The Simpsons - Characters named after
Many of the characters in the Simpsons take
their names from important people and places in Groening's life:
- Lisa – Lisa Groening (Matt Groening's sister)
- Marge – Marge Groening (his mother)
- Homer – Homer Groening (his father and one of
his sons)
- Maggie – Maggie Groening (one of his sisters)
- Bart – an anagram for "brat", a reference to
Groening himself
- Abraham – picked at random by writers for The
Simpsons, but coincidentally was the name of Matt Groening's grandfather
- 742 SW Evergreen Terrace in Portland, Oregon
is the address of the place where Matt Groening grew up.
- Chief Wiggum – Groening's college love's last
name and his mother's maiden name was "Wiggum"
- Miss Hoover (Lisa's teacher) – one of his
primary school teachers
- Moe – Matt Groening's former drug rehab
counsellor
- Apu Nahasapeemapetilon (Kwik-E-Mart
employee) – reference to one of his favourite movies
- Ned Flanders – In northwest Portland, Oregon,
Groening's hometown, there is a NW Flanders St.
- Reverend Lovejoy - NW Lovejoy Street, another
Portland street name
- Mayor "Diamond" Joe Quimby - NW Quimby
Street, another Portland street name, and corrupt former Portland Police Bureau
Chief Diamond Joe Purcell.
- C. Montgomery Burns - an abbreviated Portland
street called West and East Burnside Street, as well as Portland's Montgomery
Park neighborhood.
- Sideshow Bob Terwilliger - Terwilliger curves
in Portland.
Other name origins:
- Seymour Skinner – behavioural psychologist B.
F. Skinner, especially considering his Psychoesque relationship with his mother,
or a reference to "see more skin"
- Maude, Rod and Todd Flanders – they all rhyme
with "God" (Maude being pronounced 'Mod' in certain North American accents).
- Kang and Kodos (aliens) – In the original
Star Trek, Kang is a Klingon, and Kodos ("The Executioner") is a human
villain.
- Barney Gumble (Homer's drinking buddy) –
Barney Rubble from The Flintstones.
- Troy McClure (actor) – B-movie actors Troy
Donohue and Doug McClure.
- Dr. Nick Riviera (enterprising physician) –
Elvis Presley's physician, George C. Nichopoulos, was called Dr. Nick.
- Milhouse Van Houten – notorious 1960s figures
Richard Milhous Nixon and Manson Family member and convicted murderer Leslie Van
Houten (or, far more likely, Van Houten Avenue in Portland, Oregon).
- Jacqueline Bouvier: Jacqueline Kennedy
Onassis
- Patty and Selma: Olympic gold medal winning
track & field athlete Stella Walsh who, following her death, was found to be
genetically intersex from the autopsy.
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