Nintendo’s star heroine wasn’t always named Princess Peach, and for many years prior to the release of Super Mario 64 went by a different name: Princess Toadstool. Now, fans know the reason why, and it wasn’t because of any decision Nintendo made.
In an interview with Time Extension, Nintendo veteran Leslie Swan, who over the course of her nearly three-decade career helped localize countless Nintendo classics, wrote for Nintendo Power magazine, and even voiced Princess Peach in Super Mario 64, spilled the beans on the unlikely origin of the Toadstool moniker. She said in Nintendo’s early days, there wasn’t a lot of communication between the development teams in Japan and those working on marketing in the US.
“So on Super Mario Bros. they [Nintendo] had outsourced the production of the manual to an ad agency,” Swan said. “And the ad agency just kind of created names for things. And so they’re the ones who came up with Princess Toadstool as the name for Peach.”
After the ad agency’s decision, the name stuck for the next decade. Swan said when localizing Super Mario 64 for North America alongside Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, Miyamoto was fond of the “Peach” name and wanted it included.
Swan suggested combining the two names together for the US release. Peach could be Princess Toadstool’s more “informal” name, Swan said. It’s for that reason Peach’s letter to Mario at the beginning of Super Mario 64 is signed Princess Toadstool, with “Peach” handwritten in pink.
The full interview includes tons more details about Swan’s career and is well worth a read. Meanwhile, Princess Peach has come into her own in recent years, stepping out of Mario’s shadow. Far from a damsel in distress, she proved to be a major force in the Super Mario. Bros movie and even received her own game, Princess Peach: Showtime, in 2024, the first game to star her as the main protagonist since 2006’s Super Princess Peach for Nintendo DS.
Though Peach is making a name for herself, her relationship with Mario is more complicated than ever, with Nintendo recently going out of its way to remind fans Mario and Princess Peach are just “good friends.”
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