You may remember bejitto coming from bejita and kakarotto, a transliteration of Japanese characters fused like their entities, transcribed as Vegetto and translated into Vegito for the English audience (it makes sense, because unlike Vegeta, we read Vegetto with an open -e). Kakarot is supposed to be a unique name based on the vegetable kyarotto, sharing the kya- syllable with kyabetsu, which in turn became Cabba's name kyabe, or Cabbe due to its transcription. Doubling the Ka- in Kakarot allowed some languages to use kyarotto's French transcription "calotte" (type of hat) and repeat Ca- as cha- in Portuguese "Cachalote". Chi-Chi is "Quica" in Portugal, a short word for the feminine name "Francisca", read with the sound of Ki for Chi... You get the idea.
The process is simple: can you read this? メルス. I bet that most of us can't, so the group of characters needs to be transliterated (have its symbols changed for readability), which in this case is merusu, and this is when puns begin to make sense to Japanese people (surume is a type of sea animal), or require an additional step called transcription (to rewrite these words according to a dialect). It could be Merus in this case. The last step comes when you want to keep, adapt or make a pun of your own in your language, by translating words into something that makes cultural sense. Mels or Squid are both valid, the first one being Catalan "mels" (English honey), and the other a Japanese meaning of surume. What would I stick to? Why is this in the fan created works? These two questions answer each other by suggesting that we come up with names or puns that follow this process. The old seen in a new light, the new like they had always existed (instant classics), and the current working ones too. Have fun!
Examples used this far:
- Goku's Saiyan name (in Portuguese too).
- Kakarot
- translated from Cacarrot
- transcribed from kakarotto
- transliterated from カカロット
- Cachalote
- translated from Calotte
- transcribed from kyarotto
- transliterated from キャロット
- Kakarot
- Vegeta and his fusion.
- Vegeta
- translated from Vegeta
- transcribed from bejita
- transliterated from ベジータ
- Vegito
- translated from Vegetto
- transcribed from bejitto
- transliterated from ベジット
- Vegeta
- Cabba and his vegetable.
- Cabba
- translated from Cabbe
- transcribed from kyabe
- transliterated from キャベ
- Cabbage
- translated from Cabbetz
- transcribed from kyabetsu
- transliterated from キャベツ
- Cabba
- Mels and Chi-Chi's Portuguese name.
- Mels
- translated from Merus
- transcribed from merusu
- transliterated from メルス
- Quica
- translated from Kika
- transcribed from kika
- transliterated from キカ
- Mels
And here's an original creation that I'm sure to have read before and a reinterpretation of one that exists:
- A Freeza relative in cryogenic sleep.
- Cryogen
- translated from Cryogene
- transcribed from kuraiojin
- transliterated from クライオ人
- Cryogen
- The Old Norse Battle Guard.
- Hildegard
- translated from Hildegarn
- transcribed from hirudegaan
- transliterated from ヒルデガーン
- Hildegard
I hope that this has been fun until now. I'm sorry about the transliterations, whether they're accurate or not, because that is the part that I'm not good at. Help is welcomed. Note, I am from Portugal, hence the examples in my language.