Boo isnt the only enemy to have roots in the programming team. Bowsers seven children were designed to reflect the personalities of seven programmers who worked on Super Mario Bros 3, as a reward for their hard work on the project. As for Bowser himself, hes alternatively known as King Koopa. The word kuppa is the Japanese word for the korean dish gukbap, which is a type of soup with rice. Obviously. This is a conscious homage by Shigeru Miyamoto to one of his favourite dishes, and he once considered naming all the Mario enemies after various Korean meals. Coincidentally, the name of Goomba (the bog-standard Mario enemy,) closely resembles the Hungarian word for mushroom: gomba. And its also, ironically, a derogatory term for Italian Americans.