Did you Know...

Pac-man was partially inspired by Namco desinger Tohru Iwatani seeing a pizza with a slice misssing?  Pac-man's name in North America was originally Puck-man, but was changed just before release (if you're wondering why, think P=F).  The Japanese name for pac-man is pakku-man and comes from the Japanese onomatopeic phrase paku-paku-taberu.  The paku-paku imitates the sound of the mouth opening and closing (twice, kinda like a smacking sound).

Sources: 

http://www.gamespot.com/features/vgs/universal/hist_pacman/p4_01.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pac-Man