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[copied from Anime SE at moderator's suggestion]

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There is a 2008 anime-original series called [Net Ghost
PiPoPa](http://www.crunchyroll.com/web-ghosts-pipopa). (For some reason, the
version streaming on Crunchyroll is called "Web Ghosts PiPoPa", but the
Hepburn is **Netto Gōsuto Pipopa**. Thus I'll stick with the name given by
[MyAnimeList](https://myanimelist.net/anime/4051/Net_Ghost_Pipopa) and the
English [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_Ghost_PiPoPa).) It is a
kid show about a boy (Yuta) getting trapped in the Internet.

Anyway, Yuta meets three friends, Pit, Pot, and Pat (pronounced _pitto_ ,
_potto_ , and _patto_ ). They are web ghosts and live there. From their very
first meeting, Yuta refers to them as a single entity **PiPoPa**. The
Wikipedia entry refers to this name as "an onomatopoeia of computer beeps". Is
concatenating three alliterative names like that something a Japanese child
might do? It strikes me as very odd, not to mention naming the three obviously
separate individuals as one entity. They also make it clear that they do not
like being called "PiPoPa".

[![series
poster](https://i.stack.imgur.com/YIp1N.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/YIp1N.jpg)
CC BY-SA 3.0
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question
names anime
Why concatenate three names into "PiPoPa"?
Japanese love both onomatopoeia and abbreviating things. If Takase and
Nakamura were on the same team, you might call that the 'Takamura Team', or
something similar. A little cheesy, but not unheard of. The name of a popular
beverage producer, 小岩井 (Koiwai) comes from the names of three men: Mr. Ono,
Mr. Iwasaki, and Mr. Inoue. The fact the PiPoPa sounds like computer noises
just makes it even kitchier.
CC BY-SA 3.0
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answer