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Spell My Name With An S
There is no clear Romanization of Violen Jiger's name, as no Zone media has ever been officially released in the West. His name has been interpreted as "Violenjiger", "Violen Jygar", "Violent Jiger", "Violent Chigger", "Violen Jig-er", "Violin Juggler", "Bio Ranger Iga", "Valium Chugger", and "Crazy Engrish Fun-Man".
—Teletraan-1

This trope describes characters whose names are almost never spelled consistently, usually because of transliteration issues. This tends to happen in anime and Japanese video games that haven't been officially translated into English, although it also crops up in other languages that don't use the Latin alphabet. Situations include anything from drama between vowel additions to unique-cipher dropping, due to phoneme sets and writing systems. English, for example, is famous for many ways and rules of spelling (e.g., Americans generally dropping extra vowels), despite having much fewer actual sounds they represent. Japanese have separate vowel-heavy phonetic and symbolic alphabets. Spanish has several familiar looking letter combinations intended to be pronounced in specific ways. Complicating the issue is some names simply become popular enough in other languages that they're modified to fit them better, and you can't be sure if it's actually intended to be meaningful. Another if the name is only ever shown in modified form, meaning we simply have to guess.

Assuming an official release settles the issue, some fans deliberately use one of the alternate spellings to establish their "credibility" as fans. In true fannish fashion, this often persists even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, such as Theme Naming, Meaningful Names, Prophetic Names and direct proclamations by the work's creator. Eventually, this stops being cool and just starts making people angry, and the self-righteous morons get Gannon Banned. (Where did you think the trope name came from?)

The trope's name comes from an Isaac Asimov short story, in which a group of Sufficiently Advanced Aliens use The Little Shop That Wasnt There Yesterday to stop The End Of The World As We Know It — by persuading an obscure scientist to change one letter of his name from Z to S, and watching Hilarity Ensue. Asimov was inspired to write the story after having his name misspelled — Azimov, or even Asenion once — one time too many. Ironically, Asimov's original name in the Cyrillic alphabet was "Озимов". The standard transcription of this into the Latin alphabet is "Ozimov".

This does not include differences in romanization systems, such as spelling Gendo Ikari's first name "Gendoh" or leaving out the third u in Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuuutsu, which vary due to personal and cultural preferences. This page is for flat-out mistakes; whether the rest were gathered from inconsistencies in-series or Fan Translation assumptions, only one name is right and the rest are not.

Contrast My Nayme Is, which is the intentional misspelling of one's name.

Examples:

Anime/Manga
  • Sylia / Celia Stingray from Bubblegum Crisis was an older example of this trope.
    • The 1992 parody fanfic Bubble Gum Cards by Ryan Mathews pokes fun at this by never using the same spelling twice.
    • Also, the robots androids in the BGC world are Boomers. They're frequently translated as, "buuma," because that's the strict Japanese spelling, but the fact is that the name was specifically chosen by the creators to evoke the raw destructive power of American nuclear submarines. You know, Boomers.
  • Black Lagoon 'Rebecca', who is usually called Revi/Levi, etc. Ironically, such R-L confusion never exists for her partner 'Rock', whose is given the nickname for amusing reasons.
  • After reading this article. This Troper is so damn happy that the opening to Baccano! features all the names of the main characters in english because alot of them would be damn hard to romanize.
  • Rune/Renee/Renais from GaoGaiGar FINAL.
    • Hell, Gao Gai Gar itself had been spelled several different ways in the official subtitles of the DV Ds this troper has watched, some of which wouldn't even come close to actually being pronounced "Gao Gai Gar", if said aloud.
    • Most fans spell "Palparepa" like that when the official spelling is "Palpalapa". Also, spelling "GaoFighGar" as "GaoFaiGar", though in fairness, those instances are mostly in discussions of Super Robot Wars Alpha 3 or W where the writer's only exposure to GaoFighGar was through kana.
  • "Raidiin"/"Raideen", licensed "Raydeen", and the remake Reideen.
  • The famous space pirate Captain Herlock is better known as Captain Harlock in English, with most fans preferring the latter spelling.
  • Light Yagami from Death Note is an odd example, since most fans assumed it sounded so odd it had to be Raito.
    • Some scanlations had trouble with this, as they had gone with the Raito name, then had to switch to Light half way through the series (as more official translations became available). Ditto with Near and Mello, who were written as "Nia" and "Merro" in some scanlations at first.
    • That's just the tip of the iceberg. There's also Sidoh/Shidou, Jealous/Gelus, Lester/Rester, Gevanni/Giovanni, John Mackerenshaw/ the decidedly narmful John McEnroe, Larry Connors/Rally Connors, plus the fact that the manga itself changes one of the FBI agents' already ridiculous names partway through.
  • Elemental Gelade often displayed this problem with either the show title and other plot elements; for example, Pledgers (initially introduced as either "Preja" or "Pleasure"), Sting Raids (misspelled as "Stream Raids" or "Sitting Raids"), or even the Eden Raid (called "Edil Raid" by the first fansubs of the series).
    • This troper even thought it was supposed to mean "Elementar Guard"!
      • This troper thought it was Elemental Grade or G-Raid.
    • It doesn't help that the series's name was originally romanized as "Erementar Gerad" in Japan.
  • Speaking of giant robots, many of the Gundam series pick up mangled names on the way to production, most of which get more reasonable conversions overseas. Which, depending on where in the translation process one starts watching, can make it nearly impossible for the fandom to agree on which is the "correct" spelling.
    • As an example, Mobile Suit Gundam SEED and Gundam SEED Destiny: Raww le Klueze/Rau le Creuset, Mwu la Fllaga/Mu La Flaga, Fllay/Flay, Ssigh/Sai, Stellar/Stella, and Neo Lorrnoke/Roanoke. And those are just the official Japanese and English versions; some holdouts in the fandom still prefer "Asuran" or "Aslan" for Athrun (He ain't the Narnia lion), "Frey" for Flay (Take into account that Frey is a MALE Norse god), and "Mia" for Meer (the last a particularly egregious example since Meer's name is shown clearly written on a note she sends to Lacus late in Destiny).
      • This troper fails to see what logic use the Japanese to come out with these strange spellings (Just like in Hunter X Hunter), and points that even them can't definitely agree on a certain character's name spelling: For example, in SEED you can see "Kagari" on a screen in one episode, and later on "Cagalli" in the back of a photo. Both refer to the same character.
      • And yet one fansub, in an episode after both spellings had already appeared in the show, decided to call her "Kikari."
  • Ah My Goddess: the names of Belldandy, Skuld and Urd come from three Norse goddesses: Verthandi, Skuld and Urth. The videogame Freelancer does a Shout Out to this series by naming three battleships like the Norse goddesses.
    • Note, however, that the original Norse source materials often use "th" and "d" sounds almost interchangeably. Sometimes the king of the gods is Odin, sometimes he's Othin.
      • This is actually a case of Norse having a distinct letter ð for the voiced "th" sound. It's transliterated in modern English as th and in most Scandinavian languages as dh or d.
  • Hellsing is famous for this. "Alucard" is a classic Sdrawkcab Name, but subtitles (Arucard) seem to say otherwise. Kanji purists go with "Arcard". Walter C. Dollneaz/Dollners/Dornez (this one being the Dark Horse-used one) and Pip Bernadotte/Bernadette have more conventional name problems, while British woman Integra/Integral has the knightly title "Sir"; in real life, female British knights use the title "Dame". Meanwhile, Ceres/Seras Victoria has no official spelling (although in chapter 6 the writing on the wall looks suspiciously like "Serase"), and her name sounds like it's in reversed (i.e., Japanese) order. And the name of the show itself is supposed to refer to Bram Stoker's Dr. Van Helsing.
    • As far as the "sir" thing goes, while it may not be realistic, Integra is portrayed as an extremely masculine character to the point where it's not implausible that she would be given a masculine title instead of a feminine one.
  • Kururu (Kululu), Angol Moa (Angolmois), and Rabie (Lavie) in Keroro Gunsou.
  • Luffy (Ruffy) and Zoro (Zolo) from One Piece, although Zorro is a likely influence for a swordsman character. ("Luffy" and "Zoro" are both later confirmed as the official English spellings on the Wanted Posters in the Japanese version).
    • Ironically enough, the German dub insists on Ruffy, pronouncing it in a perfectly English way.
    • There's also the dispute over Roguetown vs. Loguetown (as in "prologue" and "epilogue"); the guy that makes the series spells it in the series as "Loguetown"; it got changed in the dub.
    • There are lots of characters in this series that have their names weirded up by fans, other people in the publication process, or the thankfully-soon-to-be-forgotten 4Kids Macekre: Mr. 2 Bon Kurei (Bon Clay), Don Krieg (Don Creek), Nefertari Vivi (Nefeltari Vivi, Nefertari Bibi), Portgas D Ace (Porgaz D Trace, Puma D Ace). The first ones are the correct versions used in the actual manga, or stated by Word Of God from Oda himself.
    • The English dub has no choice with Zoro/Zolo - the copyright holder of Zorro complained.
    • There's also "Navy" vs. "Marines." While in etymology (kaigun) and role it is VERY obviously a Navy, pretty much everything they own has "MARINE" printed on it in big block letters. Though "Navy" is probably the correct term, it's often criticized as a kneejerk reaction to the Macekre removing all instances of "MARINE" and replacing them with "NAVY".
      • And don't forget that "Marine" is, in several languages, a direct translation of the English "Navy".
    • There also seems to be some confusion on if it's Blueno or Bruno.
    • There's also the interesting case of Zoro's surname. Oda has admitted he's named, just like several other characters, after a real-life pirate, in this case François l'Olonnois. The Wanted posters still write his name Roronoa.
  • The English releases of the series that made up Robotech — Macross, Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada — deliberately used different spellings for the characters and races whose names weren't changed. For example, Roy Fokker instead of Roy Focker, or the Invid instead of Inbit.
    • Super Dimension Fortress Macross's secondary character Millia was a notable offender. Her first name has been spelled Millia, Milliya, Milia, Miliya, Miria, and Miriya. Then there's her Zentraedi surname, which has been translated most often as variants of "Fallyna", though some subtitles inexplicably translate it as "Parino"; this could be taken from the one time it was used in Robotech, where it was given as "Parina"
      • Almost none of the Zentradi characters escape this. Mostly because the eventual official spellings of their names are completely impossible to reproduce in Japanese. (the only ones that did were the three spies Warera, Rori, and Konda, because the portmanteau of their names is a pun in Japanese).
      • On the flipside, we have their leader, Gorg/Golg Dolza/Bodolza/Bodolzer/Bodolzar/Bodol Za/Boddole Zer. Official translation: Boddole Zer.
      • or his subordinates, Breetai Kridanik/Britai Kridaniku/Vhrlitwhai Kridaniku and Exedore Formo/Exsedol Folmo. THEN, the movies dump the surnames altogether and assign each Zentradi a number... So Yeah....
    • Macross 7's Big Bad, Geppelnich, is one of the worst. Potential spellings include Gepplenitch, Geppernitch, Geppernich, Geperuniti, or Geperunitchi. The Dragon for the second half of the series, Gavil, and his monstrous minion Gravil similarly have their names sometimes translated as Gabil and Grabil.
    • And continuing the proud tradition, the character "クラン クラン" in Macross Frontier is an enigma wrapped in a mystery for spelling. The katakana is included - the literal pronunciation is "Kuran Kuran" - because absolutely no consensus exists as to how the name should be pronounced in English. Official materials offer no assistance, there's possibly some Theme Naming buried in there, but as of now, nobody can reach any conclusion as to the spelling. Klan Klein, Klein Klan, Klan Klan, Klein Klein and a literal transliteration have all been offered.
      • It's officially, according to a magazine article, "Clan Clang". WHAT THE HELL?!
  • "Anshii" vs. "Anthy" from Revolutionary Girl Utena, even though "Anthy" is a genuine name in Greek with a story-relevant meaning, while "Anshii" is nonsense generated from the transliteration.
  • Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha's signature weapon is clearly called and consistently labeled Raising Heart, though the original fansubs made the similar, gramatical, and slightly more badass-sounding "Raging Heart" popular for a time.
    • The names of characters, however, are less clear. Their spellings aren't even consistent in the various different official sources, even though the dialogue makes the automobile Theme Naming obvious. On the other hand, this hasn't stopped fansubbers from using Yuuno instead of the more likely Euno...The official site tries to clear up a lot of confusion (stating that Yuuno is indeed spelled Yuuno, for example), however, fans are still hesitant to use the official spelling for some of the other names, the most popular example being Zafila, whom many still prefer to call Zafira.
    • Understandable as, given the aforementioned Theme Naming, "Zafira" makes much more sense.
      • Caro presents an odd example, as she's clearly named after her tribe, so they should be spelled the same; instead, her surname is always written "ru Lushe" or "Ru Lushe", yet the tribe itself is called "Lu-Lushe". Even her employee card uses both spellings.
      • In the early days before Striker S airing, this troper remembers how Caro's full name, romaji'ed "kyarorurushe", was transliterated into Carole Loussier. That is, until after canon materials state the otherwise. Hey, it makes sense...
  • Tokyopop seems to like these.
    • .hack// has them in droves. Characters' names are phonetically spelled (Lios/"Ryos"), spelling idiosyncrasies are inconsistently used ("BlackRose"/"Black Rose"/"Blackrose"), character names are switched around...
    • Besides not being able to decide which romanization system to use in Kidou Tenshi Angelic Layer, they also referred to Ranga as "Lanka", despite the fact that her name can't even be written that way.
    • Tokyopop gave the name of the main character of the Mobile Suit Gundam spinoff manga G-Unit (Last Outpost in America) as "Odin Bernett", despite the fact that it appears as "Adin Barnett" in both merchandise and in the manga itself.
    • The ultimate offender under their label has to be Tokyo Mew Mew. The girls' Theme Naming presented a problem that the translators dealt with by calling, say, Minto/Mew Mint simply "Mint", Retasu/Mew Lettuce "Lettuce", et cetera. The Chinese Girl, Hwang Bu-ling, found herself as both "Pudding Fong" (to match her super callsign, Mew Pudding) and "Fon Purin" (the katakana of her loan-word name; although most of her friends call her that, she refers to herself as Bu-ling, as does everyone capable of pronouncing Chinese names). And don't even get me started on the weapons; they had a different name every time they were used. (For the record, they're quasi-English puns: Strawberbell [or Strawbellbell], Mintonarrow, Lettastanets, Puringrings, Zakuross.)
    • One of Tokyo Pop's early and most egregious errors was during their translation of Magic Knight Rayearth In which one particular character's name was romanized (rather than translated properly) TWO DIFFERENT WAYS in the SAME ISSUE of the magazine.
    • Tokyopop's release of Rozen Maiden can't seem to keep Suigintou's name straight, changing the spelling sometimes multiple times within a single volume (Suiguintoh, Suigintoh, Suiguintou...). Her owner's name changes from Megu to Meg and back, and in a finishing touch of incompetence, when the dolls in the last volume begin to refer to each other by the colors of the roses they are associated with (Black Rose, etc.), Tokyopop chose to leave these untranslated. In case you wondered who the hell are Kurobara, Shirobara etc. and what do they have got to do with anything.
  • Sailor Moon deserves its own mention, because thanks to how many different people handled the series and how long fans relied on each other for translations, the Theme Naming causes a lot of difficulties. The vast amount of minerology puns meant most of the villains had their names wrong in one version or another. Then there were also numerous villains who drew their names from foreign loan words, meaning that the names could have already be mistranslated into Japanese and required a discerning translator to pick up the reference. Since Sailor Moon pretty much *never* had discerning translators, you can imagine how well the names came out.
    • "Zoisite" was actually changed to "Zoycite" in the dub, but many fans still screw his (yes, his) name up when talking about the Japanese version.
    • How about poor Queen Metalia? Though Word Of God from Naoko Takeuchi claims that her name is supposed to be written "Metaria", this is also the woman who says that you should write "Seeraa" instead of "Sailor". Regardless, the Big Bad of season one has had her name written as Metalia, Metallia and Metaria. This troper had a long argument with his girlfriend on the proper way to spell her name.
    • The two villains from the R filler arc are supposed to have a name that's a pun on "Alien". Unfortunately, the Engrish is so bad that translating it literally gets "Eiru" and "An", and trying to get it using English phonetics led a lot of fans to use "Ail" and "Annn" because they read it on the internet, though the pronunciation of "ail" in particular is completely off using Japanese phonetics and romanizing it that way is nonsensical. ADV Films, who subtitled the arc, used "Ali" and "En" to try and keep the pun intact even though it is not a literal translation.
    • Oh, the poor Black Moon Clan. Even without the confusion dub names cause, the only spellings the entire fandom seem to agree on are Rubeus and Petz. This troper has seen Esmeraude/Esmerelda, Demando/Demand, Cooan/Kooan, Calaveras/Karaberas, Berthier/Beruche, and of course, Saffir/Saphiru/Safiru/Saphir.
      • The fandom seems to have settled down on the etymologically correct Berthier, mainly because ADV Films caught what "Beruche" was supposed to stand for and subtitled it correctly. Calaveras is also settled on because her name comes from a mineral named after an American location - Calaveras County, California.
      • The dub itself didn't seem to remember what Berthier's English name was. Officially, it was supposed to be "Bertie", but the dialogue from the other characters indicates that actors themselves thought it was "Birdy" and the script made many bird references to her which only further confused things. The dub also sometimes added an extra 'b' to "Rubeus" and couldn't decide whether Petz' new name should be "Prisma" or "Prizma".
    • The Death Busters were mangled left and right. Geneon's subtitles for Sailormoon S gave "Eugeal" and "Yujial" to "Eudial", Telulu to Tellu, Byruit to Viluy, Cyprin to Cyprine, Petirol to Ptilol, and Kaorinite to Kaolinite. Tokyo Pop somehow mangled "Ptilol" into Petite Roll, and amusingly changed Kaolinite's latin title, Magus (mage), to Magnus (large). They also called her "Kaori Night". A US doll box and popular fan mistranslation also called her "Kaori Knight". The English dub spelled Mimete's name as "Mimet", but pronounced it the same way as her Japanese name. It's also notable that many fans had trouble with Ptilol's name because it's not pronounced the way it's spelled, leading to such mutations as "Pikurol" or "Puchirol" that ignored the etymology.
    • The Lemures were "Remless" in the English subtitles by Geneon, even though Lemures actually is a type of mythical creature.
    • The Dead Moon Circus has its own problems. For starters, Queen Nehellenia is a mythological reference which many people mistook for another mineral reference to "nephrite", thus giving "Queen Nepherenia" (or "Queen Nephelenia" for the mineral "nepheline"). And three of the Amazoness Quartet keep running into this problem - CereCere became "Cele Cele" in the dub, PallaPalla became "Para Para", and VesVes became "Besu Besu" in the dub and "BethBeth" in the subtitles (because the "su" character can also be used to stand in for "th", a sound that doesn't exist in Japanese). All four girls are named for asteroids, which themselves were all named for Roman goddesses (Ceres, Vesta, Pallas, and Juno), which you'd *think* would be a hint as to how to spell their names right.
      • And speaking of that subject, there is a lot of Internet Backdraft related to the Amazones Quartetto/Amazoness Quartet. Namely over the fact that by definition, an Amazon is female and the Greek pluralization is "Amazones", but one piece of Japanese merchandise romanized it to "Amazoness" and that spelling had been accepted for years, so it could also be an example of Engrish (Gleek?). Geneon used it when they didn't ignore it entirely and replace it with "Amazon." The dub always called them the Amazon Quartet. "Quartetto" is either actual Italian, or it's a literal romanization of "Quartet". People get very passionate about this name.
    • The Super S movie has several characters that are named after French pastries. However, because of the Engrish (Flench?), the official translation by Geneon botched most of them and the fans botched all of the rest. For the record, the Quirky Mini Boss Squad is Perle, Poupelin, Banane, and Orangeat, the Big Bad is Madame Badiane, the little minions that come from Papillotte Candy are the Bonbon Babies, and the fortress is the Marzipannu Castle.
    • Tokyopop changed "Sailor Lead Crow" to "Sailor Red Crow", missing the metal Theme Naming present in the Sailor Animamates. And fans still argue over Aluminum Seiren/Siren. She pronounces it the first way, which is appropriate to the Greek spelling, but apparently, since it translates to "Siren", some people figure that it's easier to just call her that. The Tokyopop manga used "Siren", but these are the "Petite Roll" people, so that's hardly a glowing indication of veracity.
    • Then there's the fans who call Princess Serenity and Queen Serenity "Selenity" despite Serenity being a word and reference to an actual lunar landmark and Selenity being gobbledygook. Queen Serenity says at one point that she is an incarnation of the Greek goddess Selene, but there are enough "Serenity" references in the series to make it clear that that is their name.
    • And by the way, is "Sailormoon" (and Sailormercury, etc.) one word or two? Not all of the Japanese sources seem to agree.
    • And that's just the characters' names. When you start getting into the items and magic powers, it gets even murkier because a lot of them used loan words that sound strange when romanized literally and could well have been spelled wrong just from converting them from, say, French to Japanese to English. Then consider that none of the companies involved were consistent about what name goes where and its enough to make you cross-eyed. Sailor Moon fans have it rough.
      • All right, one item. Chibimoon has an item in Super S called the "Stallion Reve". "Reve" is French for "dream", which makes sense considering what the power does and the whole dream theme in Super S. Some fans actually translated it to "Stallion Lav". "Lav" is French for "Bath." Note the utter lack of monsters getting showers from Chibimoon.
      • This troper (rather ashamedly) thought it was Stallion Rave. At least that's how it was subtitled...
  • Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch, according to entry-level fans that only saw the fansubs, is the story of "Luchia" and her love for "Kaitou". Her friend "Lina" is depressed about the loss of "Nuil", which "Karen" blames her for. Need we go on?
    • Even in the series itself, there were problems. The main antagonist of the first arc of the manga is named Gakuto. His name is written in katakana for most of the series, and is meant to evoke the singer Gackt, leaving his name as Gackto. However, once and only once, he uses kanji for his name that can only be read as Gakuto. And on top of that, the anime called him Gaito to distance the character from the singer and play up the connection to Kaito.
    • And the prototype for Lucia, Lyre, is called "Riiru", a nonsense name, by the usually-accurate manga translation.
    • Heck, when it comes to fansubs, it seems that the only names kept consistent by subbers are those of Hanon, Hippo, and Maria.
  • Intentionally done in the American releases of Tenchi Muyo: the character Aeka is spelled as Ayeka, so the audience knows the vowels are pronounced separately. This has the unfortunate result that the name became even more badly mangled than it would have been if the original Romanisation had been used: ah-eh-ka became eye-yay-ka.
  • Many Japanese Transformers names suffer from this, and it's a running gag with in the fandom. Deathsaurus/Dezarus/Deathsanras/Debt Source (if you're in a particularly snarky mood) is a key example, as is Minerva/Minelba/jailbait. The fact that Transformers tend to have entirely different names altogether outside of Japan is actually a blessing: There is no way any transliteration of Bardigus/Vuldigus/Barudigasu would look as good on a box as Ruination does.
    • Also, Violen Jygar/Violent Jaguar/Violenjiga/Violent Jigga/Violent Chigger/Bio Ranger Iga/Vio Lenja Igar/Violin Juggler.
    • Beating them all is Rartorata/Rartorarta/Rartalarta/Rappakaffalatta/Red Alert/Roto-Rooter/Lartarartolarltorartlroar/Lertlerta/Ratatouille/Throatwarbler Mangrove who has the drawback that his name is a "nonsense word" to begin with.
    • Not to mention Tarantulus/Tarantulas from Beast Wars.
  • Karin and her two siblings use the last name "Maaka", yet their parents, Henry and Carrera, have elected to use the surname "Marker". This is entirely intentional, though. The series explains from the very beginning that the family moved from Europe to Japan. The kids, having been raised in Japanese society, adopted the Japanese spelling, while the old-timey parents retained the original European spelling.
  • From Full Metal Alchemist, some names that appear in different forms depending on the translator are Gracia/Glacier, Lan Fan/Ran Fan/Ranfun, Riza/Liza, Halcrow/Hakuro, Olivia/Olivier and Lyra/Lyla/Ryla.
    • The Funimation dub uses place names like Lior and Ishbal, while the creator, Hiromu Arakawa, uses Reole and Ishval. The English manga can't seem to make up its mind which versions to use; for instance, fluctuating between "Ishbal" and "Ishvarla", "Xerxes" and "Cserksess", etc.
    • Almost all the names in Fullmetal Alchemist have been disputed at one point or another, from Winry/Winly to Huey/Fury/Fuery to Marta/Martyl/Martel Resembool Risembool Rizenbul Rizembool Rizembul Rizenbool Risempool ...the Elric brothers' hometown. This editor has started keeping a list of all the different spellings, just for kicks.
      • Add another one to the list: Liesenburgh. Found in a scanlation of chapter 8.
      • The Spanish official translation of the manga has it Riesenburg (German for Castle of Giants or Giantville).
      • One cannot forget Liesenbough, either. This troper never thought she'd be able to put that list to use.
      • With the characters Lin/Ling Yao and Mei/May Chan/Chang, a G was added top their names within one or two volumes for no apparent reason than the translators forgot their own name choice.
    • Not to mention the fans who insist on calling Ed and Al "Edo" and "Aru"... although the fact that their names should be rendered in English is painfully obvious.
    • There's argument over whether the librarian should be "Scieszka" or "Sheska". There's not much agreement between the English releases either.
      • Even Funimation's subtitles differ from their own liner notes on this one.
    • The strangest is Lan Fan's grandfather who the fans refer to as Fu, the official perfect guide for the manga refers to him as "Who", apparently Arakawa likes baseball.
  • Virtually all of the character and place names from the Bastard! anime are taken from the names of 80s Heavy Metal bands. In the dubbed version, most of these are warped into unrecognizable variants. This was mostly to avoid getting sued by the bands for trademark infringement when the anime was released in the U.S. We know how touchy some metal bands can be when it comes to their legal rights (I'm looking at you, Metallica Meta-rikana).
  • D.GrayMan has a character who the Japanese have already romanized as "Arystar Krory", but to English speakers, the name is obviously a reference to Aleister Crowley. Still, Krory is officially Arystar Krory in the English manga.
    • Not to mention the million different spellings of Rinali Linali Linalee Lenalee ... that one Chinese girl's name. Plus, her surname can be romanized as either Lee or Li. And then there's Rabi vs. Lavi and Tyki Mikk vs. Ticky Mick and... basically 90% of the characters in the series are subject to this.
    • Luckily, the author added a nice chart with all the characters's names, in English, to one of the volumes. A similar chart (also English) followed one of the anime episodes. Most of the spellings were different.
  • Intentionally done with Bulma's family in Dragon Ball, to hide the fact that all of them are named after underwear. While "Briefs" (buriifu) and "Trunks" (torankusu) are kept, "Buruma" (Bloomers, via a Gratuitous English brand name) becomes "Bulma" and "Bura" (Bra) becomes "Bulla."
    • To be perfectly fair, while intended to be a pun on bloomers/buruma, the character's very first appearance (and several subsequent ones) has her wearing a shirt with 'Bulma' printed right across her chest. Her creator messed up his L/Rs and it's stuck. The spelling itself is consistent, if the characters still always call her 'Buruma.'
    • As if that's the only example in Dragon Ball (maybe the only intentional one.) While names like Krillen/Kuririn or Yamcha/Yamucha can be hotly debated for hours, one has to wonder why anyone would think that blatantly English words such as "Piccolo" or "Garlic Jr." could ever be taken at face value as "Pikkoro" or "Gaariku Juniya."
    • The biggest offender is the character "Rikuumu", whose name is a pun on "cream" (spelled "kuriimu" in Japanese). Due to the extended vowel being it's own character, this is a simple matter of switching the two first characters, ku and ri, in the base word, but the result is completely impossible to spell out in English while keeping the pun. The official subtitles settled on "ReaCoom", which no one would ever see as a pun on the word "cream" unless actually told so.
    • This troper once knew someone who insisted on always spelling Gotenks and Trunks as "Gotenkusu" and "Torankusu". ALWAYS.
  • Cz/Shiizu and Celia/Sillia Mauser in Scrapped Princess. This being despite the running theme of naming characters after firearms (and related terms).
  • Mai-Otome, which includes Loads And Loads Of Characters with Western-sounding names, is literally full of this despite the fact that official romanizations are available on the official website... except, for some reason, for Lena Sayers, leading to her name being consistently and incorrectly spelled "Rena" in fandom (and the credits for the English version). And that's not even taking into account GEM or country names...
  • The lead character of Gunsmith Cats was given the official English name of Rally Vincent, but Word Of God is that her name is actually Larry Vincent.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh suffers an interesting case of this: one of the show's characters is an Mysterious Waif whose name was presumably intended to be "Isis", in a nod to the Egyptian goddess. However, since the Japanese language lacks the sounds to pronounce the name exactly as Westerners do, it was rendered as "Ishizu". This name had to be retained even in the American version, since "Isis" wouldn't fit the lip-flaps. As it happens, Ishizu is the name of a Sumerian goddess similar to Isis.
    • This is somewhat justified—she's Ishizu, but her ancient Egyptian counterpart is "Isis" (Ishisu—note it's su, not zu).
      • Actually, the romaji spelling for her Ancient Egyptian incarnation's name is Aishisu, which is a more accurate pronunciation of "Isis". "Ishizu" is probably a derivation/corruption of the original name.
    • Meanwhile, the big bad of the Battle City story arc has his named rendered as "Marik", rather than "Malik" (which is an Arabic word meaning "ruler").
  • On the Yu-Gi-OhGX side of things, there are at least two people in the world who think that Yubel's name is actually supposed to be Juwel, as in the German word for jewel. (Remember that in German, J's sound like Y's and W's sound like V's.) Considering that ALL of her alternate forms also have German names, this might not be too far off base.
  • Real Robot series often experience a dissonance between official names and Romaji, as a result of their heavy use of foreign names. In particular, Mobile Suit Gundam has examples such as Char/Shar/Shaa, Judau Ashita/Judo/Ashta, and the rather embarassing Quattro Bajeena, often rendered in Japanese sources as... Quattro Vagina.
    • Gundam Wing in particular has a surprising number of fans who insist upon using phonetic versions of the cast's names (eg. Hiiro Yui, Kyatora), despite the fact that official English spellings have existed almost since Day 1 (Heero Yuy, Quatre).
    • A play on this occurs with Gundam SEED, wherein major character Athrun Zala has been given the Fan Nickname "Assram", reflecting the attitude some viewers have for his special friendship with protagonist Kira Yamato.
    • Unlike many examples here that ignore Theme Naming, the Soukou No Strain fansubs initially ignored on-screen references to "Sara Cruz", calling her "Sara Crewe" because of the theme. There's also Ermy, who is supposed to be named after Ermengarde St. John, but whose name was on the fansubs as "Amy". And the fact that everyone's last name is a variation on that of their Hodgson Burnett counterpart (usually a Significant Anagram) makes them somewhat clumsy and difficult to pronounce, so "Gelh", "Johannits", "Reberth" and "Shoebbeypower" had a lot of alternatives before they were written onscreen.
    • Full Metal Panic! has captain Teletha Testarossa (which, considering she is supposedly Italian, should probably have been 'Teresa' or, if her parents went for the Gratutious English, 'Theresa', especially given that she goes by the nickname 'Tessa'). In addition, there is lieutenant Belfangan Grouseaux/Closeaux/Clouseau (French), and the Urzu/Uruz/Uluz mecha strike team.
  • Similar to Gundam, Code Geass uses Western names heavily. The most prominent example is Kallen Stadtfelt, who some fans still call "Karen" despite Word Of God reinforcing "Kallen" as official. In a similar but stranger fashion, there seems to be heavy disagreement over whether female lead C.C.'s name should be pronounced "C-Two" or "Cici" (the former is official). This editor encountered a fan sub which referenced Rivalz as Leval, which would certainly make sense for a citizen of the somewhat Gallic Britannia. (Just to add to it, the American actors render the name as sounding something like "Rivvle" in an attempt to preserve the original pronunciation).
    • It even extends to organizations; the fan-preferred name for La Resistance is "The Order of the Black Knights", which is a slightly mangled translation of "Kuro no Kishidan". The official translation is simply "The Black Knights", but most fans continue to use the longer name, presumably because it just sounds cooler.
      • Similarly, the secret organization that appears in early R2; this troper has seen it reffered to as the Order, the Geass Cult, or the Geass Directorate.
      • Add another one to that list; in-series documents give the name of the group as "The Followers of Geass".
    • He's not particularly important, but there seems to have been some confusion regarding Carares/Carales/Calares (the latter is apparently the official version).
    • The soup of disputed spellings continues to thicken as R2 continues its run in America, with even the Emperor's name now coming into question. Originally, fans generally accepted "Charles di Britannia" as the spelling, but now both the show and the first light novel spell it "Charles zi Britannia".
      • The confusion here stems from the fact that Japanese sometimes uses the same characters for words beginning with G, D, and Z; this lead to a debate over whether Britannia's Knight the Third was named "Gino Weinberg" or "Zino Weinberg", both of which were used in magazines and official sources. For the record, "Gino" is used in the American dub.
      • Come to think of it, that's another one. "Knight of Rounds" (as it's said in Japan) was given the obvious translation into "Knights of the Round". However, the individual member titles were changed as well; while the Japanese version has them as "Knight of (number)", the dub uses the slightly more poetic "Knight the (number)th"; for example, Suzaku is the Knight of Seven in Japan and Knight the Seventh in America.
      • Many fansubs refer to Nunnally as Nanaly.
  • The official translation of Serial Experiments Lain lost something in calling the protagonist's best friend forever Arisu. Since much of the series' plot hangs on themes of disconnect and dissociation (sometimes to the levels of schizophrenic psychosis), an opportunity was missed to emphasize them in a subtle way. Consider, if you will, the whole l/r thing and think about what their names are. Lain. Alice. "Arisu" isn't any weirder than any other Japanese name to American ears, so why should she say "Isn't that weird?" whe she introduces herself. Everyone around the two of them has nice normal Japanese names, but they've got English names. They're different. It's just one more reason they're fated friends (and possible ((but never explicit)) Schoolgirl Lesbians). Not to mention all the times Arisu/Alice gets thrown down the metaphorical rabbit hole.
  • Makubex/MakubeX/Makube X from Get Backers.
  • In Naruto, Rock Lee's mentor has had both of his names vary in spelling: Might/Mighty/Maito Guy/Gai (official translation: Might Guy◊). Despite there being an official spelling, there's still too many fans who insist on one of the other spellings, however, much to the annoyance of purists.
    • To be fair, almost every translation prior to the official one had his name as Gai.
    • As a side note, the dub had Kisame mock his name by calling him "Mighty Stupid-looking Guy."
  • Simoun had its main character's name generally rendered as Aaeru, with some groups of fans insisting that this was a Japanization of 'Aelle' until the official romanization turned out to be 'Aer'.
  • Beet the Vandel Buster suffers from this several times. The first Vandel enemy of the series is identified as Mugine when characters are talking, but written as Mugain. The hometown of the heroes varies from Ankles to Uncruz and everywhere in between.
  • Some of the Espada from Bleach have two or three different spellings for their names. Is it Noitora or Nnoitra? Is Grimmjow's last name Jeagerjaques or Jaggerjack? The world may never know.
    • This troper has found that through official manga title pages and official C Ds, some characters' spellings have already been established. Examples: Nnoitra, Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, Nel, brothers Yylfordt and Szayel Aporro Granz, Aaroniero....but one we may never be sure of is that kid Arrancar: is it Wanderweiss or Wonderwice?
      • This troper still thinks that it's supposed to be Jagerjacques, combining a German "Jager" (means "hunter") and French "Jacques".
      • ... Well, that would be "Jaegerjacques," due to transliterating umlauts and such.
    • Though no one cares because it's filler, this troper finds the names of the modsouls introduced during the Bount arc more unnecessary. Lirin is as good a translation as any, but why would Noba and Kurodou be canonized over Nova and Cloud, or Claude.
    • Even before the Espadas, Bleach translations had this. For example, Zaraki Kenpachi was formerly known as Giraki Kenbachi, and before that Saraki Tsugurihachi (oy). Benihime (Urahara's zanpakuto) was Kurenaihime, believe me, the list goes on.
  • To the irritation of most of its Western fans, the beautifully dubbed Heroic Legend of Arislan switched horses in mid-stream and changed pronunciation for all major characters and cities after the first two films were released, turning Arislan, Daryoon, Narsus, Pharangese, and Gieve into Arslan, Darun, Narcasse, Farangis, and Guibu.
  • The hentai OVA Urotsukidouji features a German villain whose name is probably supposed to be "Münchhausen", but when the Japanese try to pronounce it it comes out as "Myunihausen" (which does not sound German at all), and this pronunciation carried over into the American dub.
  • Mahou Senshi Ryui, where the name of the main character, a sorcerer who acts like a brawler, can be translated as Ryui or Louie.
  • In Gungrave, minor character Blood War frequently had his name translated as Brad Wong by dubbers thrown off by the unusual pronunciation.
  • Fist Of The North Star has a major villain whose name is pronounced "Sauzaa". Now... how do you spell it? An action figure packaging spells it Souther, the arcade fighting game by Sega spells it Thouther, and the soundtrack for one of the movies spells it Thouzer.
  • In Digimon Tamers, Lee Jianliang and Xiaochang are half-Chinese and have Chinese names. Apparently, much of the fandom didn't get the memo, and continue to call them Jenrya and Shiuchon (or Shuichon, after an early translator's typo caught on).
    • In their defense, it's extremely unusual for someone living permanently in Japan to use a non-Japanese spelling or punctuation (Hell, it used to be outright illegal for citizens) and 90% of resident Chinese would use Jenrya and Shiuchon, just because that’s what everyone reading your name would call you.
      • The Jenrya and Shiuchon pronounciations would still be considered foreign. The natural Japanese pronounciation of their names would be Ri Kenryou and Ri Shoushun. Even then though, the structure of their names would still mark them as foreign.
  • The same thing happens to the male lead in Card Captor Sakura and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle. Some translations give his name as the romanized Li Syaoran or Shaoran, others the Chinese name Li Xiaolang.
    • This troper (who has an interest in Chinese languages) can attest that his name can be romanized as either Li Xiaolang or Li Hsiao Lang (this troper personally perfers the more modern Xiaolang spelling). On the other hand, since Xiaolong is from Hong Kong, his name really should be pronounced Lei Siulong.
    • The Cardcaptors dub, however, actually switched his name so that Li was his given name, his surname then becoming Showron. This admittedly isn't as bad as what was done to most characters, who got completely new names.
      • Some fans think Cardcaptors did this to Bowdlerise incest. Li Meiling is his cousin and also his fiance (until this is Retconned). Shifting around his name, while not shifting around Meiling's name (and romanizing "Li" as "Rae" for her) hides this.
    • Also from Tsubasa, Fye became Fai became Fay. Interestingly, Fay is pronounced how Fye and Fai would normally be. The official spelling is actually Fay D Flourite. His last name was previously also interpreted "Flowright", even being spelled as such in the official English manga. In fact, the Word Of God spelling is erroneous, as the name refers to the mineral fluorite, the sacred crystal in his wizard's staff. And there is no need for a period after the "D" because it's not an initial but a infixed title. Fay causes a great many translator migraines.
  • Digimon Data Squad (a.k.a. Digimon Savers) gave us the oddly romanized "BioRotosmon" & "BioSupinomon", instead of the more logical "BioLotusmon" & "BioSpinomon".
  • Almost every name in Hunter X Hunter comes with several alternate spellings (Kurapika/Curapica/Clapika, Ging/Gin/Jin, Freaks/Freecs, Zoldyck/Zaoldyeck, Uvogin/Ubougin, Ponds/Ponzu, Kaito/Kite, Kuroro/Quoll/Chrollo, etc.). There are a set of "official" spellings, but no one, not even the official English translation, uses them. Honestly, would you call a character Curarpikt, Hyskoa, Chzzok, Phalcnothdk, or Quwrof Wrlccywrlir when you could use something that makes phonetic sense?
    • Yes, because unpronounceable-looking words are awesome. I'd actually love to read those names along with hearing the Japanese V As pronounce them.
  • Di Gi Charat - One character is usually transliterated as "Rabi~en~Rose" - when it really ought to be "La Vie En Rose" - a French saying meaning "Life in Pink", or rather, "seeing through rose-colored glasses'.
    • To be fair, it was written as "Rabi~en~Rose" (or some variant of this) in the show's first opening theme.
  • The Pretty Cure/Precure franchise can't even decide what it's called. The English text in the original logo ("PRETTY CURE") doesn't actually match the Japanese text ("purikyua," i.e. "Precure"). Eventually, the English text was dropped from the logo, seemingly making it officially Precure, except that merchandise continued to romanize it as Pretty Cure, and the various theme songs very clearly pronounce it both ways, depending on what best fits the meter. Even the characters themselves don't seem to be able to decide, as demonstrated early in Yes! Whichever 5, where Nozomi first tells Karen about "purikyua," and Karen immediately respons "Puritikyua?"
    • Past that, despite the miracle of official websites with consistently-spelled names in the URLs, you'll occasionally see references to "Lynn" or "Ulala" (though oddly not "Kallen"). And some sites insist on turning Rin into the flat-out wrong "Karin" for some reason (shipping?).
    • It's extremely common in Japanese to shorten long, clumsy romanized words into 3 or 4 syllable "native" words. (e.g. waapuro for word processor, "jipan" for jean pants, "sutamen" for starting member, etc.) Shortening Pretty Cure to "purikyua" is merely following that tradition.
  • Viz Comics used the name "Tetsusaiga" for the sword in Inuyasha. This is a mistake resulting from a misinterpretation of the small 'tsu' character (which acts as consonant doubler for the next syllable) in the name; the correct spelling is "Tessaiga". The Other Wiki spread the error even further because its rules have been interpreted to use Viz's version, and to ignore the mistake.
    • While on the subject of Inuyasha, while all title cards and subtitles refer to a "Kirara", all characters pronounce the name "Kilala". Of course, in Japanese these are the same thing.
  • All the character names from Princess Tutu suffered from this in some of the subtitle releases, from going from Mytho to Mute and to the strange insistence to keep romanizations from Lillie to Ririe.
  • Even Samurai Pizza Cats has this, mostly because there's very little official sources to use for spelling the names. "Speedy Cerviche" is officially the title character's name. It's based on "ceviche", which is a kind of seafood salad. For years, many fans adopted the name "Service", using Italian phonetics, because it made the tidy pun of "Speedy Service". It's strange that this should happen in the English dub of a franchise, but there you go.
  • Chrono Crusade has this happen at least once in the official translation of the manga: Satella's name is sometimes given as "Stella". Then there's others like Aion/Ion, Chrono/Chrno, Azumaria/Azmaria...
  • The Joketsuzoku of Ranma 1/2 have had their names spelled all kinds of ways by the fandom beside their obvious Punny Name, particularly in fanfiction (Mousse and Cologne often become Mu Tsu and Kuh Lon, for example). Shampoo's had it the worst, with Shan Po, Shan Pu, Xian Pu, and other such interpretations.
  • In Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, the official translation refers to the Humungous Mecha as "Gunmen", confusing fans that had long since been calling them "Ganmen". Then there's the pronunciation of "Simon" (which is Romanized that way despite not being pronounced like the name Simon). The original uses "she-moan", while the dub uses "see-moan" (which both lead to humor as they both sound pretty dirty and like the girl's name "Simone"). There's also Rossiu/Rosshiu. Anothering thing is that the last word in the "Giga Drill Break(er)" is pronounced "Breakah", leading to confusion as to whether it's suppose to be "Breaker" or just "Break" (the latter is the official translation, but the former is more well-known in the fandom). The difference between Gunmen and Ganmen may be a case of Wooleyism, "Ganmen" is japanese for "Face", a reference to the fact that all of them have faces(some have two) while Gunmen is an english pun.
    • Later on, the mass-produced mecha built from Gurren Lagann's schematics are translated as Grappal by one segment of the fandom, and as Gulaparl in another. This Japanese-speaking troper has never figured out why nobody has translated it as "Grapple". It makes perfect sense with the katakana, and—bonus!—it's actually a word, like Gunmen, Drill Break(er), and the majority of the rest of the TTGL Engrish. Regardlessly, the official name is "Grapearl".
      • This troper has seen the name of the mecha given as an abbreviation of it's status as a "Gu"rren "La"gann "Pr"ototype.
    • It doesn't help that a lot of the names were romanized very differently then how they are pronounced, often to keep with Theme Naming. For example Viral is the official Romanization even though it's pronounced "VEE-ral", and "Thymilph" (after "thymine") even though it's pronounced "TEE-Mil".
      • That sounds more a case of wrong pronunciation than wrong spelling, really.
    • Then there's Yoko's village's name based on an in-universe alphabet and a bit of television footage of her winning a beauty contest of some sort, some concluded it was Rittonar; the official translation has gone with Littner, which this troper finds much nicer.
    • Lordgenome/Lord Genome is something between this and I Am Not Shazam.
  • In Crest Of The Stars and its sequels, the Abh have their own language, Baronh. Despite its Japanese roots, it has an alphabet, many sounds not in Japanese, and pronunciation rules almost as bizarre as English. In the English version, most Baronh words are transliterated from Japanese, ignoring the official romanization and pronunciation guides. For example, the name of the female protagonist "Ablïarsec Lamhirh" becomes "Aburiaru Rafiiru" in Japanese and "Abriel Lafiel" in English. The proper pronunciation is closer to "Ablyars Lafirh".
  • Most of the characters in Rose Of Versailles have fairly easily recognisable French names - except for one, who is variously referred to as Gerodere, Girodelle, Girondelle, Girodel, Girodet, Giradel and Jiroderu. It's not just a fan thing, either - most of those variants have appeared in official translations of the manga or anime.
  • The bespectacled orange Ojamajo has always been fansubbed as Hadzuki (to take account that the 2nd hiragana in her name is a "tsu" with a dakuten on it), but most other sources will write it as Hazuki.
  • The names of demons/mamodo in Gash Bell is a frequent source of frustration since the creator rarely gives them straight up English names, but an especially infuriating one is the guy who hangs out with a movie director and sings a garbled "Ode to Joy", which has been rendered as Kisu, Kiees, Keith, Kiss or Kiith.
  • Dirty Pair has Mugi/Mughi. (The latter spelling comes from the first episode of the OVA series retconning his name to be an acronym for "Military Utility Genetic Hiper (sic) Intelligence".)
  • Mahoromatic has Mashu/Matthew. (Tokyopop uses the former spelling, Geneon uses the latter.)

Western Animation
  • The Five Man Band's resident computer geek in Code Lyoko is Jeremy Belpois. Or was it... Jérémie Belpois? Apparently, either spelling is acceptable, and fans of the series accept either spelling equally.
    • It doesn't help that within the show itself, in his specific Eye Catch it is spelled "JEREMIE" in Season 1 and "JEREMY" starting Season 2.

Film
  • Practically any monster from a Godzilla movie — including Godzilla (originaly Gojira) himself.
    • Angirasu/Angilas/Angurus/Anguirus (the last finally being registered as a trademark in the 90s).
    • Kingu Gidora/Ghidrah/Ghidorah; also Death Ghidorah/Desgidora.
    • In almost all English versions except Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1993), the monster Radon (from "pteranodon") is called Rodan. Speculation as to why it was changed includes confusion with the element radon and a conflict with the name of a British brand of soap; nobody's exactly sure why.
    • Kingu Shiisaa/King Seesar/King Caesar — especially problematic because it implies a false Meaningful Name (Caesar = Roman emperors) while clouding its real one (Shiisaa = Okinawan mythic lion-dog).
    • In Godzilla vs. Destroyah, the monster's name was deliberately changed from "Destroyer" because a descriptive name like that is hard to trademark.
      • Also, Destroyah has been called Destoroyah.
    • Don't forget about Minya/Minilla/Minira/Milla.
    • Likewise there's Kamacuras/Gimantis and Kumonga/Spiega.
  • In Ralph Bakshi's Lord of the Rings, Saruman's name was changed to Aruman, probably to avoid confusion between him and Sauron. However they only used the new name about half the time, making everything that much more confusing.

Video Games
  • Aeris / Aerith from Finar Fantathy Theven is a canonical example, with the latter name being used in more current works, and some fans even using "Earisu" (the "literal" reading of the Japanese writing).
    • It's worth noting that this was supposed to be "Earth" (cf. "Cloud"); the translation into Japanese was part of the problem.
      • It was even explicitly given as "Aerith" in art books, toys released in Japan, and the like. Some who were in the middle of the Unpleasable Fanbase were certain Square did the name change just to cause arguments.
    • Not to mention the weird little group that think their names are Claude and Alice.
    • To heck with accuracy - this editor has always felt that "Aerith" sounds like something that a lisping six-year-old would call herself.
    • This troper uses "Aeri*" when using her name online and never gets called-out for it. He's yet to need to fall back on this in real life, but he figures it would require slurring.
  • Because Final Fantasy V went a long time without an official translation, the fan translations tended to disagree on what the English equivalent of "Kururu" was. Square eventually translated it as "Krile".
    • And then, of course, there's Butz/Bartz.
    • The villain's name being Exdeath or Exodus seems to be an issue, but it should be noted that everyone that's "Exdeath" in English is Ekusudesu in Japanese; meanwhile, everything that's "Exodus" is Ekusedesu. Of course Square itself is no help because the numerous references made to him in later games, such as the Esper in Final Fantasy XII and in Tactics, call him Exodus. It might be a deliberate play on words, or it might be Square toying with our heads.
  • Final Fantasy IV has a character named "Rydia". Some fans have thought this was a mistranslation of Lydia. Square Enix seems to disagree with them◊.
    • Rinoa from Final Fantasy VIII is a similar case, in that some fans have argued her name should be Lenore. A few fan-run websites initially translated her name as "Lenore" before an official romanization was released. Again, Square Enix◊ artwork from before the US release contradicts this.
    • Finally, while the Final Fantasy VI character was called "Sabin" in America, his Japanese name is "Mash". Because of the katakana, some fans have tried to insist his name should actually be "Matthew".
    • The "Claude and Alice" story above illustrates that apparently a lot of FF fans seems to want to find really boring "mistranslations" of the character's names.
  • One of the best examples of Ted Woolsey's videogame translations is the comic recurring enemy Ultros from Final Fantasy VI, who was originally named Orthros. Square seems to go back and forth on whether to keep it or not. A reference to him as a mark in Final Fantasy XII uses "Orthros", but when the GBA version of Final Fintasy VI came out in America with a fresh script, they went back to "Ultros."
    • Another FFVI example was lampshaded in the GBA enhanced port: at a certain point in the game, one of the guards in Figaro Castle will talk about how a certain group of people in the world argue about whether to spell Kefka's name with K's (as in Kefka) or C's (as in Cefca).
  • Final Fantasy Tactics had a few of these, such as Orlan/Olan, Omdolia/Omdoria, Ruvelia/Luveria, and Zarela/Zalera.
    • And then the rest of the games set in Ivalice came and did their earnest to "correct" these mistakes, from merely fixing errors in vague romanization (Queklain to Cúchulainn, Altima to Ultima, Adramelk to Adrammelch) to retconning names (Exdeath to Exodus) to adding token letters (Gafgarion to Gaffgarion), to rendering completely different spellings that made fans' heads spin (Algus to Argath).
      • In re: Gaf(f)garion, that might also have to do with pronunciation rules. A single 'f' in Celtic-derived languages (and from those who speak them!) is/can be pronounced like a 'v'; doubling the 'f' gives us a consistent pronunciation.
    • Non-name example but it still bears meaning: Dragon's Breath attacks were mistranslated as bracelet. Ex: Fire Bracelet.
    • The original translation couldn't always make up its mind within the same script, hence "Ivalice" was once called "Yvalice" and "Olan" was called "Orran" in the epilogue movie. The PSP remake was at least consistent.
  • The Fan Translation names from Tales Of Phantasia are still in use, with fans outright rejecting the Canon names after waiting a decade for an English release. There are some legitimate objections to parts of them, in particular that spellings like "Cless" and "Klarth" are used in all the Japanese source, such as manual graphics and even in the credits to the PSX remake of the game. However, "Cress" seems to make more sense for the hero, as it plays off "Mint" and "Arche".
    • It doesn't help that the fan translation got their original names for the main characters from an article in Nintendo Power in the 90s that was profiling the Japanese version, back when the game was brand new. Apparently Nintendo completely changed their minds on their romanizations a decade after release.
  • In the original Legend Of Zelda, there was an armored knight enemy called a "Darknut" by the instruction book. It was likely intended to be "Dark Knight"; nevertheless, it is such an iconic enemy that Western fans (and later sequels) have simply accepted "Darknut" as its name.
    • Also, the number of people who call Sheik "Shiek" is saddening. However, it is "Shiek" in Germany, because "Sheik" would be pronounced "shike", not "sheek" like it should be.
      • Oh, it gets worse: The official English release of Ocarina of Time misspells "Sheikah" as "Shiekah" in one Kakariko resident's dialogue.
    • And then we have Zoras vs. Zolas. This worked, though, because they look and behave like two separate species (Zora = tail-headed/nice; Zola = scaly and crested/Always Chaotic Evil [though the Zola King in A Link to the Past isn't so bad]). In Oracle of Ages, both types are referred to as Zoras; according to an NPC in the Zora village, they're the same species, with "Ocean Zoras" being the friendly variety, and "River Zoras" being the ene