Opinions on Toriyama-Written Names?

[Gaffer Tape]

By that logic, "Bloomers" is what you should use, not "Blooma."

Indeed. Funny, isn't it? Now you know why Goku laughs at her name when he first hears it.

Well, remember that "bloomer" has the elongated sound at the end while her name does not, just like my freezer vs. Freeza example. The elongated sound signifies an "er" in English, and since that is clipped, freezer becomes Freeza, and bloomer becomes Blooma. Quite simple.

[Bussani]

By that logic, "Bloomers" is what you should use, not "Blooma."

Indeed. Funny, isn't it? Now you know why Goku laughs at her name when he first hears it.

Well, remember that "bloomer" has the elongated sound at the end while her name does not, just like my freezer vs. Freeza example. The elongated sound signifies an "er" in English, and since that is clipped, freezer becomes Freeza, and bloomer becomes Blooma. Quite simple.

Does it? Her name's written as ブルマ according to Kanzentai, which is exactly how you write "bloomers", as in the gym shorts or underwear.

[Gaffer Tape]

The character's name is written as you said: ブルマ. But as far as I know (and, for what it's worth, Google Translate agrees with me), "bloomers" is written as ブルマー, which makes sense, as that elongated sound at the end is what approximates the "er" sound. Without it, it would lack that ending.

[Bussani]

Ah, I see. Wikipedia has ブルマ for bloomers on the English page, and running it through Google Translate can get the result "gym shorts", so that's what I was going by. Actually, using Google translator to translate "gym shorts" into Japanese gets ブルマ too, but the Japanese Wikipedia article is ブルマー. Going by Google Translate's translation, I think it says something like "ブルマー also known as ブルマ", so maybe both are acceptable.

[B]

What? Who's the English? The UK? English dubs of the series?

And what do you mean pronounce it correctly? They say it exactly like they do in the original. Or do you mean they don't pronounce Vegeta like you would Vegetable?

English = FUNimation / Ocean (dubs)

Vegeta should be exactly pronounced like in these videos:

http://youtu.be/CtPXEZbJSJM - 1:40
http://youtu.be/P5T2n-pgA08 - 1:20
http://youtu.be/KabpCd7USC8 - 1:11

If they can't then they should've named him "Vejita" it would've been closer to the original (Bejita).

Though, maybe it's asking too much for English speakers to pronounce as it's written.

On the UK DBZ Ads I've seen the announcer said "Son Gohan" something rare.

Unless I'm hearing something wrong, that last video pronounced "Vegeta" with a hard G-sound and a short E-sound on that second E, which is definitely not how you pronounce his name.

[JulieYBM]

I've been trying to move away from stuff like 'Bulma' to the more proper 'Blooma' for a while now, although old habits die hard. For a lot of Japanese I've tried moving toward being as close to the kana spellings as possible, so I've started using 'Gokuu', 'Kaiou', etc. For the longest time I used circumflexes ('Gokû, Kaiô'), but then I realized that didn't really cover situations like Oozaru or Ookubo Toshimichi, where the extended sound is another お/o character.

[dbboxkaifan]

Unless I'm hearing something wrong, that last video pronounced "Vegeta" with a hard G-sound and a short E-sound on that second E, which is definitely not how you pronounce his name.

Vé-gé-ta is how is pronounced.

Vegeta in English sounds like "Vejita", so they could've named him "Vejita" instead and it would've been closer to the original name.

French/Spanish/Portuguese = Correct (Vé-gé-ta)
English = Flawed Pronunciation (Vejita not Vegeta)

[Perfect]

I've always heard Bejita as: "Beh-jit-a", so I'm inclined to disagree. If we're spelling it based on pun and pronouncing it based on the original, then "Ve-gee-ta" is acceptable.

[Piccolo Daimao]

I've been trying to move away from stuff like 'Bulma' to the more proper 'Blooma' for a while now, although old habits die hard. For a lot of Japanese I've tried moving toward being as close to the kana spellings as possible, so I've started using 'Gokuu', 'Kaiou', etc. For the longest time I used circumflexes ('Gokû, Kaiô'), but then I realized that didn't really cover situations like Oozaru or Ookubo Toshimichi, where the extended sound is another お/o character.

Huh. That's interesting. I mean, the Oozaru bit. I might start doing that too, just for (IMO) accuracy/consistency/cleanliness' sake.

Is "Bluma" acceptable too? It's literally just switching around the "l" and "u" in "Bulma", so the change may not be as jarring. However, it might make things a bit weird, since in the story itself (not just in one-off chapter title pages), Bulma wears a shirt that reads "BULMA". So it might be a bit strange for her to be on-screen (on-page, for the manga?) wearing a shirt with the words "BULMA" on it and then introduce herself as "Bluma"/"Blooma".

But not that her introducing herself as "Bulma" and then Goku (who's not particularly bright) making the connection to "bloomers" and laughing makes much sense anyway. I guess it's just because of the difference in English and Japanese. I don't know if there's any real good way to reconcile it. Both English and Japanese appear to be complicated languages. In fact, I think it's generally said that English is the hardest language to learn.

Also, in terms of, say, techniques where they include two words, do you have to put the dash or not? E.g. "Kaiouken"/"Kaiou-ken".

[JulieYBM]

Also, in terms of, say, techniques where they include two words, do you have to put the dash or not? E.g. "Kaiouken"/"Kaiou-ken".

I tend to use 'Kaiou-ken' to emphasize the two different words being used. 'Kaiou' (the made up word) and 'ken' (a form of martial arts). I think this is why Daimao uses 'Kamehame-Ha', because 'Kamehame' is written in hiragana and the last 'Ha' is the kanji for wave. If one is going to use a dash for 'Kaiou-ken', why not for 'Kamehame-Ha'?

I suppose I should start writing 'Ma-kan-kou-sappou', too. What a bunch of dashes!

[dbgtFO]

I want to know what everybody thinks of the names Toriyama wrote, i.e. Gokuh, Red Ribon, Kulilin, Bulma, etc. A lot of people tend to ignore these and use ones that bring out the puns better, but some people think of these as the "official" romanizations and the ones to use. I'm kind of mixed on it. I use Goku, Kuririn, and Red Ribbon, and I tend to use the names that bring out puns better, but then again, I use Bulma. I think most people use Bulma, even though something like Blooma would be better.

Since I haven't responded to the original post, I'm going to do it now.
I don't use specific versions of characters' names to bring out the pun better, which is one of the reasons why I'm fine with Bulma for example. The fact that I've only known about that version of the name in all these years before joining Daizex is the primary reason though.

In general I think it's nice to have Toriyama's versions of their names in the manga and other official material, but it's not like I'm going to change how I say their names, if his spelling goes against, what I've used for so many years. Take "Kulilin" for example. To me it sounds pretty silly to say out loud and so I just go with Kuririn, which is how it was used in the danish versions of the manga and anime. Also whenever I hear the name pronounced in japanese, all I can make out is Kuririn anyway.
When I say his name in english I usually just go for Krillin, which I'm guessing originated in Funimation's dub, because it just sounds better.

[Gaffer Tape]

Is "Bluma" acceptable too? It's literally just switching around the "l" and "u" in "Bulma", so the change may not be as jarring. However, it might make things a bit weird, since in the story itself (not just in one-off chapter title pages), Bulma wears a shirt that reads "BULMA". So it might be a bit strange for her to be on-screen (on-page, for the manga?) wearing a shirt with the words "BULMA" on it and then introduce herself as "Bluma"/"Blooma".

I totally get you there, and that is one of the difficult things to reconcile, or jarring, or however you want to say it. But remember that certainly didn't seem to cause a problem in, say, the dub, when "Krillin" was walking around for several episodes wearing a hat that referred to him as "Kulilin."

But I'd say "Bluma" is perfectly acceptable too. Hell, I wouldn't say "Bulma" is wrong. And I wouldn't criticize anyone for keeping it as straight "Buruma." I've used both of the latter at various points. "Bluma" obscures the pun a little bit more, but it's spoken exactly the same. I think this is one of those cases where there are many multiple correct answers. Based on what Bussani just said, it seems that just plain "Bloomer" might be correct too, and that is how I remember they translated her name on my old "Nippon Golden Network" subs.

[sanorin]

For me it will always be Bulma. She wears a shirt with her name in the very first episode. Besides, knowing the pun origin of the names doesn't mean that Goku's saiyan name should be "Carrot" or Videl should be called "Devil".

I think Vegeta is fine like this, it comes from "vegetable" and it's pronounced the same way "Beh-jih-tah" (more or less), but "Beh-jeh-tah" is fine too. Everything depends of where you are from and how you speak. In Spain we pronounce it "Beh-heh-tah" because that's how we pronounce "vegetal", and probably the original pronounciation would sound ridiculous for us. I don't know where the Mexican "Beh-geh-tah" is coming from, it sounds horrible to me.

About Goku, I have seen Goku, Go kou (sorry for the space), Gokuu, Gokû, Gokuh... Depends which one you like more.

And for Krilin, I use Krilin or Krillin. I can never get used to say the original Kulilin or Kuririn.

[Gaffer Tape]

Besides, knowing the pun origin of the names doesn't mean that Goku's saiyan name should be "Carrot" or Videl should be called "Devil".

But that's a bit of a strawman argument. No one is arguing that the pun is the word itself. Blooma is as clearly different from Bloomers as Kakarrotto is from Carrot and Videl is from Devil (and Freeza is from Freezer).

[JulieYBM]

Besides, knowing the pun origin of the names doesn't mean that Goku's saiyan name should be "Carrot" or Videl should be called "Devil".

But that's a bit of a strawman argument. No one is arguing that the pun is the word itself. Blooma is as clearly different from Bloomers as Kakarrotto is from Carrot and Videl is from Devil (and Freeza is from Freezer).

Yeah, pretty much. If anything we should probably switch to Kacarrot if we're going to start using Blooma, too.

[Pokewhiz7]

Besides, knowing the pun origin of the names doesn't mean that Goku's saiyan name should be "Carrot" or Videl should be called "Devil".

But that's a bit of a strawman argument. No one is arguing that the pun is the word itself. Blooma is as clearly different from Bloomers as Kakarrotto is from Carrot and Videl is from Devil (and Freeza is from Freezer).

Yeah, pretty much. If anything we should probably switch to Kacarrot if we're going to start using Blooma, too.

But if we made it Kacarrotto, wouldn't that make more sense for when he becomes Vegetto?

[AgitoZ]

Why Kacarot with a K in the beginning?

[dbboxkaifan]

Why Kacarot with a K in the beginning?

Why Kaká (Brazilian Football Player) and not with a C?

"Kaká" looks cooler than "Cacá" (cacá means poop, btw).

I guess I answered my own question.

[Perfect]

But if we made it Kacarrotto, wouldn't that make more sense for when he becomes Vegetto?

The rotto part does at least.

[JulieYBM]

Why Kacarot with a K in the beginning?

Ah, yeah, you're right. That only works if the katakana was カキャロット/kakyarotto.