Foreign translations can often play with character names. They may be changed into something different, or they can be only slightly changed.
But sometimes they don't. Or, in some cases, they are still written the same way but the way it's pronounced differs from the original version. This may be because the language the dub is made with is used to pronounce certain phonetics in a different way than in the original language the name was written with, or just for a mistake.
This trope often comes about due to trying to make the word feel as natural in the local language as possible, where excessive fidelity to foreign language terminology may break the flow of dialogue. It likewise may attempt to recontextualize words that have unfortunate meanings in another language.
Compare with Viewer Pronunciation Confusion. Can sometime overlap with Clean Dub Name and In My Language, That Sounds Like..., if the change is made to make the name not sound like a swear word. If at a certain point the original pronounciation is brought in, it counts as Ditching the Dub Names.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- In the Italian dub of Bakugan, Shun's name is pronunced "Sean".
- In the Cardcaptors dub of Cardcaptor Sakura, Sakura's name is pronounced "Sah-coo-rah" instead of "Sock-oo-rah". It's inconsistent whether the accent is on the first or second syllable. There is also the occasional "suck-URR-ah." There's also the pronunciation of "Clow". The original Japanese and the Animax English dubs has it rhyme with "flow", but in all of the other English dubs including the dub of Clear Card it's pronounced similarly to "cloud". Kero is pronounced "keh-ro" in the original Japanese and Clear Card dubs but pronounced like "key-ro" in the Nelvana and Animax English dubs.
- In the Italian dub of Case Closed, Genta's name is pronounced "Jenta".
- Digimon Adventure: In the original Japanese dub, Angemon's name is pronounced "ain-jeh-mon", but in the English dub, his name either has the original pronunciation or is said like "ahn-jeh-mon" depending on the episode. And in the German dub, his name is pronounced "ahn-geh-mon".
- Doraemon:
- In the original version, Gian is pronounced like the English word "Giant", only without the letter "T". In the Italian dub, it's pronounced like the Italian name Gian, which sounds like "jahn".
- Also in the Italian dub, Dekisugi's name is pronounced with a soft G instead of a hard one.
- Dragon Ball:
- In the Italian dub, Chichi's name has been almost always pronounced as "Kiki", since "ch" is always a hard sound in Italian language. The only time it didn't happen is in the earlier dub of the films, which had a more faithful localization than the show's.
- Chichi's name is kept the same in the European Spanish dub, but adds more emphasis on the second "chi" ("chee-CHEE") to keep it from sounding too much like the slang term for boobs.
- In The Ocean Group's English dub, the Kaioh-ken move is pronounced "Kei-yo-ken" rather than "Kai-yo-ken". Later English dubs revert to the Japanese pronunciation.
- In the Italian dub of Dragon Ball Super, Jaco's name is pronounced "Yaco" since the Italian language usually pronounces the letter J as a "ee" sound.
- In the Danish dub, the "ch" sound in Chiaotzu's name is pronounced like a "k" sound (so his name pronunciation becomes "Kao-Zoo"), possibly because "ch" can be pronounced in that way in some Danish names of German origin.
- Since the Hungarian dubs of Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z were based on the French dubs, many French name pronunciations were carried over, such as "Zhys" for Jeice and "Zhinoe" for Ginyu. The latter was also kept for Dragon Ball Super for the sake of consistency, despite this dub being based on the Japanese original.
- Fairy Tail:
- Erza's name is pronounced closer to "Air-zuh" in Japanese, while the English dub calls her "Ur-zuh".
- Laxus's name is pronounced closer to "Lock-sus" in the English dub, as opposed to "Lack-sus", as per the Japanese pronunciation.
- In Japanese, Simon's name is pronounced "See-mon". In English, it's "Sigh-mun".
- The guild Crime Sorcière has a French name that's pronounced "Crim Sor-see-air". While the English dub follows the correct French pronunciation for "Sorcière", the word "Crime" is pronounced like the English version.
- In the Italian dub of Futari wa Pretty Cure, Nagisa's name is pronounced "Na-gee-sa" instead of "Nag-he-sa".
- The French dub of Glitter Force changes Harriet's pronunciation from "hair-ee-ette" to "ah-ri-ette".
- Lupin III:
- In English, the Streamline Pictures dub of The Mystery of Mamo and Funimation's dubs of the movies and specials pronounce Lupin's name as "Loo-pin" rather than "Loo-pahn". Funimation only switched to the latter pronunciation for their dub of The Woman Called Fujiko Mine years later.
- In the Italian dubs:
- Lupin is always pronounced "Loo-pehn" instead of "Loo-pahn".
- Goemon's name has always been pronounced "Ghemon", as if the O was mute.
- For years, Fujiko Mine's last name had been pronounced as if it was the English word "mine". It was corrected to the Japanese pronounciation starting with The Woman Called Fujiko Mine.
- Gundam:
- "Gundam" itself is pronounced in Japanese as "GAHN-dah-mu", which typically becomes "GUN-dumb" in English and similar languages, as it was meant to combine the words "gun" and "freedom". The English dubs of the 0079 compilation movies pronounced it with an emphatic "Gun-Damn". The Italian dubs throughout the franchise pronounces Gundam as "Goon-Dum".
- Mobile Suit Gundam: Char Aznable is name after the French musician Charles Aznavour, which the Japanese versions reflects by pronouncing like "Shaw". Most English dubs pronounce it as a homophone for "char", as if shortening the English pronunciation of "Charles".
- The Titans from Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam are called "tee-tan-zu" in Japanese, mimicking the word's Greek origin. The English dub pronounces it as the word usually is in the language, a homophone for "tightens".
- Naruto: In Japanese, Sasuke's name is pronounced like "Sas-keh". In the Italian, French, German, and Romanian dubs, he's pronounced "Sa-soo-keh".
- Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Japanese dubs pronounce NERV and SEELE approximating the word's German origins, "NELF" and "ZEE-leh". All of the English dubs but VSI's pronounce NERV as the English word "nerve" and SEELE as "SAY-lay".
- One Piece: In the Italian dub, Usopp's name has the first two letters pronounced like the English word "us". After the episode 578, they go back to the correct Japanese pronunciation.
- Pokémon: The Series:
- Italian is one of the few languages that keeps the English names for the namesake creatures, but dubs often stumbled with some pronounces and went back and forth with different takes.
- Meowth's name has been pronounced "Meh-o" from the beginning until 2009, when it was changed to a more faithful "Meow".
- Around late 2012, with the release of Pokédex 3D Pro, multiple Italian pronounciations were changed permanently, with the new takes being used in every piece of media (anime, games and so on). Weirdly, this means that a lot of names that were pronounced in correct English have been replaced with more Italian-ish and wrong-sounding ones (such as Wobbuffet being pronounced "Wob-boo-fet", Lugia becoming "Lou-jah" and most bafflingly Glaceon being pronounced "Glace-on", making it sound completely different from the other Eeveelution names).
- In one of the Portuguese dubs, Pikachu's name is kept the same, but the humans say it like "peek-a-shoo" even though Pikachu himself clearly pronounces it like "peek-a-choo".
- In the Czech version, Pichu was simply nameless due to the fact that its name sounds like their word for "cunt". Later on, however, its name was pronounced like "pic-chu".
- In Japanese, Arceus's name is pronounced "ar-say-us", but in the English version, it is pronounced "ark-ee-us" because the original pronunciation sounds too much like "arse".
- Doubling over with Inconsistent Dub in the English version, Regice's name was initially pronounced as "redge-ee-ice" in Pokémon: Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, but in later appearances it is pronounced "Redge-ice". Oddly enough, Regice still clearly pronounces its own name like "redge-ee-ice".
- In the Japanese dub, Serena's name is pronounced "seh-reh-na", but in the English dub, it is pronounced "suh-reena".
- In the Japanese dub, Lusamine's name is pronounced "loo-sa-mee-neh", but the English dub changed it to "loo-sa-meen".
- Italian is one of the few languages that keeps the English names for the namesake creatures, but dubs often stumbled with some pronounces and went back and forth with different takes.
- In the early episodes of the English dub of Revolutionary Girl Utena, Anthy's surname was pronounced "him-eh-ME-ya" but later episodes corrected to "him-EH-me-ya," which was how it was pronounced in Japanese.
- Sailor Moon: In the Italian dub, Chibiusa and Chibi-Chibi are pronounced "Kibiusa" and "Kibi-Kibi".
- In the Latin American Spanish dub of Tenchi Muyo!, Kagato's name is pronounced "ka-ha-toh", probably because the pronunciation of his name sounded too much like "cagado" ("shat", as in, "he cagado", meaning "I have shat").
- The Italian dub of Trigun has Vash (and only Vash) pronounce the "K" in Knives's name, like "Knish". Oddly, it's only adult Vash that does this, even child Vash pronounces his name correctly.
- In the English dub of YuYu Hakusho, Kuwabara's name is pronounced "koo-wah-BA-rah" instead of "koo-WAH-ba-rah" like in the original Japanese. Yusuke's surnname Urameshi is pronounced "Yur-a-mesh-i" throughout, while in Japanese it's "Oo-ra-me-shi".
Comic Books
- Batman:
- His name is pronounced "bah-tch-mahn" on most Brazilian Portuguese dubs. Out of all the DC superhero names that end in "man", his is notoriously the only one that doesn't somewhat replicate the original pronunciation.
- In a similar way, Italian dub always pronounced his name as "But-mahn".
- The Incredible Hulk's name is usually pronounced "Hoolk" in Italian dubs.
- Spider-Man: Usually pronounced "Speeder-man" in European French and European Spanish dubs, including the MCU films.
- X-Men:
Comic Strips
- Peanuts: In the Italian dubs of the animated adaptations, Linus is usually pronounced "Lee-nus" (fitting, since it's a name of Latin origin) instead of "Lie-nus", and Schroeder is pronounced as "Shreh-der" instead of "Shroh-der".
Films — Animated
- In the Italian dub of Alice in Wonderland, Alice's name is pronounced with the Italian pronunciation of the name (ah-LEE-chay). In the live-action remake, they used the English pronunciation in the title (since the title is left in English) but the Italian pronunciation in the actual movie.
- BIONICLE film dubs:
- The Japanese dubs, which were only made for the first two films, pronounced character names phonetically to keep them close to the originals. Vakama, for example, was changed to "Wakama" but still pronounced with a 'v'.
- In the Hungarian dubs, Matoran was always pronounced with an elongated '-án' at the end. Lewa became "Leva", Onewa became "Oneva" (as in many languages, 'w' and 'v' are pronounced the same), Nuju became "Nuyu", Dume became "Duma", Keetongu oddly became "Keetongoo", and more strangely, Pewku (Poo-koo) became Pevku.
- The Italian and Brazilian dubs of Brave had the pronunciation of Merida's name from Mérida (MEH-rid-da) to Merída (Meh-REE-da), presumably to avert sounding similar to merda, which means "shit" in both languages.
- Castle in the Sky: In the English dub, the titular city of Laputa is pronounced "lap-uta" because the original pronounciation was "lah-poo-tah", which is Spanish for "the whore".
- Kowalski's name in the Polish dub of Madagascar is consistently pronounced according to Polish pronunciation rules, as "Ko-val-skee".
- In the Hungarian dub of Shrek, the word 'ogre' remains untranslated (as there is no good equivalent to it except for the overly generic szörny or óriás, meaning "monster" or "giant"), but it's pronounced phonetically as "oh-greh".
Films — Live-Action
- German dubs of Godzilla films have inconsistently pronounced Mothra either as "Mosra" or "Mottra". Also, King Ghidorah became "Jidorah" in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster.
- The German dub of Gamera vs. Barugon is a peculiar example. Barugon's name was changed to Godzilla as a particularly brazen act of false advertising, yet it's pronounced incorrectly as "Got-chilla".
- Harry Potter:
- The Hungarian dub of the films change the pronunciation of several names. Notably, the protagonist's family name is pronounced with a longer "t" than in English (as double consonants in Hungarian are always pronounced longer than single consonants), and Hermione's name is pronounced as "Her-mee-o-neh" instead of "Her-my-nee".
- The Italian dub also pronounces Hermione's name as "Her-mee-o-neh". This actually caused a small flub as the Italian translation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire has Krum mispronouncing Hermione's name in a way similar to the one used in the movie dub while she corrects him with the original English pronounce.
- The European Spanish dub pronounces Hermione´s name as "Her-mee-on".
- Star Wars:
- In some foreign dubs, the term "Jedi" is pronounced according to the local phonetics. For example it's "Ye-dee" in German, "Jay-dee" in Italian and "Je-dee" in Hungarian.
- The Italian dub of The Phantom Menace has Palpatine's name pronounced "palpa-tine" instead of "palpa-teen" (which is used in the dub of every other appearance of the character before and after it).
- In the Hungarian dubs, Sith is always pronounced as "Sit" and Darth as "Dart", as the language has no "th" sound. Also, Anakin was pronounced more as "Enikin" in the Original Trilogy to match the English pronunciation, but the Prequels changed it to the more natural sounding "Ah-na-kin".
Franchises
- Most Italian translations of Transformers media pronounce Energon with a hard g ("ener-gone") rather than a soft one ("ener-john"). The only exception is Transformers: Animated, where the soft g is used. Animated is also the only dub where Ultra Magnus's name is pronounced as "mag-noose" rather than "man-yous".
Live-Action TV
- Friends:
- Alice's name is pronounced with the Italian pronounciation (A-lee-chay) in her first appearance, only to go back to the English pronounciation in her later appearances.
- In the Italian dub, Phoebe's name is pronounced "feh-beh".
- In the Italian dub of Happy Days, Richie and Chachi's names are pronounced as if they were Ricky and Chucky.
- The Italian dub of One Tree Hill initially pronounced Keith's name as "Kate", correcting it with the English pronounciation starting from season 3.
- The Latin American Spanish dub of Voyagers! was particularly inconsistent with this. One episode about the Roosevelt family correctly pronounced the family name as "rose-ah-belt" (when even some American works pronounce it "ROOS-belt"), but the episode about Harry Houdini pronounced his last name following Spanish conventions rather than American English ones, resulting in his last name being pronounced "ow-dee-nee" instead of "hoo-dee-nee".
Puppet Shows
- In the Latin American Spanish dub of Bear in the Big Blue House, Ojo's name is kept the same, but is pronounced "oh-ho" rather than "oh-jo".
Video Games
- In the French dub of Dawn of War, Lord Bale's name is now pronounced the same as Baal, while O'Kais (Oh-Ka-Ees) now sounds like the word "Okay".
- In the English localization of the Dynasty Warriors titles, the character names are read using the English pronounciation. This results Cao Cao being spelled "Cow Cow" instead of "T'sao T'sao", amongst others. Most of this has been fixed starting from the 6th game, but some less egregious ones, like Guan Yu not being read as "Kuan Yu", still remains.
- In Kirby King Dedede's name is pronounced like "day day day" in the original Japanese but "Dee Dee Dee" in English and "Deh Deh Deh" in Italian.
- In Fire Emblem: Awakening, Lucina's name is spelled the same in both Japanese and English official materials, but in Japanese it's pronounced "Luke-ina" while in English it's "Lu-see-na". This is most noticeable in Smash Bros, which has the same (native English-speaking) announcer in both English and Japanese, but he pronounces Lucina differently in the latter.
- Genshin Impact: In the German-themed nation of Mondstadt, Klee's name should be pronounced like "kleh" since it's the German word for "clover". The Japanese dub pronounces it the German way, but in the English dub it is pronounced like "tree".
- Star Ocean: The Second Story: In Japanese Rena's name is pronounced "Reh-na", but it's pronounced "Ray-na" in the English dub.
- The Italian dub of Pokémon Stadium changes multiple prounciations for the various Pokémon names. The most notable ones are Blastoise being called "Blust-was" and Scyther being pronunced "Sky-ter".
- Sega's name was pronounced "See-ga" in Italy during the 90's, mainly because the correct pronunciation is also the Italian word for "saw" and a slang term for masturbation.
- Italian dubs of Sonic the Hedgehog media go back and forth with the correct pronounce of Shadow's name: games usually keep the original "Shay-dow", while in other medias they call him "Shud-ow".
- The Italian dub of early Spyro the Dragon games pronounced the titular character's name as "Spee-ro" rather than "Spy-ro". The English pronounce was reinstated in later games.
- In Polish translations of Super Mario Bros. media, Koopa is usually pronounced "Koh-puh" because the original pronounciation sounds like kupa, the Polish word for poop.
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: In the Italian translation, Lucina and Pyra's names are pronounced "Lu-chee-na" and "Pee-ra" instead of the English "Lu-see-na" and "Pie-ra".
Western Animation
- In the Italian and Romanian dubs of Avatar: The Last Airbender, Sokka and Katara's names are both pronounced as written rather than "Suh-ka" and "Ke-ta-ra" respectively. Zhao's name is pronounced with a 'z' instead of the sound found in the word 'measure'.
- In both Spanish dubs of Bluey, Judo's name is pronounced "yoo-doh" as opposed to "joo-doh".
- The Italian dub of Bob's Burgers changes the pronounciation of the main characters' last name Belcher from "Bel-chair" to "Bel-care" and the one of Zeke's name from "zeek" to "Zeck".
- In the Italian dub of BoJack Horseman, Beatrice's name is pronounced "beh-a-tree-chay", which is the Italian version of the name.
- The Fairly OddParents!: In the Italian dub, Wanda is pronounced "Vanda", and Chet Ubetcha's last name is either pronounced "Oo-batch-ka", "Oo-Back-uh" or "Oo-batch-uh".
- In the Italian dub of Family Guy, Quagmire's last name is pronounced "Quag-meyer" and Stewie's name is pronounced "stee-wee" instead of "stoo-ee".
- The Italian dub of Futurama has Leela's name pronounced as "Leh-la" instead of "Lee-la".
- Both the Italian and Romanian dubs of Gravity Falls pronounce Pacifica's name as "Pa-chee-fee-ca" instead of "Pa-see-fee-ca".
- In the Italian and Romanian dub of Johnny Test, Gil's name is pronounced with a soft 'G' instead of a hard 'G'.
- In the Danish dub of Kim Possible, the "A" in "Amy" (as in the villain DNAmy) is pronounced like the 'A's in "Africa" instead of the original English 'ay' sound to reflect how the abbreviation "DNA" is pronounced in Danish.
- In the Mexican Spanish dub of the first few Madeline specials (as well as the first two seasons of the show), Madeline's name is kept the same, but is pronounced "mad-eh-len". From Madeline in London and onwards, though, her name reverted back to the English pronunciation.
- In the Romanian dub of The Magic School Bus, Wanda's name is pronounced "Vanda" despite the name being pronounced correctly in other works.
- In the English, Korean, Russian, and Chinese dubs of Miraculous Ladybug, Lila's name is pronounced "lie-lah" instead of "lee-lah".
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
- In the Romanian dub, Celestia's name is pronounced with a 'ch' sound instead of an 's' one, although the first two Equestria Girls movies keep the English pronunciation. In Season 2, Cadance is called "Ke-dens" instead of "Kay-dens", but future seasons translate her name to Cadența (pronounced "cuh-DEN-tsa"). Philomena is pronounced "Filamena" instead of "Filamina". In the case of places, Manehattan is pronounced the same as Manhattan, while Equestria is pronounced "Ek-ves-tri-a".
- In the Italian dub, Cadance is pronounced "Ca-dance" instead of "Kay-dance"
- The latter half of Rainbow Dash's name is pronounced "Duh-sh" instead of "Deh-sh" in the Italian, Polish, French and Latin American dubs.
- In the Italian dub, Sapphire Shores's name is pronounced in two different ways, neither of them matching the original one: the original version is "Seff-hire", while in the Italian dub it's pronounced "Saf-fire" by Rarity and "Saf-fear" by everyone else.
- The Octonauts:
- The French dub fudges the titular team's pronunciation from "ok-to-nots" to "ohk-to-nohts".
- In the American dub, Peso is given a Hispanic accent and pronounces his own name like "peh-so", but everyone elsenote pronounces it "pay-so". It's never commented on in-universe, so it seems that both pronunciations are valid.
- In "The Scared Sperm Whale", Simon's name (which is pronounced "sai-min" in the original English dub) is pronounced "see-mohn" in the French and European Spanish dubs.
- Octonauts: Above & Beyond: In the Latin American Spanish dub, Paani's name is pronounced like the word "pony" instead of "pah-nee". Similarly, in the European Spanish dub, it's pronounced "pow-nee".
- PAW Patrol:
- In the Latin American Spanish dub, the 'PAW' in 'PAW Patrol' is pronounced "pow" as opposed to "pah" in the original English version. In that same dub, Marshall's name is inconsistently pronounced like "mar-chawl" instead of "mar-shawl", such as in the theme song.
- In the Italian dub, this doubles with Inconsistent Dub, as it's pronounced "pah" in the theme song but "pow" in the proper show.
- In the Italian dub of PJ Masks, the name of the titular hero team is usually pronounced as if it was "Pijamask".
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998): Mojo Jojo's name is a point of contention between dubs.
- In the Latin American Spanish dub, his name is pronounced "mo-ho ho-ho", in accordance with Spanish pronunciation rules.
- In the Polish dub, his name is pronounced as "mo-yo yo-yo", also in accordance with Polish phonology.
- In the Hungarian dub, his name is a combination of the above two examples: "Mo-ho Yo-yo". This was deliberate, as mohó means "greedy".
- In the Mexican Spanish dub of Rugrats, Angelica's name is pronounced the Spanish "ahn-hel-ee-ca" instead of the original "an-jell-ica".
- The Simpsons has some examples in the Italian dub;
- Most notably, the H in Homer's name is silent, due to H always being silent in Italian.
- Apu's name is pronounced "AH-pu" instead of "a-PU".
- Milhouse's name is pronounced with the stress on the 'house' rather than the 'mil', and the H also becomes silent
- True and the Rainbow Kingdom: In the European Spanish dub, Bartleby's name is pronounced "bart-leh-bee" as opposed to "bartle-bee".
- Hungarian dubs of Transformers series often struggle with English names.
- In Transformers: Prime, the ship Harbinger was said both with a soft and hard "g" in different scenes.
- In Transformers: Robots in Disguise (2015), Steeljaw was pronounced as "Steel-Joe" at first, then changed to "Steel-Jah", as the language has no simple equivalent of the "-aw" sound. Also, Octopunch was pronounced as "Octopoonch".
- The Italian dub of Voltron: Legendary Defender pronounces Keith's name as if he was called "Kate".
- In the Romanian dub of Xiaolin Showdown, Wuya's name is pronounced "Vuya". Shen Gong Wu is similarly pronounced with a 'v' sound. Clay's name is pronounced more like "Clye" in the first series, but Xiaolin Chronicles uses the English pronunciation. Fung's name uses the English pronunciation in the second season, but he's called "Foong" in the other seasons and in Chronicles.
- The French dub of Zeke's Pad alters the pronunciation of Rachel ("ray-chul")'s name to "rah-shell", which is the French pronunciation of that name.
- The Zimmer Twins: The French Teletoon-aired shorts tended to pronounce Edgar's name as "ed-GAHR" instead of "ED-ger".
