Miyamoto Reveals How Link Was Named And Designed

One of the biggest mysteries people unfamiliar with The Legend of Zelda is Link’s name – how did he get his name and why is his name Link?

In an interview with French website GameKult, legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto was asked about the origins behind Link’s name. Miyamoto said when they first started developing The Legend of Zelda, they imagined the fragments of the Triforce were electronic chips.

Miyamoto further explained that The Legend of Zelda would happen in “both the past and future”, so as the protagonist is a link between the past and future, he is thus named Link in English. At the end of the day, they abandoned the futuristic theme but the name stuck to Link.

We also learned more about how Link was designed. Takashi Tezuka, video game producer at Nintendo, came up with Link’s original design. Due to the limitations of the NES, it was hard to create a recognizable character, Tezuka made Link’s sword and shield bigger. They also had to decide what color (out of three colors) they should use for Link.

To distinguish Link from the weapons, Tezuka thought of giving Link a long hat and big ears, which led to the team receiving inspiration from an elf-like character called Peter Pan. Miyamoto felt green, Peter Pan’s color, was the perfect color for Link, so Link became green.

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