to gobble down" and is exactly what Pacman does. He gobbles up dots and ghosts. – gman Apr 06 '17 at 04:33