[When fans contest the translated spelling of names from a foreign-language work.]
- Afganisu-tan: The protagonists, and the name of the manga. Fans can't decided whether it's "Afganisu-Tan" or "Afghanis-Tan". It should really be "Afuganisu-Tan" if it's spelled with Japanese phonetic pronunciation, but since both are the same word it could safely be either.
- Ah! My Goddess:
- The names of Urd, Belldandy and Skuld come from three Norse goddesses: Urðr, Verðandi and Skuld.
- Also: Mara/Marller. In this case, it's justified. The name is written as Marā, and the pronunciation for it is indeed closer to Marller than to Mara. The blunder, if anything, is on the official translation's part, because her name is most definitely NOT spelled the same way it's written.
- And Lind/Rind.
- Akame ga Kill!: Some fans prefer to romanize the name of the girl with the giant scissors as Schere (as in the German word for scissors). Yen Press decided to go with Sheele, resulting in a case of Lost in Translation.
- Area 88:
- The fictional North African/Middle Eastern nation is officially translated into English as Aslan. Aslan is Turkic in origin, and their expansionist past meant their territory ranged from the distal regions of Eastern Europe into the historically Mongolian regions of Central Asia and Siberia. Fans, however, prefer the spelling of Asran, on the basis of sounding faintly Middle Eastern.
- Hoover Kippenburg is a German pilot in the Area 88 manga. Because "Hoover" is an English name, some fans prefer translating to "Huber", a common German name.
- Mickey's last name is transliterated as "Simon" in some media and "Scymon" in others.
- The Aslanian royal family's name has been transliterated as Vashtar/Vashtal/Vashutarl/Vashtarl.
- Armored Trooper VOTOMS: Fans don't always agree with the Central Park Media efforts at translating this work into English.
- CPM translates the name as Vanilla Vartla, but fans have also preferred both Vanilla Bartler and Vanilla Batra.
- The twin scientists' names are spelled out as "Arron" and "Gurran" in CPM's translations, with their surname being "Schmitel" (although the "Schmittel" spelling has also been used). Fans have also preferred alternate romanizations of their given names, such as "Aaron", "Alon", "Gran", "Grand", or "Glan".
- The name of the woman in the Sunsa arc has been rendered as both Zophie Faldas and Sophie Faldas.
- The Quentian mercenary is usually referred to as "Ru Shako", but "Le Shako" has occasionally been seen.
- Yoran Pailsen's name is sometimes spelled as "Joran Pailsen" or "Joran Pelzen" in fansubs.
- Is the city called Uodo, or Woodo?
- Is the desert planet known as Sansa or Sunsa?
- The planet Quent in the final arc even had some confusion over its name, sometimes called "Quaint" or "Kuent" in fan translations.
- Attack on Titan fans have debated over almost every name; has Captain Levi/Rivaille, Eren Yeager/Jaeger/Jäger, Bertolt/Bertholdt Huber/Hoover/Fubar, Annie Leonhart/Leonhardt, Connie/Conny Springer, Sasha Blouse/Braus, Armin Arlert/Arlelt, and numerous other examples caused by ambiguous katakana. Though since the official name spellings have come out it died down a little.
- Hetalia: Axis Powers: Many character names are translated from their respective languages into Japanese in the first place, causing endless debates on the "right" translation from Japanese into English.
- Fans romanize Canada's first name as both "Matthew" and "Mathieu". In his case, this is actually plausible, since English and French have equal status as official languages in Canada.
- Fans spell Hungary's first name as either "Elizabeta" and "Elizaveta" based on the (ambiguous) katakana, "Erzsebet" based on the true Hungarian cognate, or "Elizabeth" when giving up and Anglicizing completely.
- Fans render Lithuania's first name as either "Toris" (a dog's name in Lithuanian), "Tolys" (an uncommon male Lithuanian name), "Tholis", "Thoris", "Tauras", or "Taurys". His surname has many variants too: Is it "Laurinaitis", "Lolinitis", "Rolinitis", "Laureatis", or "Lorinaitis"?
- Prussia's surname name was initially spelled "Weillschmidt" by some fans, but then it was pointed out that "Beilschmidt" was an actual German surname and a better fit for the katakana. Even so, you'll still see the first version.
- Belarus's name was initially translated as "Natalia Alfroskaya" by fans, but some claim the original kana suggests that "Arlovskaya" would be the more correct spelling (this is not helped by the real world difficulties in Russian-English transliteration, which also make it unclear whether Russia's surname should be "Braginsky" or "Braginski"). The fans that don't want to choose between "Natalia" or "Natalya" often simply call her by the diminutive "Natasha".
- Spain: Is it "Antonio Fernandez Carriedo" or "Antonio Hernandez Carriedo"? Both seem to actually have been given by the author, with "Hernandez" being the initial one. Surprisingly, this particular question is bigger in the Japanese than the English fandom.
- Fans have translated Italy Romano's first name as "Lovino Vargas" and "Rovino Vargas". The first is the more commonly used, although Lovino only exists as an Italian surname or as a very archaic given name (which could actually be appropriate given that he's really 900 years old). Meanwhile, Rovino exists as surname in Italian and is derived from an Italian word (rovinare) that means "to ruin" or "to fall".
- Poland's name (Feliks) is spelled with 'ks' instead of an 'x', and still some people make the mistake of writing it down as 'Felix'. Justified, in Poland there is no such thing as the letter 'x'.
- Switzerland's human name is usually given as "Vash Zwingli" (or "Vasch") by international fans, but Japanese fans usually refer to him as "Basch", "Bash", or "Bache". The katakana for his given name matches "Basch" the best, which also happens to be a German diminutive for "Sebastian". Good luck trying to use that spelling without a backdraft, though.
- According to the author, China's name can either be spelled "Wang Yao" or "Wang Yue". "Wong" is another alternative romanization for his surname.
- Though the katakana ("Teino") suggests Finland's human name is "Tino", "Timo" is a more correct and common name in Finnish.
- Estonia's name is either romanized as "Eduard von Bock" or "Edward von Fock".
- Bakugan: Dan's surname is officially spelled "Kuusou", but many fans spell it as Dan "Kuso".
- BECK: Fans debate on if his name is "Gordie" (short for "Gordon") or "Goldie" (a nickname referring to his gold front teeth).
- Beet the Vandel Buster fans have romanized the first Vandel enemy of the series as "Mugine" and "Mugain". The hometown of the heroes varies from "Ankles" to "Uncruz" and everywhere in between.
- Black Butler:
- In the Yen Press release, the maid is officially romanized to May-Rin. Fans, however, often prefer Maylene.
- In the Yen Press release, the cook is officially romanized to Baldo. Fans, however, often Bard or some variation thereof.
- He's called Bard in the FUNimation subtitles.
- One fan translation uses Baron Gelwin in one chapter and Baron Kelvin in another.
- Fansubbers for the anime could never decide if the name was to be spelled Greil, Grelle, or Grell, or the spelling of the surname (Sutcliffe/Sultcliffe/Sultcliff/Sutcliff). The last name is a reference to serial killer Peter Sutcliffe (the "Yorkshire Ripper"), at least.
