Which names to go with?

[Saiga]

I'm sorry if this topic or a similar one has been posted before, or if this is the wrong place to put this, if so just let me know.

Anyway, I'm really confused over the topic of names for the characters. Is there a source/list for the most accurate/widely accepted names for the characters? I know the Funi dub is pretty inaccurate with the names, is the Viz Manga acceptable? I just want to be able to get the names right.

Sorry if the question isn't very clear, I don't really know how to word it.

[Kendamu]

Around here, Freeza doesn't have an "I" in it.

Mr. Satan is either called "Mr. Satan" or "Mark" based on an interview with Toriyama saying that his real name is "Maaku" which is a pun on "akuma" meaning "devil."

Goku, Gohan, and Goten are interchangeably referred to by their short names or by their full "Son" names. Goku can also be "Gokuu" but people generally use the other version.

Anyone who's name is a pun on an English word, like Trunks, is called just that and not by the Japanese pronunciation (like "Torankusu").

Jeice and Burter can be called that without trouble, but some people prefer their Japanese pronunciations like "Jiis" or "Baata." It's similar with Recoome. Nobody really "corrects" anyone in this regard. We just spell it how we want.

Tenshinhan is Tenshinhan. That, or "Ten." Never anything else.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. There are word filters here for some of those names so don't stress it too hard.

[Saiga]

Thanks, I also wanted to know for my fanfic (when I get time to continue it) because I want the names to be accurate (and consistent) as possible. That's why I was wondering if their was a list of proper transliterations or a guide.

[ManyFaces]

I wanted to do the same thing a few years back. I grew up with the dub, so I didn't know any better until I became apart of the forum community.

Here's a list of the of characters, techniques, etc. The spellings included supposedly appear in various Japanese media. However, some of them aren't entirely accurate.

Short list of various correct spellings:

Krillin = Kuririn
Master Roshi= Muten-Roshi/Kame-Sen'nin
Ox King = Gyumao
Launch = Lunch
Mercenary Tao = Taopaipai
T-i-e-n = Tenshinhan
Chiaotzu = Chaozu
Great Ape (Saiyan) = Oozaru
Jeice = Jheese
Burter = Butta
Recoome = Reacoom
Guldo = Gurd
F-r-i-e-z-a = Freeza

[GizmoKSX]

While Kakarot is often used as a translation of Goku's Saiyan name, consider the full Kakarotto with the "to" on the end, consistent with the fused Vegetto. (The manga translation gets around this by naming the fusion Vegerot, while the dub's Vegito seems to miss the name-fusion altogether.)

[Saiga]

I kind of thought that Reacoom would be Reacm, as Reacm is an anagram of Cream.

I also thought Kuririn/Kulilin was Kurilin because it comes from the Japanese word for chestnut (Kuri) and Shaolin. The Shaolin bit might just be speculation, however. So are Kurilin and Reacm "correct"?

Chiaotzu is another name that has confused me to no end.

[jda95]

I kind of thought that Reacoom would be Reacm, as Reacm is an anagram of Cream.

I also thought Kuririn/Kulilin was Kurilin because it comes from the Japanese word for chestnut (Kuri) and Shaolin. The Shaolin bit might just be speculation, however. So are Kurilin and Reacm "correct"?

Chiaotzu is another name that has confused me to no end.

Recoome is actually weird, because the FUNi spelling actually shows the proper stress (an elongated ku) that's hard to properly romanize. Kurilin is correct, but most people just use Kuririn - Toriyama himself tended to use Kulilin!

[SpaceKappa]

I think as long as people know who you're referring to it's fine. As long as you're not going with a name that's been altered for a regional dub (like the "H" word) there really isn't a "right" way to spell them as they're (for the most part) made-up Japanese words being written in English.

I do stick with how Mike spells things for the most part because I know that a lot of thought went into why that's the "correct" way (like how "Jheese" keeps the character's name intact AND effectively conveys the pun). I do write some names out differently, though; I prefer to write out "Gokuu" because his name has that elongated sound at the end (go-KOO, not GO-ku) but that's probably just a holdover from my late 90's anti-FUNimation angst.

[Saiga]

Oh yes, as for Goku: Does "Gokû" give the right elongated sound or am I using the wrong accent for that?

[Wobbuffet]

Mercenary Tao = Taopaipai

I always wrote it as "Tao Pai Pai". If my memory serves me right, it was written like that on a title card on Brazil. I don't know why, though.

[Adamant]

Oh yes, as for Goku: Does "Gokû" give the right elongated sound or am I using the wrong accent for that?

It's "Gokū". "û" is just a common placeholder for ū that you see a lot in digital text due to font issues and people not knowing how to write the ū.

It's the same with all other uses of circumflexes in place of macrons in romanized Japanese - it's wholly a "we all know it's wrong, and we all know what I meant to write, and since it's a lot easier to write it like this, let's just not be too picky" kind of deal.
It makes your writing looks sloppy, though, so don't take this as a suggestion to do it.

Chiaotzu is another name that has confused me to no end.

"Chiaotzu" is the correct Wade-Giles romanization. "Jiaozi" is the Pinyin one, and "Chaozu" is a direct romanization of the Japanese approximation used in the series.

[TheBlackPaladin]

Well, I think Krillin or Kuririn would both work. Mind you, I'm not just saying that. My first post on Daizex was actually asking just that--what is Krillin's real name?

[Rukura]

Anyone who's name is a pun on an English word, like Trunks, is called just that and not by the Japanese pronunciation (like "Torankusu").

...Now I have to ask...What's with people using "Bebi"? That's two inches away from using "Bejita" and "Seru".

On as for other more correct names, here's a few to help out:

Shenron - Shen Long. Shenron being the direct romanization while Shen Long is the correct chinese name as used in the series.
Karin. Just Karin.

"Androids" - Artificial Humans. Because not all of the artificial humans in the Cell arc are androids. Most of them are actually Cyborgs. Unless you're okay with separating all of them accordingly, this is the middle ground.

Paikuhan. Not in the manga, but he's a pretty cool guy that curses at barriers and doesn't afraid of anything (except maybe Janemba after he almost crushed his head)

Yemma - Yama - Enma. FUNimation uses Yemma, which is...uhm...nothing. Yama is the deity's name. Enma(-daiou, great king) is how it's used in the series and is written as such. Can't go wrong with any of the last two. I personally just go with Enma.

Kami - God. Kami is japanese for God. Chuck Testa goes with God. Just saying.

FUNimation uses "Vegito". VIZ uses "Vegerot". Both are wrong (kinda). The more correct spelling is "Vegetto"

[DanielGClapp]

I think this forum auto corrects "Krillin" to "Kuririn" when the "i" is replaced with an "e".

[cRookie_Monster]

Just type in whatever and the forum will auto correct you ^^

I think mods may even go in and edit posts from time to time...

For me, it doesn't matter as long as people understand what you are talking about.

[VegettoEX]

I think this forum auto corrects Kuririn

We auto-correct "Krillen", which isn't anything, and is what you wrote. It's like how we also auto-correct "tankoban", which also isn't anything .

The thing with this franchise is that you have names that are based on Chinese words (or simply pronounced in Japanese approximations), you have names that are just standards Japanese words, and you have names that are pun-erific concoctions of other words (some from Japanese words, many from English words).

In very few cases do you have something like someone's name just being a standard "Hikaru" or "Madoka" or "Kyosuke" (I don't know why KOR comes to mind...).

It's all a game, really. How literal do you want to be? How close are you staying to the original Japanese pronunciation? Are you bringing out the pun at all? Do you even care to?

So we have names like "Tenshinhan" that are a straight-up romanization because it works as-is with the pun and pronunciation. Then we have some names and spellings like "Tullece" that play with the romanization (which would be "taaresu") because it not only preserves the pronunciation of the name "in English", but it also brings out the pun (play on "retasu", or "lettuce"). Then you've got names like "Idasa" and "Ikose" which are just regular ol' Japanese words, so do you "translate" them (a la what Viz did with only one of the two), or do you leave them as-is? Then you've got things like "torankusu" which is clearly just the Japanese pronunciation of "trunks", so we mostly just go with "Trunks". Then you've got things like "bejitto" which you could either go with a semi-standard "Vegetto", or you could go the Viz route and "adapt" the name due to prior style consistencies as "Vegerot". And hey, do you want to call all of Ginyu-Tokusentai by adapted names like "Ginyu" and "Jheece", or do you want to call them "Milk" and "Cheese" (or maybe something like "Melk" and "Chees")...?

A great example that I think Adamant tossed out in another thread was the name "Batman". We all know what that means and where it comes from, but would someone speaking an entirely different language (let's say Arabic for no particular reason) understand both the English words "bat" and "man" and why they are combined? Or should you go with the Arabic words for "bat" and "man" and somehow combine the two? Or is his name just his name and that's what you use?

[SpaceKappa]

The only name spelling that REALLY irks me is when Freeza is spelled with an "ie" instead of "ee." There's absolutely NO reason to ever spell it that way and to this day I don't know why they ever chose to do so. It loses the pun and really adds nothing except a change for the sake of change. When I tried to Google search "Freeza" and it said "Did you mean "Frieza?"" I just about had an aneurysm.

[Herms]

"Androids" - Artificial Humans. Because not all of the artificial humans in the Cell arc are androids. Most of them are actually Cyborgs.

True, but irrelevant. The word jinzou-ningen is pretty much the Japanese equivalent of
“android” (the English Wikipedia page for “android” links to the Japanese Wikipedia page for jinzou-ningen, for instance), and isn't actually any more appropriate a term for 17, 18, and 20 than “android” in English is (the Japanese Wikipedia page for 18 points out that kaizou-ningen, “modified human”, would be more accurate). Toriyama misnamed them, but it's not our job to ignore their actual names and invent better names for them. And using the ultra-literal translation “artificial human” for jinzou-ningen isn't actually solving the problem of the characters being misnamed, it's just sweeping the problem under the rug and hoping nobody looks under there.

Yemma - Yama - Enma. FUNimation uses Yemma, which is...uhm...nothing.

"Yemma" is a valid if nonstandard romanization of Enma.

[DanielGClapp]

I think this forum auto corrects Kuririn

We auto-correct "Krillen", which isn't anything, and is what you wrote. It's like how we also auto-correct "tankoban", which also isn't anything .

*AND SNIP!*

Well that was very confusing, but at the same time, I see the point you are trying to convey. I honestly don't know most of the name puns, or why Akira Toriyama chose those particular puns. However, I do like saying "Krillin" rather than "Kuririn" since it's easier and it's the first thing I ever heard him be called.

While we're on the topic of names, what would be the proper way to pronounce "Akira Toriyama"? I just recently watched the movie "Akira" and it took me half the film to realize they were pronouncing "Akira" Like "Akida" with emphasis on the first "A".

[SpaceKappa]

"Akira" (like "Sakura") is one of those names that's tricky to pronounce as a native English speaker if you haven't heard it in Japanese. You got it right, though, emphasis on the first syllable (AH-kira).

(Also since I mentioned it, it's SAH-ku-ra, not suh-KOO-ruh)