- Updated on: July 27, 2022
- by Ernie
Every My Hero Academia fan is familiar with the name Deku. Our protagonist from the famous shounen Anime that took the web community by storm goes by the moniker Deku when his real name is Izuku Midoriya.
Now, the nickname Deku has more than one layer to it. It refers to some kind of insult as well as something encouraging at the same time. Confusing, right? Let’s dive in deeper to know the real meaning of the nickname Deku for better understanding!
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
What's "Deku's" Meaning?
Why Did Bakugo Call Midoriya "Deku?"
In order to understand the different meanings of the word Deku, we need to learn about the bitter-sweet relationship between Bakugo and Midoriya.
Both Bakugo and Midoriya lived in the same neighborhood and went to the same school. Both had similar social settings and financial situations. However, both grew up differently and were treated differently.
Bakugo’s quirk made him look strong and capable of becoming the next best hero. On the other hand, Midoriya was quirkless which made him lose heart pretty soon as soon as he knew about his situation.
Both Bakugo and Midoriya were deeply inspired by All Might, the No.1 Hero, and everyone’s favorite. Now, in their childhood, both had the same kind of thoughts about all Might. But while growing up, their thoughts drastically changed and had very different takeaways from the inspiration they took from All Might.
Midoriya was inspired by how fearlessly all-Might is willing to help everyone and how he gives hope and vanishes fear while helping as many people as he can. On the other hand, Bakugo was inspired by how All-Might gives the “One-Man Army” vibe and how he solely takes out any enemy by his raw power.
Now, Midoriya highly respected Bakugo, always looked up to him and kept lingering around him because he was pretty strong even as a child. As a quirkless kid, Midoriya felt safe living like that. And because Midoriya wanted to become like all-Might, he saw following Bakugo as a starting point of his journey.
Bakugo on the other hand was quite stuck up and cocky because of all the praise he got and treated Midoriya like dirt, always being rude to him especially after finding out he’s quirkless. That’s the kind of relationship Bakugo and Midoriya had during their childhood. Now that we’ve talked about the bitter part, the sweet part will come later. But let’s just talk about why Midoriya was named Deku.
It all happened back then in preschool when Bakugo and Midoriya, along with other friends, were walking on a log right up a canal. Bakugo fell down and Midoriya lent him a hand for help. That’s where Bakugo’s pride hurt and he refused to take his help. That idiot literally thought that Midoriya was looking down upon him when all Midoriya wanted was to help him. Anyways, Bakugo named Midoriya Deku at that time which according to Bakugo, means a “useless person”.
Meaning of Deku - Explained in Dictionary
Now, we need to get a little technical and talk about the dictionary meaning of Deku. If we look closely, we come up with two meanings for the word “Deku”. The first one is as simple as it sounds: “A Puppet”. The second one refers to “Someone who’s useless” or “Good-for-nothing”. So, we can say that Bakugo used the abbreviation of the word “Dekunobou” which literally means “Useless”.
There is a deeper and more linguistic reason why Bakugo calls Midoriya Deku and is just not used for insult merely.
Izuku Midoriya is written as 緑谷出久 in the Japanese language. But as the Japanese Characters (Kanji), having more than one reading can have more than one pronunciation. Now, in one episode, it comes to Bakugo that the last name of Midoriya can be read as “Deku ”.
As the Japanese characters can have multiple pronunciations so according to Bakugo, 出 (izu) 久 (ku) can be pronounced as 出 (de) 久 (ku). That’s how our genius Bakugo came up with this name he thought would be a perfect fit for Midoriya.
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What is Deku’s Final Quirk?!
Updated January 15, 2023 by Ernie What Is Deku’s Final Quirk? Welcome to the world of My Hero Academia! This exciting and action-packed anime series follows a group of young superheroes-in-training who learn to harness and control their unique abilities, known as “quirks.” Let’s look at all of Deku’s quirks and what his final one
Why Did Uraraka Like the Name "Deku?"
Uraraka is our cheerful and Bubbly Gravity hero who’s always bursting with energy. Seeking the best possible outlook on everything, she’s very optimistic and laid-back.
Now, before getting into the details about why Uraraka liked the name Deku when she found out about it, let’s just talk about her relationship with Midoriya a bit.
They first interacted when Midoriya saved Uraraka from one of the mock-robots at the U.A. Entrance Exam. Uraraka greatly admired him for fearlessly saving her even though they were competing with each other.
They met again and to their surprise, they were both classmates!
Now, we all know how Uraraka started developing feelings for Midoriya gradually and strongly wanted to be like him in terms of helping others regardless of the situation. She often gets jealous if another female tries to get close to him, which is only natural.
On the other hand, Midoriya is completely oblivious to her feelings towards him even though she sucks at hiding them. Midoriya greatly respects Uraraka and considers her a very good friend. That’s the kind of relationship both Midoriya and Uraraka share with each other.
Now, let’s talk about how Uraraka found out about Midoriya’s nickname “Deku” and why she liked it.
We talked about how “Deku” means insulting to some and inspirational to some. We’ve explained how Bakugo used it to degrade Midoriya. We’ll explain now how the name “Deku” lifted Midoriya’s spirit.
On one occasion, Uraraka called Midoriya Deku because she heard Bakugo calling him that. Now, she had no idea about the history of his name and how it affected Midoriya. After knowing everything, she apologized to Midoriya but also mentioned that the name “Deku ” gives off a feeling of “I can do it” and that she liked the nickname.
She must have reached this conclusion because she could have taken the word “Deku” as the abbreviation of “Dekiru” which literally means “I can do it”. That’s how Uraraka was able to change the meaning of the word Deku for Midoriya and he chose to go by this name without feeling any shame.
Midoriya's feelings about his nickname "Deku."
We’ve talked about how Bakugo meant nothing but insult by calling Midoriya Deku because according to him he’s a useless and “quirkless” person. Midoriya didn’t like the name at first but still chose to stick with Bakugo to get stronger and more and more like him.
After meeting Uraraka who changed the meaning of this nickname, Midoriya started liking this name A LOT. It gave him a new hope that he’s not useless and is capable of serving as a great hero. He loved the name too much to even consider it as his superhero name!
Thanks to our sweet Uraraka, Midoriya was able to turn something negative into positive that was hanging with him for a long time. It changed Midoriya a lot, made him confident, so he could walk tall with his fellow heroes!
About My Hero Academia
My Hero Academia is an anime that’s inspired by American superheroes and is a true masterpiece. It quickly succeeded in creating a huge fan base all around the World and we’re not even surprised because it’s just that good!
It’s definitely making its way up to the “Big Three” in the shounen genre. With a huge set of very likable characters, great animation, addictive soundtrack, everything about My Hero Academia screams perfection!
Let’s talk a bit about My Hero Academia’s plot now.
My Hero Academia revolves around the life of Izuku Midoriya who aspires to become a pro hero in a world where people have different superpowers or “quirks”. Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a quirk and loses all hope until he meets All Might, the No.1 Pro Hero.
He offers Midoriya his own quirk saying that he’ll pass it onto him just like it was passed to him by the previous heroes. After accepting his offer, Midoriya enrolls in the U.A. Hero Academy which produces some of the finest and strongest Pro Heroes. He has to go through a lot of training in order to achieve his goal and with the help of his mentor, All Might, he’s able to get closer to his goals. However, his journey towards his goal is going to be a long and strenuous one.
Conclusion
With the new season airing, My Hero Academia is back with some crazy hype and the glory it deserves. We hope that our explanation of the word “Deku” has helped you with understanding it better. We’ll be coming back with some more interesting things and their explanations. Let us know what you think about this blog down below!
