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How the Smurfs got their names
Pass the Smurf!
Like many cartoons, The Smurfs originally started off as characters in a comic strip. And, like Popeye before them, they began as minor characters in someone else's comic series. Their Belgian creator, Peyo, intended for the Smurfs to exist as magical creatures in his medieval comic series Johan and Peewit. He drew the little guys three apples high and made them blue, a decision partially inspired by Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In an interview with the Journal Herald, Peyo said, through his translator Jack Rouse, "The Seven Dwarfs are little people and it's terribly important we understand that. Smurfs are not human; they are fantastic creatures. They do not have human characteristics. They are surrealistic - in the French sense, not in Dali's."
But where did he come up with the name for these nonhuman, surrealistic creatures? The name "Smurf", or "Schtroumpf" in French, comes from a slip of the tongue moment between Peyo and a friend. They were having lunch and Peyo meant to ask for the salt (or sel in French) and goofed up saying, "Please pass the schtroumpfs." The friends laughed at the moment, and Peyo saved the word, thinking it would make others laugh too.
So, applying the silly word to the surreal little blue guys created the Smurf, or Le Schtroumpf, because initially there was only one Smurf. Papa Smurf was the first Smurf, premiering in the Johan and Peewit comic book La Flûte à Six Schtroumpfs or, The Six Smurfed Flute. After that edition, suddenly more Smurfs popped up with each subsequent comic until there were over 100 Smurfs. The Smurfs' rising star quickly eclipsed Johan and Peewit's, leading to the Smurfs getting their own comic and cartoon series, and thus, a pop cultural icon was established.
Despite their seasoning origins, we still have yet to see a Salty Smurf.
