Although Groening has stated in several interviews that Homer was named after his father, he also claimed in several 1990 interviews that a character in the 1939 Nathanael West novel The Day of the Locust was the inspiration for naming Homer.
Bár Groening több interjúban elmondta, hogy Homer csak az ő apjának a névrokona, azt is állította 1990-ben, hogy az 1939-es Nathanael West novella, a The Day of the Locust főszereplője inspirálta a nevet.