Where did "San" Goku come from?

[TheGmGoken]

I see it a lot with Spanish dubs of Dragonball, Z, and DBGT. Was that a translation of Son or was it a Fan name that got popular?

[Herms]

I know in French he was originally called "Sangoku", for some reason.

[TheGmGoken]

I know in French he was originally called "Sangoku", for some reason.

That's odd. I usually see the term "San Goku" for the Spanish dubs

[bkev]

I understand AB Groupe owns the rights to DragonBall in much of Europe and, as they started with the French version, many other European dubs borrowed terms/names from it.

[The Time Traveller]

I know in French he was originally called "Sangoku", for some reason.

I remember when I was in school and I asked my Polish friend if Dragon Ball Z ever aired in Poland and he said "Oh yeah, the main character's called 'Sangok' right?"

I don't know if he's called Sangok in Poland, maybe he was just remembering wrong?

[The Tori-bot]

I know in French he was originally called "Sangoku", for some reason.

Man, the French are weird with their Dragon Ball. And that's their least-weird name change!

[worldmonsters]

I know in French he was originally called "Sangoku", for some reason.

Man, the French are weird with their Dragon Ball. And that's their least-weird name change!

This change is also passed along to the Dutch translated versions of the Glenat released manga. The Dutch Kanzenban has it as the correct Son Goku, even with a little explanation how it's from Saiyuki originally, so I'm willing to bet the French Kanzenban has it as Son Goku as well.

[omegalucas]

Yep that comes from the French version.
I think we corrected it in the Portuguese version, at least during Z. During the first series some characters (those dubbed by António Semedo at least) refer to him as "Songonku", other times Songóku. But during Z they all started pronouncing it right.

[Cold Skin]

It comes from the old French dub which modified lots of names and those were carried over to other countries.

Note that those mistakes don't exist anymore in France since both the manga (through the Tankobon and Kanzenban releases) and the anime (through Kai) have been retranslated as faithful translations.

So France now has a great translation for both the manga and the anime with correct names.
However, video games are late on this one and will still use "Sangoku" in their French text for some reason, ever since the first Tenkaichi Budokai up until Ultimate Tenkaichi...

The Dutch Kanzenban has it as the correct Son Goku, even with a little explanation how it's from Saiyuki originally, so I'm willing to bet the French Kanzenban has it as Son Goku as well.

Yep, the Dutch Kanzenban is based on the French one (same publisher, so it's not surprising). So we have what you have and you have what we have when it comes to translation and translation notes.

Man, the French are weird with their Dragon Ball. And that's their least-weird name change!

The French used to be weird with their translation. Used to be.
Those old twisted translations were a good thing in the end since it pushed them to be all the more careful and faithful when retranslating both the anime and the manga.

[Kojiro Sasaki]

I remember when I was in school and I asked my Polish friend if Dragon Ball Z ever aired in Poland and he said "Oh yeah, the main character's called 'Sangok' right?"

I don't know if he's called Sangok in Poland, maybe he was just remembering wrong?

Actually, it was "Songo" (pronounced as the original "Son Gokū", but without "kū"). "Kakarotto" was translated as "Pajac" which means "Clown" This thing that aired on TV does not exist for the most of the fans. But that is even better - nothing comes even close to the original performances of the legendary Japanese seiyū. The only thing I need are good subtitles.

The manga was released in the same period, so we knew how everything was originally named (it was very well translated).

[Raykugen]

I see it a lot with Spanish dubs of Dragonball, Z, and DBGT. Was that a translation of Son or was it a Fan name that got popular?

?
In Spain Goku has never been called San Goku...

[soulnova]

I see it a lot with Spanish dubs of Dragonball, Z, and DBGT. Was that a translation of Son or was it a Fan name that got popular?

?
In Spain Goku has never been called San Goku...

You mean the Mexican Spanish dub? That's very strange.... I don't remember hearing "San". Maybe a "Son" with an accent? But they actually don't use "Son Goku" much anyway.


If you have seen that on Latin forums, is most likely a misspelling. We either use Goku or "Gokú".

[TheGmGoken]

I see it a lot with Spanish dubs of Dragonball, Z, and DBGT. Was that a translation of Son or was it a Fan name that got popular?

?
In Spain Goku has never been called San Goku...

I mostly see "San" on Youtube spanish dub(s) of DBZ.

[Marco Polo]

I know in French he was originally called "Sangoku", for some reason.

"Son" means "his" or "her" in French so they probably wanted to avoid the name being homonymous with "his Goku" "or "her Goku".

A consequence of the renaming is that "Sangoku" is treated as a single name instead of a family name + first name.

[Raykugen]

You mean the Mexican Spanish dub? That's very strange.... I don't remember hearing "San". Maybe a "Son" with an accent? But they actually don't use "Son Goku" much anyway.


If you have seen that on Latin forums, is most likely a misspelling. We either use Goku or "Gokú".

No, I meant the Spain Spanish dub.

I see it a lot with Spanish dubs of Dragonball, Z, and DBGT. Was that a translation of Son or was it a Fan name that got popular?

?
In Spain Goku has never been called San Goku...

I mostly see "San" on Youtube spanish dub(s) of DBZ.

In the dub from Spain, that doesn't happen, and I'm pretty sure the same with the latinamerican spanish dub. Just put the link of one of the videos that you say.

[TheGmGoken]

Never mind it was French

[ThunderPX]

"San" in French sounds a lot closer to the Japanese "Son" than the French "Son" would.