When something or someone is so ingrained in your daily routine, it is very easy to take that thing or person for granted. Take, for example, Cap'n Crunch. Many of us grew up eating this cereal for breakfast every day, and though we loved him, did we ever even stop to ask what this cereal mascot's real name is? Sigh, humans are such selfish creatures. We may be well out of childhood, no longer reaching for this particular cereal every single morning, but we did just find out the Cap'n's real name. What can we say, better late than never.
Recently, BuzzFeed reported that Cap'n Crunch's full name is Horatio Magellan Crunch. Pretty wild, right? This guy, who we have been affectionately referring to as "Cap'n" for all these years has this whole other complicated identity. Perhaps there's more we can understand about him by examining his name? For example, according to SheKnows, the name Horatio derives from the Roman clan name Horatius, and means "timekeeper." Does this mean, he's always on time? He was always reliably there with breakfast when we needed it. And, maybe inspiration for the name Horatio came from Horatio Nelson, a Royal Navy officer who served during the Napoleonic Wars. They do seem to sport similar hats.
BuzzFeed also pointed out that his middle name, Magellan, was most likely after the famous Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, known for being the first person to ever travel around the earth. Since the Cap'n has also been known to hang out on boats, that makes some sense. And, of course, the last name Crunch is meant to reflect the fact that the Cap'n's cereal stays so crunchy even when soaked in milk. We're glad we know the truth about this cereal icon now, and we're trying not to feel too guilty that we didn't get his identity figured out sooner. Because, let's face it, he hasn't always been completely honest with us. You know he's not really a captain, right?