How do you pronounce character names?

[Grande Pesquisador]

I am fascinated to find the correct pronunciation of the names of the characters in the series by adapting to english. For example, "bi-ru-su" became Beerus. Is the pronunciation correct? How is this adaptation done? Do you usually respect Toriyama's puns when saying names?

[VegettoEX]

"Beerus" is a spelling we coined for Kanzenshuu, and you can actually read up on the whole history behind it in this article we posted. We go into the full history, etymology, decision-making process, etc.

For every character name in the series, our forthcoming wiki will have a section on their respective page breaking down the name pun source and reasoning for our particular spelling.

Of course y'all are welcome to discuss anything you want here, but wanted to at least share that wiki tidbit for looking forward to!

[Grande Pesquisador]

Thank You!

[Grande Pesquisador]

In Brazil, some pronunciations of names are different and inconsistent. Below are some examples:

MUTEN ROSHI
Interestingly, with the exception of Dragonball Evolution, we never call it by its name. We only translate Kame-Sen'nin to Mestre Kame (Master Kame)

PIRAFU
In his first appearances, he is called Marciano (Martian). This is horrible. Fortunately, when the character returned in GT and new content, they called it Pilaf.

REDDO RIBON GUN
Initially, in the dub done by Álamo studio, we translated for Exército da Patrulha Vermelha (Red Patrol Army). However, when Dragon Ball Kai arrived here, the BKS opted for Forças Red Ribbon (Red Ribbon Forces).

TENKAICHI BUDOKAI
Torneio de Artes Marciais (Martial Arts Tournament) only.

KAMI SAMA
His name has been kept as is. In my view, it makes it less impressive in our language.

BADAKKU
This one is very inconsistent. We have Barda (Parisi), Bardack (Álamo) and Bardock (UniDub).

PARAGASU
In the two appearances the character made, the pronunciation is different: "PA-ra-gas" and "pa-RA-gas.

TAGOMA
Like PARAGASU, the pronunciation is different on two occasions: "ta-go-MA" and "ta-GO-ma".

[Goku da Silva]

In Brazil, some pronunciations of names are different and inconsistent. Below are some examples:

MUTEN ROSHI
Interestingly, with the exception of Dragonball Evolution, we never call it by its name. We only translate Kame-Sen'nin to Mestre Kame (Master Kame)

PIRAFU
In his first appearances, he is called Marciano (Martian). This is horrible. Fortunately, when the character returned in GT and new content, they called it Pilaf.

REDDO RIBON GUN
Initially, in the dub done by Álamo studio, we translated for Exército da Patrulha Vermelha (Red Patrol Army). However, when Dragon Ball Kai arrived here, the BKS opted for Forças Red Ribbon (Red Ribbon Forces).

TENKAICHI BUDOKAI
Torneio de Artes Marciais (Martial Arts Tournament) only.

KAMI SAMA
His name has been kept as is. In my view, it makes it less impressive in our language.

BADAKKU
This one is very inconsistent. We have Barda (Parisi), Bardack (Álamo) and Bardock (UniDub).

PARAGASU
In the two appearances the character made, the pronunciation is different: "PA-ra-gas" and "pa-RA-gas.

TAGOMA
Like PARAGASU, the pronunciation is different on two occasions: "ta-go-MA" and "ta-GO-ma".

A fellow brazilian like me you probabily know the in the glossary of the new definitive editions(Panini) you can find the name of the caracters with their meanings and spelling.

[Grande Pesquisador]

I haven't bought them yet. The price is absurd at times like this...

[RashFaustinho]

In Italy the dub changes a lot of things (no surprise here, as the script was from AB Groupe if I'm not mistaken) but what I discovered very very late is that even in the MANGA there are inconsinstencies with the whole translation things. Some of which are kept in the latest releases because by this point some characters are known like this in our country.

The world calls him and writes him as Ginyu. Here, it's written Ginew.

Frieza? Furiza? Never heard of it. Here it's just, straight up, Freezer. The pun it's based on.

Our Kakarot it's often written with a final H (KakarotH) for some reason.
Oddly, the recently released videogame is written Kakarot like in the rest of the world.
But in the manga, it's STILL Kakaroth.

Vegito? Vegetto? No. We call it Vegeth. (VEGEta + KakaroTH).
Oddly, Kefla remained the same.

And some videogames keep using outdated translation. In a lot of videogames we still have "Darbula" when it was changed into "Dabra" in later releases of the manga.

[Adamant]

The world calls him and writes him as Ginyu. Here, it's written Ginew.

This is a common romanization of his name, used to be standard one you'd see everywhere.

Our Kakarot it's often written with a final H (KakarotH) for some reason.

Vegito? Vegetto? No. We call it Vegeth. (VEGEta + KakaroTH).

And these are not only not wrong, they're MORE sensible than I think what literally every other official translation went with.

Sounds like you got a pretty decent deal, really.

[RashFaustinho]

The world calls him and writes him as Ginyu. Here, it's written Ginew.

This is a common romanization of his name, used to be standard one you'd see everywhere.

Our Kakarot it's often written with a final H (KakarotH) for some reason.

Vegito? Vegetto? No. We call it Vegeth. (VEGEta + KakaroTH).

And these are not only not wrong, they're MORE sensible than I think what literally every other official translation went with.

Sounds like you got a pretty decent deal, really.

I also prefer Vegeth over Vegito or Vegetto, the problem is that Kefla remained the same in the DBS translation. And obviously Kale and Caulfila are still Kale and Caulifla.
Going by the logic of "Vegeth", it should be "Kafla", not "Kefla".

So while it does sound better, there is some inconsinstency going on.

Personally my N.1 priority would be telling the Bandai Namco games to stop using the outdated italian manga translation as a reference.
I don't get why they do this when they have better, newer and more accurate translations in the more recent editions.

[TheGreatness25]

The world calls him and writes him as Ginyu. Here, it's written Ginew.

This is a common romanization of his name, used to be standard one you'd see everywhere.

Our Kakarot it's often written with a final H (KakarotH) for some reason.

Vegito? Vegetto? No. We call it Vegeth. (VEGEta + KakaroTH).

And these are not only not wrong, they're MORE sensible than I think what literally every other official translation went with.

Sounds like you got a pretty decent deal, really.

I also prefer Vegeth over Vegito or Vegetto, the problem is that Kefla remained the same in the DBS translation. And obviously Kale and Caulfila are still Kale and Caulifla.
Going by the logic of "Vegeth", it should be "Kafla", not "Kefla".

So while it does sound better, there is some inconsinstency going on.

Personally my N.1 priority would be telling the Bandai Namco games to stop using the outdated italian manga translation as a reference.
I don't get why they do this when they have better, newer and more accurate translations in the more recent editions.

You could've gotten Vegerot

Maybe it's because the US dub started off with some unfaithful name adaptations, but I don't even care anymore. I know what they're supposed to be, so if they called Goku something asinine like Zero or something (), I think it would quickly roll off of me after some time.

It is super interesting to learn the different adaptations in various parts of the world, though.

[Aim]

I am fascinated to find the correct pronunciation of the names of the characters in the series by adapting to english. For example, "bi-ru-su" became Beerus. Is the pronunciation correct? How is this adaptation done? Do you usually respect Toriyama's puns when saying names?

Kafla(kay-fla)
Gero(ge-ro, not je-ro) IIRC.

I think something really interesting is a translation I think may be the closest to miggate no gokui, “transcendental reflex”. Still wanting to hear from Herms on that one.