Should the English "Bulma" have been "Blooma"?

[Fizzer]

The main argument I can see for pronouncing the name "Bulma" in English is that this is how it's written on her first outfit in Dragon Ball, but "well come", "Gokou" and "Klillin" have also been written on things on the series if I remember correctly. The other would be if they intentionally wanted to get rid of the pun on "bloomer", the same way they did by calling Bra "Bulla".

Buruma is a pun on burumaa. Blooma would be, as far as I'm aware, as accurate a translation as Bulma while also preserving the joke, which is of course a running gag with her family.

Do you like the translation as it is, or feel too used to it for it to ever change, or would you have preferred something else? Are there any other name translations that get on your nerves?

[VegettoEX]

The difference between her alphabet name spelling and others is that hers is there from literally the first chapter of the comic, whereas others didn't appear until later, and it has been consistently "BULMA" 99% of the time since 1984 in all merchandise and related materials.

Is it the best alphabet spelling to preserve the pun? Not really. Is it worth talking about? Absolutely. Is it something worth charging forward with a change in 2017? YMMV.

The changes that irk me the most aren't even the significant ones, but the trivial ones. Things like the accent and soft "G" on "Gero". That... just... why?

[DragonBallFoodie]

Blooma sounds a bit normal, with names like Bloom/Blum around, and would have given her more dignity.

But as her name came from a set of underwear, it's not supposed to have any.

[Duo]

Things like the accent and soft "G" on "Gero". That... just... why?

I refuse to pronounce it that way. Around more casual fans, I am willing to concede something like "Tien" for the sake of maintaining a conversation. But I can't do that for Dr. Gero. I don't know why that bothers me more.

[Daimo-Rukiri]

Didn't Bulma in the first episode actually have "bulma" on her shirt?

[DragonBallKing]

Didn't Bulma in the first episode actually have "bulma" on her shirt?

Krillin/Kuririn also wore a kululin hat on the ride to Namek, so I don't know what to believe anymore.

[8000 Saiyan]

Blooma, although accurate to the Japanese, just sounds odd.

[KBABZ]

Blooma, although accurate to the Japanese, just sounds odd.

That was my initial thought, but then so does Bra, right?

[Chuquita]

Blooma sounds more fun to say than Bulma, but most of my db fandom is done via text so ultimately it doesn't impact me.

[jjgp1112]

Didn't Bulma in the first episode actually have "bulma" on her shirt?

Krillin/Kuririn also wore a kululin hat on the ride to Namek, so I don't know what to believe anymore.

It's just weird romanizations, but like Mike said, the big difference here is that Krillin's hat comes much later in the show, at which point you can just write it off. But for Bulma, it's right there in her very first appearance in the show. It would be a little offputting for new viewers if she said, "I'm Bluma!" while her shirt says "BULMA" in big letters.

[KBABZ]

Didn't Bulma in the first episode actually have "bulma" on her shirt?

Krillin/Kuririn also wore a kululin hat on the ride to Namek, so I don't know what to believe anymore.

It's just weird romanizations, but like Mike said, the big difference here is that Krillin's hat comes much later in the show, at which point you can just write it off. But for Bulma, it's right there in her very first appearance in the show. It would be a little offputting for new viewers if she said, "I'm Bluma!" while her shirt says "BULMA" in big letters.

Unless you have a quick thought by Goku where Nadolny says "Silly girl-human doesn't know how to spell"!

...okay yes I'm kidding.

[TheGreatness25]

I think that there's a bit too much of a focus on what the pun is supposed to be. "Kakarotto" is a pun on carrots, but should his name have been translated to "Carot?" Bulma's name was not exactly the Japanese word for "bloomers." For the sake of accuracy in translating (translating the actual name as opposed to the meaning), "Buruma" could be "Buluma" or "Bulma," which is what's written on her shirt.

Interesting fact: in Google Translate, if you type ブルマ― (Bu-ru-mā), it translates to "Bloomer." If you use "ブルマ" (Bu-ru-ma), it translates to "Bulma." That's pretty weird. For the record, Bulma's name is written as "ブルマ" in the manga.

I think "Bulma" is perfectly fine.

[Fizzer]

I think that there's a bit too much of a focus on what the pun is supposed to be. "Kakarotto" is a pun on carrots, but should his name have been translated to "Carot?" Bulma's name was not exactly the Japanese word for "bloomers." For the sake of accuracy in translating (translating the actual name as opposed to the meaning), "Buruma" could be "Buluma" or "Bulma," which is what's written on her shirt.

Interesting fact: in Google Translate, if you type ブルマ― (Bu-ru-mā), it translates to "Bloomer." If you use "ブルマ" (Bu-ru-ma), it translates to "Bulma." That's pretty weird. For the record, Bulma's name is written as "ブルマ" in the manga.

I think "Bulma" is perfectly fine.

In a way that's exactly my point - her name isn't "Bloomer", it has the last sound shorted from mā to ma. Kakarotto isn't just the English word "carrot", it's the word with the first sound repeated.

Interesting that Google translates it to Bulma. That is pretty weird.

[VegettoEX]

Google "translates" it to "Bulma" the same way it "translates" フリーザ to "Frieza" depending on the time of day. It's machine-learning combined with community corrections and enhancements combined with observations from its search algorithms.

Google Translate is a casual first step; it's not an answer to any conversation about translation or language.

[TheGreatness25]

I didn't say that Google Translate was a viable way of translating Japanese (like manga or something), I was just sayin that it's interesting that it actually uses "Bulma." Anyone who ever tried to put even a tiny piece of Japanese dialog through Google Translate would know that when it comes to Japanese, Google Translate is completely unreliable. I just found it interesting. I translated "Bloomers" to Japanese and it had the "―" character. So then I took that away and it changed from "Bloomers" to "Bulma" and it was just funny to me. I wasn't promoting Google Translate lol

[Ripper 30]

Yes I agree it should have been "blooma" from the start but the wrong spelling of her name in the first Chapter onwards ruined it.

Blooma, although accurate to the Japanese, just sounds odd.

But atleast it keeps the pun of Bloomer and that's the same problem I have with "Bulla" in dub.

[8000 Saiyan]

Yes I agree it should have been "blooma" from the start but the wrong spelling of her name in the first Chapter onwards ruined it.

Blooma, although accurate to the Japanese, just sounds odd.

But atleast it keeps the pun of Bloomer and that's the same problem I have with "Bulla" in dub.

It does, but remember that in her first appearance, Bulma was wearing a pink dress with her name on it and how was her name written on the dress? Bulma, not Blooma or Buruma.

[VegettoEX]

Folks, people keep endlessly bringing up the shirt's spelling from the first chapter -- there's really no need to continuously remind people of this fact! Please try to add something else to the mix if you're looking to join the conversation.

[precita]

I'm so used to Bulma I can't think of saying it any other way.

You might as well ask why Vegeta isn't called, "Bejita" in the dub. I still remember in the early 2000's over 16 years ago, people kept saying "Bejita" over and over again on Dragonball or anime forums saying, "That's how he's called in Japan."

Back then dub fans had no idea of the Japanese version and the internet was a much smaller place, so people could enforce their opinions about the "Japanese version" over and over.

[Robo4900]

But atleast it keeps the pun of Bloomer and that's the same problem I have with "Bulla" in dub.

The thing about "Bulla", is that that's purely a censorship change. Bulma I can understand, but calling Bra "Bulla" in a suppsedly uncut dub is just stupid.

I think Bulma's name should absolutely have been Blooma, and honestly, given all the other edits they were making back in the day, I kinda wish Viz would have edited her shirt to say "Blooma" so they could have done that properly. And then while they're at it, they could fix all the other instances of Engrish writing(IIRC, at one point in the Namek arc, Krillin's hat says "Kulilin". There's also instances of things like "Pikkoro" and other such weirdness).
Naturally, I'm all for an uncensored release, but if you're gonna be editing things, you might aswell do some stuff that's actually worthwhile.

You might as well ask why Vegeta isn't called, "Bejita" in the dub.

Except you're actually providing a reverse argument there; Vegeta is a pun on "Vegetables", so calling him Bejita would miss the point in much the same way as calling Bulma something other than Blooma does.