Which names to go with?

[Herms]

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?

"Idasa" and "Ikose" aren't actually Japanese word, they're anagrams of the Japanese words dasai ("un-hip") and sekoi ("petty"). Hence why Viz adapted Idasa's name as "Laem", an anagram of "lame".

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?

Notably, the approach worldwide seems to be to leave his name as "Batman" rather than using the equivalent words in whatever language the franchise is adapted into, or so I gather from Wikipedia. Which brings up the issue that maintaining brand recognition can be more important that what the name actually means. On that note, it's well known that “Pokemon” is short for “Pocket Monsters”, but Nintendo didn't change the spelling to “Pockemon” for the English-speaking market. There's also the issue that even if a name has a pretty straightforward meaning, those who coined the name might have been placing equal or greater importance on having the name be snappy or sound cool. If the English word for those small flying mammals had not been “bat” but, I don't know, “wally-patang”, perhaps Bob Kane wouldn't have given his creation quite so direct a name.

[VegettoEX]

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?

"Idasa" and "Ikose" aren't actually Japanese word, they're anagrams of the Japanese words dasai ("un-hip") and sekoi ("petty"). Hence why Viz adapted Idasa's name as "Laem", an anagram of "lame".

Dur, thanks. What other names am I thinking of? Or am I just remembering wrong? Probably the latter.

[Adamant]

Notably, the approach worldwide seems to be to leave his name as "Batman" rather than using the equivalent words in whatever language the franchise is adapted into, or so I gather from Wikipedia. Which brings up the issue that maintaining brand recognition can be more important that what the name actually means.

At least here in Scandinavia, the name "Batman" didn't come into use before non-comics media starring the character started appearing, and the comic book publishers figured they'd sell more comics if they made sure people understood the guy you could buy comics about was the same character as that awesome superhero you were watching on TV. Batman was initially known as Lynvingen ("Lightning Wing") in Norway and Läderlappen ("Leatherpatch") in Sweden.

Also, every single person in their 20s went the first 10 or so years of their lives thinking "Turtles" was some made-up term from the TMNT franchise. Every single one.

[Pokewhiz7]

I have a question that I've had for a long time. I know for a fact that his name is Son Goku, and Son is pronounced like Sone. So why don't we write it a different way that lets you know how to pronounce it better? I recall reading a while back that Fri eza is actually a valid romanization, and that the reason people don't like it is because it would be pronounced like Fry-za, but what is your sibling's daughter? A nyce? Do you watch One Pyce? Isn't it the same thing for Son? And if Fri eza is not a valid romanization, how do you explain this?

I do not speak Japanese at all, I am no expert, someone please correct me if I am wrong on any of this.

[Herms]

I have a question that I've had for a long time. I know for a fact that his name is Son Goku, and Son is pronounced like Sone. So why don't we write it a different way that lets you know how to pronounce it better?

"Son" is one of the relatively few names in DB that is written in kanji and is an actual real-world family name. So there are already standardized systems for how to romanize such things, and these preclude “Sone” or other such spelling that might seem more intuitive to you. People do sometimes use non-standard romanizations for kanji names (a DB example being all the Japanese merchandise that spells Goku with a "kou" rather than a "kuu"), but I think there's already enough confusion regarding DB names as-is without throwing more things into the mix. Besides, English being what it is, any spelling that may seem logical to you will for someone else seem just as logically seem to be pronounced a different way.

I recall reading a while back that Fri eza is actually a valid romanization,

"Fri'eza" is indeed a valid romanization of the katakana spelling.

[Pokewhiz7]

Oh okay. Makes sense.

[El Diabeetus]

I have a question that I've had for a long time. I know for a fact that his name is Son Goku, and Son is pronounced like Sone. So why don't we write it a different way that lets you know how to pronounce it better? I recall reading a while back that Fri eza is actually a valid romanization, and that the reason people don't like it is because it would be pronounced like Fry-za, but what is your sibling's daughter? A nyce? Do you watch One Pyce? Isn't it the same thing for Son? And if Fri eza is not a valid romanization, how do you explain this?

I do not speak Japanese at all, I am no expert, someone please correct me if I am wrong on any of this.

It does technically count if you don't wanna go with a super literal romanization/transliteration.

But, Freeza is a pun based off the word Freezer. It's not Freezer though either, as some countries decided to call him:
フリーザ = Freeza

フ = F
リ = re
ー (Elongates previous kana's ending in this case the "i" in "ri or "e") = e
ザ = za

----------------------------------
Here's Freezer in Katakana:
フリーザー = Freezer (actually Articuno is called this in Japanese.)

If you notice the kana, at the end the elongated symbol makes the "a" at the end a double "a" which usually becomes "er" when elongated/romanized/transliterated.

フ = F
リ= re
ー = e
ザ = za (in this case the double a becomes an er, so in this case it could just be "z" on its own.)
ー = a (makes it become er)

----------------------------------

Hopefully, that explains the Freeza issue a bit. As what Herms said, but, figured I'd explain it a bit further. Technically, Frieza's even more correct than Freezer. I wish FUNimation would've went with the more ascetically pleasing Freeza, makes sense and doesn't like as awkward as Frieza.

[Pokewhiz7]

リ = re

Isn't this ri?

[El Diabeetus]

It is, I just adjusted the spelling to fit with the Freeza spelling. It is actually "ri". I should've explained I wasn't transliterating it literally and was equating it to about what each kana is, even when it wasn't literally and working with the "Freeza" romanization. Which is my personal choice of what to use.

In reality Freeza could be romanized as:
Freeza
Frieza
Friiza
Furiiza
Fureeza
Friza
etc.

But most of those are silly if you ask me or just some weird half-transliteration of it.

[VegettoEX]

I certainly wouldn't debate its "correctness" as a stylized romanization, but I also think it should be burned with fire and ripped apart on the molecular level until no atom remain intact.

Isn't this ri?

Yeppers.

[Herms]

リ = re

Isn't this ri?

"Ri" is the standard transliteration, but keep in mind that リ really signifies a specific sound rather than any particular English letters. In the case of the English word "freezer", that sound is represented by "re".

[Rukura]

"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.

Oh, so Toriyama just used that for all of them instead of making that different depending on the character? Thanks for clearing that up

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

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

Ah, that's very good to know. I actually thought that "Yemma" was just another name change for the sake of name change, since I only knew "Yama" and the japanese aproximation "Enma". Thanks. (So...they probably just named him "Yemma" to keep the deity reference as obscure as possible, huh?)

(...But seriously, what's the deal with "Bebi"? lol)

[SylentEcho]

Seriously what's with Vegerot? My vizbigs call him that. Do the individual volumes call him that too?

And what's with them calling Boo a Djinn?

[Herms]

Seriously what's with Vegerot? My vizbigs call him that. Do the individual volumes call him that too?

Yes, he's always been called that in Viz. Basically, they spelled Goku's Saiyan name as "Kakarrot" to highlight the name pun, but this makes "Vegetto" not make much sense, so they changed it to "Vegerot". Which I suppose ought to really be spelled with two Rs, but whatever.

And what's with them calling Boo a Djinn?

"Djinn" is a standard and valid way of translating majin. Actually, I hear djinn is plural and it should technically be "djinni" for a single guy, but other than that there's not really anything wrong with it.

[Adamant]

Actually, I hear djinn is plural and it should technically be "djinni" for a single guy

Correct, but this is something people get wrong more often than not. Viz is in good company there. Hell, one of my old English textbooks had a story about a camel's encounter with "a djinn" - way to teach us correct English, guys.

The only piece of fiction I've ever seen using it right is in the English translation of Golden Sun, of all places.

[dario03]

Personally I've never worried about the spellings much because I don't know if the person is transcribing, transliteral, translated, transfat, or whatever.

For Freeza or Frieza I always assumed Freeza would be the translated one since from what tiny bit I know about japanese is that "ri" in romaji is more of a "re" sound in English. And so like Furanki was saying the romaji version could be Frieza.


Personally I think I'm gonna just start mixing a bunch of different names from random dubs that weren't big in the english speaking community like the Harmony Gold, Polish, Arabic, or any other one that changes names.

So how do you guys think a team of Bongo, Szatan Serduszko, Shinto, and Makita would fair against Kujita, assuming this is around the time that Super fought Zero?

[SylentEcho]

How does one pronounce Djinn?

[Bussani]

How does one pronounce Djinn?

"Jinn".

[Piccolo Daimao]

Funnily enough, "djinni" sounds like "genie", which is also what Viz occasionally refer to Majin Boo as.

[SylentEcho]

Thanks Bussani.

Funnily enough, "djinni" sounds like "genie", which is also what Viz occasionally refer to Majin Boo as.

Seriously what's up with VizBig?! They piss me off sometimes with their annoying yet accurate translations. Couldn't they have just read the databook or watched the anime before translating?!