Father of man who inspired Super Mario was also named Luigi, researcher finds

Elisabeth Zetland, a senior researcher at MyHeritage, found that the actual Luigi has immigrated to US from Italy

The Washington state businessman who inspired Nintendo to give the name Mario to its mustachioed, superhero plumber did not have a brother named Luigi like the fictional video game star famously does.

But it has only just been determined that Nintendo may have unknowingly named its mascot’s brother after another of the real-life Mario’s close relatives: his father, Luigi, whose biography evokes that of millions of 20th-century US immigrants from Italy.