Kirby is the main protagonist of the Kirby series of games by Nintendo.
Kirby's first appearance was in 1992, in Kirby's Dream Land. Since then, he has made an appearance in over 20 games, from his own franchise to other Nintendo games, as well as media outside of the video game world. While his initial abilities just included the basic maneuvers like running and jumping, as well as inhaling and floating, it wasn't until Kirby's Adventure onward that he gained the ability to copy the enemies he swallowed.
Kirby was originally called Popopo and his initial design was meant as a placeholder. His creator, Masahiro Sakurai, started to prefer this placeholder over the final design. It is not known how Kirby got his name, but it is believed he either got it from the Kirby vacuum cleaners or from an attorney named John Kirby that represented the company in a case against Universal City Studios.
