he's baby

Baby Yoda Has a Real Name and You’re Not Gonna Like It

Meet Grogu. Photo: The Mandalorian/Disney+

The powers that be at Disney+/LucasFilm/the Galactic Empire heard how nobody liked that Baby Yoda’s “official name” is “The Child,” and decided to… absolutely double-down with a way more ridiculous official name. Obviously, spoilers ahead. On the latest episode of The Mandalorian, the character Ahsoka Tano, played by Rosario Dawson, reveals that the little green creature we’ve come to know and love as “Baby Yoda” has a name, and that name is Grogu. Grogu. When Din Djarin addresses him as such, he makes a little chirping noise of recognition, as if to say, “yep, that’s me, Grogu, a good name that I like a lot!” It’s pronounced “grow-goo,” as in, “Robin Williams in Flubber likes to grow goo.” Here are some things Baby Yoda’s name, Grogu, reminds us of:

-Goku
-Gogurt
-Gru
-Goop
-Walton Goggins
-Googie (the midcentury futurist architectural style)
-Grody (Valley Girl-speak)
-Goomby (purposefully dumb-sounding alien name from Rick and Morty)
-Miss Grotke (the hippie teacher from Disney’s Recess)
-Nazi-aligned Trumpist Sebastian Gorka
-Grogans (a pub in Dublin); and, of course,
-Goo goo (thing babies say)

So that’s that. Do with this knowledge what you will. Baby Yoda is Grogu now, because Rosario Dawson said so.

Correction: An earlier version of this post referred to the actor Walton Goggins as “Walter Goggins,” and to that I say, sincerely, sorry to this Goggins.

Baby Yoda Has a Real Name and You’re Not Gonna Like It