Inconsistent Spelling / Live-Action TV

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• In 24, the name of Jack Bauer's brother was spelled "Graham" on the show's captions before the official website revealed that it's actually "Graem".
• Awaken:
  • Jung-woo's name is either Do Jung-woo or Do Jeong-u.
  • Jae-woong's name is either Moon Jae-woong or Mun Jae-ung.
• The eponymous character of Baal Veer has had his name spelled "Baal Veer", "Baalveer", and "Balveer". It's not even consistent between shows; the 2019 Sequel Series is officially called Baalveer Returns.
• Beyond Evil:
  • Dong-sik's name is either Lee Dong-shik or I Dong-sik.
  • Ju-won's name is also spelled Joo-won.
• The Brittas Empire: Is the name of the Leisure Centre's receptionist Carol or Carole? The subtitles and credits sequence for the show go with the latter, but the former has been used on both Britbox and the DVD box sets.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel:
  • It's either Wesley Wyndam-Pryce or Wesley Wyndham-Price... or possibly Wesley Wyndam-Price. Just take your pick...
  • Warren's surname was never seen written down on screen, or included in credits or publicity material. The comic spin-offs have now confirmed it as "Mears", although at least one published shooting script had previously given it as "Meers".
• Dark Hole:
  • Hwa-sun's name is either Lee Hwa-sun or I Hwa-seon.
  • Tae-han's surname is either Yu or Yoo.
• Every incarnation of the Degrassi franchise spells it as one word. Real Life De Grassi Street in Toronto is two words, capital "G". The real street signs are used in establishing shots from time to time.
• Doctor Who:
  • The beelike species from "The Web Planet" has been spelled in official materials as "Menoptera" (most common) and "Menoptra" (what was used in the script).
  • The giant flamethrower-wielding robots from "The Chase" have been spelled as both Mechanoids and Mechonoids in BBC material. This is partially because they were originally named Mechons (pronounced "meekon") in the script, but the name and pronunciation was changed due to phonetic similarity to the Mekon, leaving the real spelling ambiguous.
  • There are multiple possible ways to spell the surnames of the Second Doctor's companions Jamie and Zoe (the credits only show their first names). Jamie's surname has largely stabilised as "McCrimmon", but Zoe's has swung back and forth between "Heriot" and "Herriot" over the years. The BBC's own Doctor Who episode guide uses both spellings on different pages. For that matter, Zoe's name is occasionally spelled with an umlaut, as Zoë.
  • The Fourth Doctor's robot dog companion is officially "K9", but the variant spelling "K-9" has been used on occasion. Examples of the former include the Target novelisations and the Australian K9 spinoff series, while examples of the latter include Doctor Who Magazine and the credits of a few BBC Wales-era episodes.
• Donkey Hodie: Harriett Elizabeth Cow's name is officially spelled with two T's, though some sources (like the book Meet Donkey Hodie!) spell it with one T like her Mister Rogers' Neighborhood counterpart.
• Joan's original last name in Elementary. She's "Joan Watson" due to her mother remarrying when she was a child. Closed captioning has spelled the surname as both "Yun" and "Wen".
• In Foreign Affairs (1966), Leslie Phillips' character's name is "Dennis", but at least one newspaper article on the series gave it as "Denis".
• Just about every media regarding Friends has Rachel's surname as Green, and both subtitles and credits for her parents attain to that. It even appeared that way on scripts. However, the Friends wiki opted to change it to Greene, as the three times where it appears written on screen it's spelled that way. (the comments to that article even point out that during the show's airtime, "Rachel Greene" was the one from ER)
• The materials for The Inside Man can't seem to decide whether the main character's fake name is "Mark Shepherd" or "Mark Shepard." The official website for the series gives it as "Mark Shepherd," however, when he examines the profile put together for him in "Masquerade," it reads "Mark Shepard," which is also what appears on his employee badge.
• Kamen Rider:
  • The title character of Kamen Rider 555 has three different ways of spelling his name, all of which are used by official sources. Is it 555, ϕ's or Faiz? The title of the show displayed during every episode reads "仮面ライダー555" (Kamen Rider 555), with "Masked Rider ϕ's" written in English just underneath it. Kamen Rider Decade eventually clarified that the proper spelling is Faiz.
  • Kamen Rider Double:
    • The name of half of the titular hero has gone from Phillip (in early publicity material) to Philippe (in the data stream that surrounds him when he enters the Gaia Library) to Philip (the spelling they ultimately seem to have settled upon.) It presumably should have been "Philip" all along, since the Origins Episode Movie reveals that he was named after Philip Marlowe.
    • The titular Rider himself's name is probably meant to be Kamen Rider W. The title of the show is written as 仮面ライダーＷ (Kamen Rider W), his Final Form Ride card says "Kamen Rider W", and he has a W on his forehead and his belt looks like a W when he transforms. However, the show's logo says "Kamen Rider Double".
  • Some of the form names of the hero of Kamen Rider OOO get this treatment due to official translations not matching what English-speaking viewers would use down, with the most egregious examples being Latorartar Combo and Tajadol Combo. The weapon for the latter was originally named "Tajyaspiner" in the hobby magazines and website before someone decided to rename it "Taja Spiner" (not "Spinner" mind you).
  • The main villain of Kamen Rider Build is either "Evolt" or "Evolto". While episode 33 has the name spelled as "Evolto", the official merch for the summer movie also shows it as "Evolt", which was the cause of quite the edit war on Wikipedia back in the day.
    • Also, the secondary Rider is officially spelled as "Cross-Z", despite his name just being the word "Claws" written in Japanese text, and the fact he's based on a dragon, making Kamen Rider Claws be a far more logical spelling of his name.
• The King Loves: The queen's guard is named Hulatai. Or Huratai, or even Furatai. ("Huratai" is the closest transliteration of his name in Hangul. Made extra confusing because he's Mongolian, not Korean, so his name is a transliteration of a transliteration.)
• No one ever decided whether the Alpha Bitch's name in Lizzie McGuire was Kate Sanders (with a short a sound) or Kate Saunders (Sawn-ders). Every other episode, it was pronounced differently and her name was never listed the same way in the credits. Ethan Kraft/Ethan Craft is similar in this way.
• Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Zack has his name alternately spelled 'Zach' in various source materials, though the show eventually settled on the former spelling.
• Mimpi Metropolitan:
  • Bambang's last name is spelled Soedarmo, as shown by his Instagram account, his father's gravestone and most ending quote. But there are a few ending quote that spells his name "Sudarmo" instead and fans could be forgiven for spelling it that way since the "oe" comes from an archaic spelling for "u".
  • Melani is more downplayed as her name is always spelled that way in the show, but the episode titles in NETVERSE usually calls her "Melanie", which is used by a few fans. The one time they doesn't, they calls her "Meilani" instead.
  • Juna's real name plays this straight as when it's first revealed, it is spelled Junaedi in the receipt and the name on the ID card is too blurry to see. Later, his ID card is shown clearer and it has Junedi instead. Both pronunciations are used interchangeably by other characters.
• Moon Lovers:
  • Hae-soo's name is also spelled Hae-su.
  • Wang Wook's name is also spelled Wang Uk.
  • Wang Moo's name is also spelled Wang Mu.
  • Wang Jung's name is also spelled Wang Jeong.
• My Country: The New Age:
  • Seon-ho's name is also spelled Sun-ho.
  • Hui-jae's name is also spelled Hee-jae.
  • Bang-won's surname is variously transliterated as I, Yi, or Lee.
• Mystery Science Theater 3000: Seasons 11 and 12 bring us the minor character who sets up the movies for Jonah and the Bots to watch. The credits give his name as Ardy, but the subtitles for Season 11 refer to him as "R.D."
• In The Office (US), Pam's last name has had several different spellings, the most common of which are Beesly and Beasly.
• Once Upon a Time spells it "Rumplestiltskin" instead of "Rumpelstiltskin".
• Out of this World (1962): "Little Lost Robot": For this adaptation, the robot models are called "Nester" instead of their source material nickname of "Nestor".
• Player:
  • Ha-ri's surname is either Kang or Gang.
  • A-ryeong's name is also spelled Ah-ryung.
  • Byeong-min's name is either Im Byeong-min or Lim Byung-min.
  • Jin-ung's name is also spelled Jin-woong.
• Psychopath Diary: Thanks to the varying transliteration systems for Korean names, every character's (and actor's) name has multiple spellings. Sometimes even the subtitles can't decide which spelling to use.
  • Dong-sik's name is either Yook Dong-sik or Yuk Dong-sik.
  • Bo-kyung's name is either Shim Bo-kyung or Sim Bo-gyeong.
  • In-woo's name is either Seo In-woo or Seo In-u.
• Saturday Night Live once did a Weekend Update bit where they listed all the acceptable spellings for the Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, owing to the fact that no two newscasts or newspapers ever spelled it the same way.
• Stargate SG-1:
  • Jack O'Neill's surname is spelled with two 'l's in the series, but had one 'l' in the original movie. Lampshaded in "Secrets", where Jack tells a journalist trying to write a news story about the stargate program from a leak to make sure he spells it right: "There's another Colonel O'Neil with one 'l' and he has no sense of humor at all."
  • The name of Daniel's wife was changed from Shau'ri to Sha're because Daniel's actor Michael Shanks had trouble pronouncing the diphthong in her original name. This wouldn't fit with Daniel's background as a linguist fluent in dozens of languages.
• In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Data's creator Dr. Soong's first name is spelled either Noonian or Noonien depending on the episode.
• Strangers From Hell:
  • Jong-woo's name is either Yoon Jong-woo or Yun Jong-u.
  • Moon-jo's name is either Seo Moon-jo or Seo Mun-jo.
  • Seok-yoon's name is either Kang Seok-yoon or Gang Seok-yun.
  • Gi-hyeok's name is either Yoo Ki-hyuk or Yu Gi-hyeok.
• The Thick of It has Ollie/Olly Reeder: early episodes credit Chris Addison as playing "Olly Reeder", which is later changed to "Oliver Reeder", while The Missing DoSAC Files has him sign himself as Ollie.

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