A very nerdy question about names

Brakus · Post by **Brakus** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 2:36 pm

For my 100th post on this message board, I want to ask:

You know that alien that terrorizes planets (and may or may not be gay)... Why is it spelled "Freeza" and not "Furiza"?

I mean, I see "Kuriza" and not "Kreeza"; if they were relatives with King Cold, wouldn't they have had similar spellings?

Kendamu · Post by **Kendamu** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 2:39 pm

Well, Freeza's technical Japanese spelling is "Furiza." But, to go with the pun, it's often spelled "Freeza."

However, "Kuriza" come from "kuri" which means "chestnut" (just like "Kuririn"). To change it to Kreeza loses the intentional pun because "kuri" is no longer in the name.

Jerseymilk · Post by **Jerseymilk** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 2:44 pm

Not only that, but "Furiza" is just the Japanese way of saying "Freeza" which is a pun on "freezer". So in one case you have the origin being English based and the other being Japanese based.

Post by **Herms** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 2:45 pm

furiiza is how you would directly romanize the katakana used to spell his name, but it's generally given as "Freeza" (or Frieza) because this better reflects the fact that his name is a pun on freezers. Furthermore, the name has been spelt as "Freeza" since at least the Dragon Ball Carddass game and has turned up in lots of official Japanese stuff with that spelling.

"Kuriza" is generally spelled like that to reflect the fact that his name is a pun on kuri, Japanese chestnut, the same thing that Kuririn's name is a pun on. I don't believe there's ever been any sort of official romanized spelling, so it's really just fan preferences. So if your really wanted to spell it "Kreeza" to better indicate his parentage, there's nothing stopping you.

Post by **VegettoEX** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 2:48 pm

(Other people are responding as I'm typing this out, but I'll post it, anyway )

Some of the early translators of the Neko Majin series actually *did* spell it out in their version as "Kreeza", perhaps to keep in line with the typical spelling of his father's name.

As Kendamu said, since the pun in the name stems from the kuri, we personally decided to go with the "Kuriza" spelling.

As for Freeza himself, the name pun has nothing to do with any real Japanese "spelling" in the name, but rather just goes with the whole "cold" line of thought (as you see with "King Cold" and "Coola"). Whether it's "Freeze" or "Freezer" you think it's a pun on (though it doesn't really matter), it's the double-"ee" that makes more sense for the spelling.

Let's ignore the whole "ie" thing, since it's irrelevant and stupid and I hate it and it's dumb and wah wah wah wah hi I'm Mike.

There was actually a really nice write-up of why we spell the name we do that Julian and I put together for the Coola Wikipedia entry (which doesn't even exist anymore), which got copied over to the Freeza entry, and was later deleted from the article. Just dug it up, though:

Freeza's name is a pun on all things relating to the cold, with family members introduced later following his example. As his name ends in a short "a" vowel (rather than the long "ā" which usually signifies "er" in kana spellings on English words), the character's name is typically spelled with an "a" at the end (as opposed to "Freezer"). However, during FUNimation's dubbing of Dragon Ball Z, the English writers went with the spelling of "Frieza". This has led to some conjecture over the "true" spelling of his name: U.S. released video games and the English dub use "Frieza", while the Japanese language subtitles on FUNimation's DVDs and Viz Media's translation of the manga use "Freeza".

Rocketman · Post by **Rocketman** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 2:48 pm

Kendamu wrote:However, "Kuriza" come from "kuri" which means "chestnut" (just like "Kuririn"). To change it to Kreeza loses the intentional pun because "kuri" is no longer in the name.

For the longest time, I thought his name was a pun on krill, those tiny shrimplike things. 'Cause Krillin's short, you see.

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 5:19 pm

VegettoEX wrote:However, during FUNimation's dubbing of Dragon Ball Z, the English writers went with the spelling of "Freeza".

Got nailed by your own word filters, here, eh?

The Time Traveller · Post by **The Time Traveller** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 5:27 pm

SSj Kaboom wrote:
VegettoEX wrote:However, during FUNimation's dubbing of Dragon Ball Z, the English writers went with the spelling of "Freeza".
Got nailed by your own word filters, here, eh?

I can say Frieza and Tien, getting past filters is shit easy man.

Post by **Herms** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 6:27 pm

VegettoEX wrote:Let's ignore the whole "ie" thing, since it's irrelevant and stupid and I hate it and it's dumb and wah wah wah wah hi I'm Mike.

While I do agree that his name should be spelled "Freeza", it's worth pointing out that in certain circumstances an elongated i-sound generally will be romanized as "ie". For instance, Bulma's father's name is ブリーフ , but we romanize that as "Brief" rather than "Breef". Of course, that again is to follow the name pun, but Funi at least didn't do something completely nonsensical and unprecedented when they went with "Frieza".

Super Sonic · Post by **Super Sonic** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 7:58 pm

With Frieza and the ie, it doesn't matter to me as the name is pronounced exactly the same way. Not to fond of "Furiza" as when I first saw it spelled that way, I was confused. To me when I knew next to nothing about the Japanese language, it looked as if it was saying "Fury-Za".

Post by **desirecampbell** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 8:13 pm

Super Sonic wrote:With Freeza and the ie, it doesn't matter to me as the name is pronounced exactly the same way. Not to fond of "Furiza" as when I first saw it spelled that way, I was confused. To me when I knew next to nothing about the Japanese language, it looked as if it was saying "Fury-Za".

That is, basically, how it's said.

Mike D · Post by **Mike D** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 10:15 pm

Kendamu wrote:However, "Kuriza" come from "kuri" which means "chestnut" (just like "Kuririn"). To change it to Kreeza loses the intentional pun because "kuri" is no longer in the name.

Speaking of Kuririn, why is his name sometimes spelled Klylyn (UB22 JPN Booklet)?

Post by **Herms** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 11:05 pm

Mike D wrote:Speaking of Kuririn, why is his name sometimes spelled Klylyn (UB22 JPN Booklet)?

Well, it is a valid way to romanize his name, just an extremely akward and ugly-looking one for English speakers (and I'd imagine the speakers of most Western languages). But it is spelled that way in a surprising number of stuff. I first remember seeing it like that in Advance Adventure, and it was spelled like that on one of the Carddass cards,meaning it goes back to while the series was still in serialization (I just got the second Carddass daizenshuu from Tanooki Kuribo a while back, so it's been interesting seeing what romanizations they use for everything.)

SonEric84 · Post by **SonEric84** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 9:24 am

Herms wrote:
Mike D wrote:Speaking of Kuririn, why is his name sometimes spelled Klylyn (UB22 JPN Booklet)?
Well, it is a valid way to romanize his name, just an extremely akward and ugly-looking one for English speakers (and I'd imagine the speakers of most Western languages). But it is spelled that way in a surprising number of stuff. I first remember seeing it like that in Advance Adventure, and it was spelled like that on one of the Carddass cards,meaning it goes back to while the series was still in serialization (I just got the second Carddass daizenshuu from Tanooki Kuribo a while back, so it's been interesting seeing what romanizations they use for everything.)

It's also on his hat that he wears in the beginning of the namek saga, I think.

Kunzait_83 · Post by **Kunzait_83** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 9:40 am

Post by **TripleRach** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:22 am

少林 is read in Mandarin as Shaolin and in Japanese as Shourin. The "rin" in Kuririn's name could technically come from either, since a Japanese approximation of Shaolin would be "shaorin," and thus also have a "rin." (The similarity is not a coincidence, since a lot of Japanese readings for kanji are directly adapted from Chinese readings.)

But I believe it just comes from "shourin," since the name of Kuririn's temple, 大林 Oorin, uses a Japanese reading, and is clearly a pun on that. (Shourin means "few trees" or "small grove," while Oorin means "many trees" or "large grove.")

Kunzait_83 · Post by **Kunzait_83** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 10:32 am

Post by **desirecampbell** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 11:47 am

Kunzait_83 wrote:That still doesn't explain though how an l can be applied to Kuri though. Is that not simply a straight Japanese word? Or is it yet another corruption of a non-Japanese term that can be spelled "Kuli" or whatever? *waits for someone far more knowledgeable to clear this up*

Could just be a stylistic thing. Sols uses an L inexplicably too, apparently just to be different.

Adamant · Post by **Adamant** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 12:04 pm

Or maybe they just didn't care too much, since to them the character is really named クリリン anyway.

SonEric84 · Post by **SonEric84** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 12:21 pm

Kunzait_83 wrote:
SonEric84 wrote:
Herms wrote: Well, it is a valid way to romanize his name, just an extremely akward and ugly-looking one for English speakers (and I'd imagine the speakers of most Western languages). But it is spelled that way in a surprising number of stuff. I first remember seeing it like that in Advance Adventure, and it was spelled like that on one of the Carddass cards,meaning it goes back to while the series was still in serialization (I just got the second Carddass daizenshuu from Tanooki Kuribo a while back, so it's been interesting seeing what romanizations they use for everything.)

It's also on his hat that he wears in the beginning of the namek saga, I think.
Actually on his hat it was spelled "Kulilin", which isn't much different from a pronunciation standpoint as spelling it Klylyn.

Ah yes, thanks. I knew it was something different. Been awhile since I have watched those episodes.