| Baby Marimo's name was chosen because it is linked to her brother Kikuchiyo's name through a shared pictogram (or kanji). The first kanji of both names can be pronounced in four ways, "kiku", "mari", "mai" or "kyu". This kanji means "master of" and certaintly fit's Kiku's character since his full name means "Master of a thousand worlds". Marimo's name, on the other hand, means "Master of algae". Hmm, perhaps she won't appreciate the name much when she's older.
Actually we did intend Marimo's name to be linked to algae. The word "marimo" in Japanese also means "round algae" and is the name for a special plant that lives in Lake Akan in Northern Honshu. You can click
here for more information on the marimo algae. In the mean time here's a picture of some marimo swimming in the lake:
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