Mario Segali owned the offices of Nintendo of America's first location. At the time of their residence there, they (NOA) were coming up with a name for their now popular Jumpman, the star of Donkey Kong. Jumpman was a carpenter with a red cap, moustache and overalls. The creative team working on a new name for the character somewhat facetiously realized that both Jumpman and their landlord (Mario Segali) were very similar, and so Jumpman was called Mario. The name stuck. Segali's opinion of this is unknown.