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Bora and Upa, Gokuu's two Native American stereotype friends. What do their names mean? Here's what Toriyama had to say on the matter. I believe this is from the Dragon Ball Forever (2004) guidebook. On Bora:
“I don’t think there’s any particular meaning.”
KEK.
As for Upa, he said:
“If I’m not mistaken, I think it was that my assistant Matsuyama had I dog named this at his parents’ house, and I said ‘Ah, that’s a good name!’”
So, Toriyama guessed Bora's name didn't mean anything and Upa was named after his assistant's family dog. Is that all there is to their names? I don't think so. We know how bad Toriyama's memory could get at times and he struggled to remember a few things in that guidebook, so when he says he doesn't think Bora's name means anything, he may have just forgotten. As for Upa being named after his assistant's family dog, that could be true, but why would he give a character a name that only his assistant would understand? Most of the characters are given names that the readers can understand.
I've read the theory that Bora and Upa were named after a series of Japanese tropical drinks from the mid-80s called Bora-Bora, Upa-Upa, and Noa-Noa. I'm not necessarily ruling that out, but those drinks have Tahitian names. The Bora-Bora drink was named after the Bora Bora Islands, which get their name from the Tahitian phrase "Pora pora mia te pora", which means "created by the gods". It was often abbreviated to "Pora Pora", which simply means "first born". The Tahitian "p" sound can be misheard by other language speakers as a "b", so when the island was colonized by the French, it became known as "Bora Bora" instead of Pora Pora. The Upa Upa drink was named after the "ʻupaʻupa", a sexual Tahitian dance. The Noa Noa drink was named after "n'oan'oa", which in Tahitian means "fragrance". I'm not sure if I buy into tropical drink theory because Bora and Upa are clearly based on Native Americans, not Tahitians or Islanders of any sort (and it's not like there's a character named Noa). But it does seem a little too coincidental that they would share the name of these Japanese tropical drinks, even though they're not Tahitian-based characters.
I've also looked into the theories that Bora was named after ぼられた (borareta), which basically means being "ripped off" or "robbed" in Japanese. And that Bora was named after ぼらぼら (borabora), which is a Japanese onomatopoeia that means "one after another". And that Bora was named after the weapon known as bola, which would be approximated as ボラ (Bora) in katakana. And that he was named after "Bora", some type of wind. And that Bora was named after "vola", which in Italian means "to fly" and would be approximated as ボラ (Bora) in katakana. And that Bora was named after the Bora River in Romania. And that Bora was named after Bora tribe of indigenous people in the Amazon rainforest in South America. And that Bora was named after the Bohra, an extinct mammal. And that Upa was named after the Upa River in Russia. And that Upa's name is a pun on Hupa, which was the name of a Native American tribe. And that Upa's name is a pun on "upas", which in the language Ainu means "snow", approximated as ウパㇱ (upasu) in katakana.
Frankly, none of those theories seem plausible to me (it's probably safe to cross out any names from other languages or cultures, too, because who knows if a Japanese guy like Toriyama knew any of that). I was about to give up on discerning the meaning of their names, but I think I figured them out. As said before, Bora is ボラ (Bora) in katakana. I'm pretty sure the first thing that would pop into a Japanese person's mind when they see or read ボラ (Bora) would be the flathead grey mullet fish, which is called "Bora" in Japan (one of the kanji is 鰡, read and spelt as ぼら (bora) in hiragana). After having given it plenty of thought, I would say, yeah, that's what Bora was named after. Granted, at first, I thought it was arbitrary for him to be named after some random fish, but this is what convinced me. See these fish here?
They're flatheaded grey mullet fish, or "Bora" as Japan calls them. Now what do you see Upa cooking here?
Eh, looked like the mullet (Bora) to me at first lol. It's probably not, but I don't see what else Bora could be named after. The mullet isn't just a fish; it's a food that people eat and plenty of characters are named after foods. Seems a little too coincidental that Bora would just happen to share the same name as an edible fish and debut in a chapter where we see his son cooking fish that they're implied to have caught. Bora is obviously a fisherman; the anime even adds a scene of Bora fishing in his debut. Native Americans were known to catch fish, too. As much as I'd like to think Bora's named after the fish, though, you'd think Upa would also have a fish-related name since they're a pair of closely related characters (father and son). But there is no fish named anything like "Upa", not even in Japanese.
So, what could "Upa"'s name mean? The katakana is ウパ (Upa). I've read the theory that he was named after the Wooper Looper, which is what the axolotl amphibian is called in Japan. "Wooper Looper" is approximated as ウーパールーパー (ūpārūpā) in katakana. You may be familiar with the Pokemon called "Wooper". I think "Wooper Looper" is what most Japanese people would think of when they hear ウパ (Upa), but I can't think of any reason why Upa would be named after some random amphibian. Maybe his name is a pun on "harpoon", which would be approximated as ハープーン (hāpūn) in katakana? Ehh, probably a reach. But axolotl eat small mullet fish, so maybe that's where Toriyama got the idea to name a father and son "Upa and Bora"? Nah, I don't think so.
I guess he was just named after Toriyama's assistant's family dog. But you gotta wonder where Toriyama's assistant got the idea to name his dog Upa. Maybe he got it from what the Japanese call an axolotl. Or perhaps his assistant's family actually owned an axolotl? Nah, too speculative lol. Well, regardless of whose name Toriyama thought up first between Upa and Bora, when he thought up what to name the other character, maybe he saw the commercial for the tropical drinks and figured Upa and Bora going together would be catchy. Like, perhaps he thought up "Bora" after the fish first and then he came up with Upa because of the tropical drinks. Dunno, but I tried my best lol.
tl;dr Bora might have been named after the fish that Japanese people call "Bora" and Upa is probably just named after Toriyama's assistant's dog; if the dog's name had name a meaning, it might have been after the amphibian that the Japanese call "Upa". It's also possible that Upa and Bora are named them after Tahitian-style tropical drinks.
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