As with many characters in Lion King, Pumbaa's name derives from the East African language Swahili. In Swahili, pumba (v.) means "to be foolish, silly, weakminded, careless, negligent".[3] Timon is one of the few characters whose name has no meaning in Swahili; Timon is an historical Greek name, taken to mean "he who respects". Timon's name may also possibly derive from Shakespeare's tragedy Timon of Athens, a reference to the Shakespearean origin of the film's plot. Berkowitz; Timon's last name as revealed in Timon and Pumbaa episode, "Once Upon a Timon.", is thought to be a reference to an animator (Justyn Berkowitz), who regularly contributed to the show.

Timon is a wise-cracking and self-absorbed meerkat who is known for claiming Pumbaa's ideas as his own, while Pumbaa has flatulence. However, Pumbaa is also a fierce warrior, charging into battle like a battering ram, and taking great offense if anyone who's not his friend calls him a pig, at which point he exclaims "They call me Mister pig!"—a reference to Sidney Poitier's line "They call me Mister Tibbs!" from the 1967 film In the Heat of the Night. Unlike real meerkats, Timon can walk on his hind legs, while in real life, meerkats walk on all four legs and can only stand on their hind ones. Pumbaa is Swahili for 'thoughtless','careless', 'stupid', of 'absentminded' referencing the anthropomorphous personality of the character.