History SpellMyNameWithAnS / Anime

* In ''Manga/KimetsuNoYaiba'', while Zenitsu is the most common way his name has been spelled for western audiences, a more proper romanization would be ''Zen'itsu'' to indicate its correct pronunciation, there’s emphasis on the Zen (''Zen - i - tsu'') instead of saying it like ''Ze - ni - tsu''. Then there’s the author herself trying to give it an original spin, Gotouge has said the emphasis on the "tsu" should be bigger than on "Zen".

** A character whose name was always translated as Shiryu was later confirmed to have the official spelling of Shiliew. This is one case where most of the fandom just sticks with the first name, because it looks cooler and is easier to remember.

** First up is Julie Sakuma Dmitriyevich. Or is it Yuri? "Dmitriyevich" is about as Russian as you can get, but his given name in katakana is spelled differently (ユリー) than the Russian male name usually is (ユーリ). In fact, ユリー is usually how the feminine German name Julie is spelled in Japanese, and since "Sakuma" is a Japanese surname, it's likely his name is meant to be a combination of different ethnicities. For even more confusion, Crunchyroll and Hulu's official subtitles use "Julie," while Sentai's dub uses "Yuri." And that's not even getting into the NameOrderConfusion (in short, his patronymic should come after his ''given'' name, not surname).

** There's also "Navy" vs. "Marines." While in etymology (''kaigun'') and role it is VERY obviously a Navy, pretty much everything they own has "[[GratuitousEnglish MARINE]]" printed on it in big block letters. Though "Navy" is probably the correct term, it's often criticized in a kneejerk reaction to the [[Creator/FourKidsEntertainment 4Kids]] {{Macekre}}, which digitally erased all instances of "MARINE" and replaced them with "NAVY".of course it could be, the author just forgot.
*** And don't forget that "Marine" is, in several languages, a direct translation of the English "Navy".
*** Also don't forget that, even in English, the civilian shipping capacity of a nation is often called its Merchant Marine. The two words shared a meaning at some point in the past, which sort of muddles the issue.

** Most recent perhaps is the giant Luffy-powered zombie Ouzu/Oz/Odz. Oz is the most common spelling of his name, but a strong theory is that the name is meant to refer to Odr, a god of the Norse Pantheon. Some translators have thus mixed Oz and Odr together to make the spelling "Odz." Some fans have [[TakeAThirdOption taken a third option]] and just use "Odr."
*** Chapter 551 shows [[spoiler:a ship with the word Oars III.]] Chapter 554 reveals [[spoiler:that the descendant of the giant zombie is one of Whitebeard's allies.]] So now some think "Oars" is the official spelling.

** Crunchyroll started out using the spelling Big Mam (since the katakana reads as "Biggu Mamu") for the female member of the Yonkou, then later changed it to the more sensible Big Mom (which is confirmed in-series by way of being written on her ship's sails).

* ''Manga/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' is notorious for this for a few reasons. First, some official English names were missed by fans in favor of names that made more sense with the MusicalThemeNaming the series uses when their names were officially written differently to avoid copyright or trademark issues; examples include the three Pillar Men [[Music/TheCars Kars]], [[Music/GeorgeMichael Wamuu]], and [[Music/{{ACDC}} Esidisi]] (the pronunciation of all of their names but Kars' differs from the original bands) and Stands such as [[Music/{{Kraftwerk}} Kraft Work]], Little Feet, and [[Music/NatKingCole Nut King Call]]. A second case arose from characters getting renamed for English language releases of ''[=JoJo=]'' media, such as [[Music/{{Devo}} Devo the Cursed]] becoming "D'Bo" and [[Music/TheBeatles Rubber Soul]] becoming "Robber Soul" in [[VideoGame/JoJosBizarreAdventureHeritageForTheFuture the Capcom fighter]]. A third situation arose from fan translators just blatantly ignoring original English text that spelled out "CUJOH, JOLYNE" in ''Stone Ocean'' chapter 2 in favor of "Jolyne Kujo", as her father is Jotaro Kujo, when the .[[note]]"Cujoh" is explained as the family "Westernizing" their surname after they moved to the United States[[/note]]. Of course, there are two more blatant examples of the issue cropping up:

** ''Data Squad'' also has the Royal Knights' [=LoadKnightmon=], as "load" is an actual English word but it makes absolutely no sense in this context. Bandai of America previously called him "[=LordKnightmon=]," while most of the fandom seemed to prefer "[=RhodoKnightmon=]," as a pun on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhodonite rhodonite]], which matches his color scheme. Adding to the fun, the dub of ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'' a few years earlier took the DubNameChange route and just called its version Crusadermon.

* Most of the characters in ''Anime/{{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.

** ''Anime/MahoGirlsPrecure'' had one with one of its main heroines: Is it Riko or Liko? Initially, many people, including initial fansubs, have thought it was "Riko" (going with the idea that Japanese doesn't have a real "L"-sounding character). However, official merchandise began using "Liko" as the spelling and it was made canon in Episode 40 in plain English lettering. However, some groups, such as the moderators of the Wikia page for Pretty Cure, adamantly keep it as "Riko" despite evidence to the contrary.

** One point of contention is the character known in the subtitles as Majin Boo, in most English-dubbed material as Majin Buu, and in the manga as Djinn-Boo. His name goes alongside his master Babidi, and Babidi's father Bibidi, to form a reference to the classic Disney song Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo. A direct transliteration from Japanese would be Majin Bū. Buu is an acceptable way to transliterate the Bū part, though it is a rather odd choice, so the manga and official subtitles use Boo. Majin roughly translates as "Demon man" or "Demon person", with "Ma" meaning demon, and "Jin" being person or man. However, the word "Majin" is often translated as Djinn, and especially when combined with the Djinn iconography surrounding the character, Djinn-Boo works perfectly well. The one issue with choosing Djinn is that there's all the "M" iconography surrounding Boo and Babidi, and with Babidi's title of "Madoshi" usually being translated as "Wizard", the "M" iconography only makes sense in English as coming from "Majin", though we don't truly know if it does come from "Madoshi" or "Majin". Ultimately though, Majin Boo, Majin Buu, and Djinn-Boo are all valid names for the character. That won't stop people online from arguing over which one is better, though.

** ''Sauzā'', the name of the ''Nanto Hōōken'' successor, has been romanized as "Souther" (in some of the earlier action figures and video games), "Thouther" (in the Arc System Works fighting game and ''[[AllThereInTheManual All About the Man]]'' guidebook), and "Thouzer" (used in newer merchandises and works). Arguably, "Souther" seems to be the most fitting, seeing how "Souther" is the strongest of the ''Nanto Seiken'' successors, the "South Dipper Holy Fist", and "Souther" mearns "southerly wind", which fits with the avian motif of the ''Nanto'' styles, but most of the recent merchandise seems to favor the "Thouzer" convention. Funnily enough, in ''[[VideoGame/FistOfTheNorthStarKensRage Ken's Rage]]'', it's spelled in English ''text'' as "Thouzer", but the English ''dub'' of said game ''always'' pronounces it as "Souzer".

** "Raō" is most popularized romanized as "Raoh", but the ''All About the Book'' actually spells it "Laoh", which managed to find its way on the NES game that was released by Taxan in the US.

* Many Japanese ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' names suffer from this, and it's a running gag within the fandom. Deathsaurus/Deszaras/Deathsanras/[[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Deathsaurus Debt Source (if you're in a particularly snarky mood)]] is a key example, as is Minerva/Minelba/[[http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Minerva jailbait]]. There is also Bardigus/Vuldigus/Barudigasu, a misspelling of "Bruticus," the Franchise/TransformersGeneration1 character Ruination is basically a PaletteSwap of.

** 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, who has the drawback that his name is a "nonsense word" to begin with. (It ''may'' be from the scientific name for a lionfish.)

* An in-universe example occurs in Francise/{{Negima}}. Any time a character gets a Pactio card, their name is printed on it, but with a "latinized" spelling; some of the letters are replaced with others ("Y" with "J" and "K" with "C", for example), so "Yue" turns into "Jue", "Nodoka" becomes "Nodoca", etc.

*** This is lampshaded in ''WebVideo/DragonBallZAbridged'', where Future Trunks initially calls Freeza "Fry-zah" because of the "i" in the latter's name in most media handled by Funimation. Freeza immediately corrects Future Trunks' pronunciation and irritatedly points out that there isn't an "i" in his name. With this scene in mind, you'll probably start to notice that TeamFourStar have always spelled his name as "Freeza".

** The capital of the World Government, literally "Marījoa" in katakana, has been spelled Mariejois, Marie Jois and Mariejoa. The first is correct, if the One Piece Wiki is to be believed.

* ''Franchise/JoJosBizarreAdventure'' had to change many character names when released overseas to prevent problems with copyrights ({{Music/Devo}} to D'Bo for [[VideoGame/JoJosBizarreAdventureHeritageForTheFuture the Capcom fighter]], for instance). There is, however, one instance that doesn't pertain to copyright: Stone Ocean's protagonist, Jolyne Cujoh, the daughter of Jotaro Kujo. If one were to transliterate the kanji for her name, it would read "Jorin Kujo"[[note]]"Cujoh" is explained as the family "Westernizing" their surname after they moved to the United States[[/note]].
** There's also the name of the Joestars' Egyptian ally from part Three. Practically every possible iteration of M(o/u)ha(m/mm)(a/e)d A(b/v)d(o/u)l has seen use. According to the way it's written in katakana (モハメド・アヴドゥル ''Mohamedo Avuduru''), it should be "Mohamed Avdul". According to the databooks, it's supposed to be "Muhammad Avdol". Localized media uses "Mohammed Avdol". Though in Arabic, the letters "u" and "o" and the letters "b" and "v" are interchangeable, so his surname could be correctly romanised as Abdol, Abdul, Avdol or Avdul.

* Most fansubs of ''LightNovel/SpiceAndWolf'' have rendered the main characters' names as "Craft" and "Horo," but the official English release went to go with "Holo" and "''Kraft''" ... like the macaroni and cheese.
** Some fans endearingly use [[http://gallery.fanserviceftw.com/post/view/1653?search=korbo Korbo]] due to the character's adorable yet slightly sad child-like handwriting.
** Even better is the fact that Lawrence´s name has been spelled out in the anime as "Craft", on an envelope adressed at him in season 1. Where ever the licensers of both the anime and the light novels got their information from, asking the author first would have probably been a great idea.
** The English version of ''VideoGame/ZettaiHeroProject'' uses the author's spelling of [[http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/zhp/chars/snap311.jpg Horo]].

** Rock Lee's mentor has had ''both'' of his names vary in spelling: Might/Mighty/Maito Guy/Gai (official translation: [[http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/1144/152153ow9.jpg Might Guy]]). Despite there being an official spelling, there's still too many fans who insist on one of the other spellings. To be fair, almost every translation prior to the official one had his name as Gai, and that is a more common transliteration. Also, the official translation of the manga [[InconsistentDub originally used "Mighty Guy"]]. Guy-sensei has suffered in this respect more than any other ''Naruto'' character: At one point, the American branch of ''Shonen Jump'' was apparently drawing names out of a hat for him, as during the first part of the Chunin Exam preliminary rounds, his name changed in spelling every issue for nine months. The spelling "Might Gay" was apparently considered before they finally settled on the current version of his name, though online scanalations of chapters not yet released by Viz in America still sometimes use the old translation of 'Gai.' As a side note, the dub had [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Kisame mock his name by calling him "Mighty Stupid-looking Guy."]]

*** If you want to hit the {{Fandom Berserk Button}}, ask if CQ's full name is "CQ Angel Hammer" or "CQ Tenshi Hamuel".

* ''Manga/InuXBokuSS'': Even after the anime had already been released, Creator/YenPress decided to romanize Karuta Roromiya's name as "Carta". [[FandomBerserkButton Cue nerd outrage.]]

*** ''Magazine/ElectronicGamingMonthly'' likely struck first when an article on the first [[SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super Famicom]] FightingGame used "Vegita".