History Main / CleanDubName

** As stated, the ''Digimon'' dubs were usually fine with religious Digimon names, even references to Satan, keeping the names of Beelzemon, Lucemon, Devimon and its variants, Mephistomon, and even a plot point referencing the NumberOfTheBeast, however one curious exception was Diablomon, changed to Diaboromon in ''Anime/DigimonTheMovie''. This was likely due to the fact that a theatrical release would have exposed the show to a wider audience and the parents and MoralGuardians might actually be paying attention.

* This was why Creator/VizMedia changed Gash's name to Zatch in ''Manga/ZatchBell'': the original name is a misogynistic British English slang term for "vagina".

** Although the ''Digimon'' dubs are generally fine with Digimon whose names come from religion, the English dub of ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'' had Sephirothmon changed to Sakkakumon, as having a villain that is not only named after but looks exactly like a symbol from Judaism carries antisemitic implications.

** Although the ''Digimon'' dubs are generally fine with Digimon whose names come from religion, the English dub of ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'' had Sephirothmon changed to Sakkakumon, as having a villain that is not only named after but looks exactly like a symbol from Judaism carries antisemetic implications.

** Although the Digimon jobs are generally fine with Digimon whose names come from religion, the English dub of ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'' had Sephirothmon changed to Sakkakumon, as having a villain that is not only named after but looks exactly like a symbol from Judaism carries antisemetic implications.

* An odd case in ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'': Dagomon, a Digimon named after the [[Franchise/CthulhuMythos Lovecraftian version of Dagon]] may have had his name changed in the dub because it was shortened to ''Dago''-mon, "dago" being a racist term. Since the dubbers didn't get the Cthulhu mythos reference, his changed name, Dragomon, is only a reference to [[Film/RockyIV a certain Russian boxer]].

** The English dub of ''Anime/DigimonAdventure02'' changed Pipimon's name to Datirimon likely to avoid the inevitable pee pee jokes from kids in the target audience.

* In Spanish translation of ''Literature/GulliversTravels'', the city of Laputa is renamed to Lupata or Lapuntu since "la puta" means "the whore" in Spanish. Gulliver claimed to be fluent in Spanish, but apparently he never learned slang because he missed the connection. Instead he drew connections to words in the native language meaning "high governor" (''lap untuh'') or "crepuscular wing" (''lap outed''). However, according to Website/TheOtherWiki: "It is likely, given Swift's brand of satire, that he was aware of the Spanish meaning". The Spaniard dub of the Creator/TedDanson miniseries kept the Laputa name, presumably because [[LuckyTranslation it added]] to the bizarre, comical nature of the island and its introduction.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': In the Latin Spanish dub, Fry's dog Seymour Asses was called "Simurdiera" (which sounds like "If it could bite").

Subtrope of DubNameChange and BarelyChangedDubName and illegitimate sister trope to SpellMyNameWithAnS. See also CrossCulturalKerfluffle and BiteTheWaxTadpole.

* The Italian dubbing of ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' changed the name of a BigBad from Kagato to Kayato, because the former looks and sounds like the Italian word ''cagato'', "shat" (e.g. "Ho cagato" = "I have shat"). The Latin Spanish dub pronounces his name as "Kahato", probably for the same reason.

** The Spanish dub kept Chi Chi's name unchanged, despite "chichi" there referring to female genitals. Shifting the stress (from CHEE-chi to Chi-CHEE) made the connection less obvious.

* In the Czech version of ''Anime/PokemonTheSeries'', Pichu was first censored out entirely. Later the pronunciation was changed to Pixu or Pic-chu. Because the original name is the accusative form of the [[CountryMatters 'C' word]] equivalent.

** The Japanese katakana of Arceus from the series supports a soft C: "Are-say-us". This pronunciation was used for a time in English localizations before the anime abruptly changed it to a hard C ("Are-key-us") starting with the dub of ''[[Anime/PokemonArceusAndTheJewelOfLife Arceus and the Jewel of Life]]'' - this was later confirmed to be [=TPCi=] averting the possibility of immature jokes being made by UsefulNotes/BritishEnglish speakers. However, Arceus is also known to be pronounced (Are-Kay-Us) as in "archaic". This is reaffirmed in the games by the "RKS System" in ''VideoGame/PokemonSunAndMoon'' (which is the "AR System" in Japanese).

* In the Brazilian translation of the shojo manga ''Manga/MeruPuri'', the show within a show "Pika Rangers" was changed to "Poke Rangers". That's because "Pika" is similar to "pica", a really dirty (if not a bit outdated) slang for "penis". And the new name keeps the ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' reference, anyway.

* In the Czech version of ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'', Pichu was first censored out entirely. Later the pronunciation was changed to Pixu or Pic-chu. Because the original name is the accusative form of the [[CountryMatters 'C' word]] equivalent.

* European dubs of ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'' renamed both the movie and the main character ''Vaiana'' (except Italy, where the title is ''Oceania'' instead), because of two issues: not only because"Moana" is a registered trademark in Spain, but also to avoid issues about having a Disney movie and character sharing a name with Italian porn actress Moana Pozzi.

* ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' was titled ''Les Dents de la mer'' ("The Teeth of the Sea") in France, and ''Film/Jaws2'' was originally going to be titled ''Les Dents de la mer 2''. However, the French distributor realized that when spoken out loud this would sound like ''Les Dents de le merde'' ("The Teeth of the Shit"). The title was thus tweaked to ''Les Dents de la mer, 2e partie'', which avoided the problem.

* In Polish localizations of ''VideoGame/SuperMario'' series, turtle enemies named ''Koopa Troopa'' have same spelling as English version, but is pronounced as (KOH-puh), because "kupa" means "poop" in Polish.

* Although it's not obscene, having the word "Kill" in it, coupled with the name sounding feminie is likely the reason Killy had his name changed to Kyle in ''VideoGame/LunarTheSilverStar'' and all of its remakes.

* Although it's not obscene, having the word "Kill" in it, coupled with the name sounding just plain goofy is likely the reason Killy had his name changed to Kyle in ''VideoGame/LunarTheSilverStar'' and all of its remakes.

* The German version of ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound'' changed Vixie's name to Trixie because both of the possible pronunciations of the letter V would make it a sexual word. When the film got re-released on DVD the original name was accidentally left in.

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'': In Russia, Scrooge's nephews Huey, Dewey, and Louie are called Billy, Dilly, and Willy, due to Huey's name sounding similar to "hui", an obscene Russian word meaning "dick". [[{{Irony}} Humorously]], their dub names happen to have dirty connotations in English.

** In Brazil, Terra's civillian name Tara was changed to Dana, because ''tara'', in Portuguese, is a synonym for sexual perversion.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'' was drastically renamed in Brazil as "Viva: A Vida é uma Festa" (Live: Life is a Party), due to the word sounding close to "poop" - "coco" also means "coconut", but with with a diacritical sign "cocô" becomes "poop". Curiously, the rename accidentally sounds too close to the ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'' Brazilian title "Festa no Céu" (Party in the Sky), which shares a FandomRivalry with ''Coco''. The character the movie was named after, Socorro "Coco" Rivera, had her name changed do "Inês". Aditionally, Mamá Imelda became Mamá Amelia, probably due to sounding too close to "merda" (shit).

* Some characters in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' prequel trilogy had to have their names adapted in Brazil:

* The reason ''VideoGame/PacMan'' has this name today is because when importing the original arcade game to the USA, Midway (who originally released the game) noticed that the original name, ''Puckman'', could let any kid vandalize the cabinet by turning the P into an F.

* In Polish localizations of ''VideoGame/SuperMario'' series, turtle enemies named ''Koopa Troopa'' have same spelling as English version, but is pronounced as (KOH-puh), because "kupa" means "poop" on Polish.
* In the Japanese version of ''VideoGame/RayCrisis'', the robot with the {{flaming|Sword}} flaming {{BFS}} was named Sem-Slut; for obvious reasons this was changed to Sem-Strut in the US version.

* Vodka Drunkenski from the ''Super Punch-Out'' arcade game became Soda Popinski in the UsefulNotes/{{NES}} version of ''VideoGame/PunchOut''.

* In the localization of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'', the character known as Benoit in the Japanese version of the game was renamed to Benny, as most North Americans associate the name Benoit with [[Wrestling/ChrisBenoit a certain professional wrestler]] who famously murdered his wife and son before committing suicide.

* In the German translation of ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' games, the Ice Climber Popo was changed to Pèpè, as ''popo'' means buttocks in German.

* In Russian translation of ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'' DLC ''Dawnguard'', Durak's name was changed to Dorak because "durak" means "fool" in Russian.

* In ''VideoGame/Destiny2'', the name of The Fanatic, "Fikrul", has been changed to "Fokrul" in the German translations, due to the original sounding too much like "ficken", i.e. to fuck. Ironically, this change makes his name sound closer to the english "fuck" again.
* In ''VideoGame/AeroFighters'', the FunnyAnimal dolphin pilot is known as Whity in Japan. Since thatt's about a letter away from a racially-charged insult, he was renamed to Spanky in international releases.

* In the Italian dub of ''WesternAnimation/MiraculousLadybug'', Kagami was renamed Katami since her original name sounds like a very rude form of "care about me" that literally translates as "shit on me". In Brazil, she was renamed "Kyoko" for the same reason.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'': In Brazil, Anais' name is spelled with an accent (Anaís), because in Portuguese, "anais" is the plural of "anal". Still, many people giggle after seeing her name written, especially when it doesn't have the accent.

** Mr. Popo's name was changed to "Momo" In English, since "popo" means "poop" and having a black character with such a name would lead to unfortunate implications. The manga kept his original name.

* For years, one of the Dinobots from ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' was named Slag, which has a very unfortunate meaning in British English. In 2008 a pair of new iterations of the character (the one from ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' and a super deformed-style figure of the G1 character released in the ''Robot Heroes'' line) called him Snarl, which was already the name of a different Dinobot. Starting from the 2012 release of ''VideoGame/TransformersFallOfCybertron'', the character's name was changed to "[[SpellMyNameWithAnS Slug]]" and remained like that ever since.

* For years, one of the Dinobots from ''Franchise/Transformers'' was named Slag, which has a very unfortunate meaning in British English. In 2008 a pair of new iterations of the character (the one from ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' and a super deformed-style figure of the G1 character released in the ''Robot Heroes'' line) called him Snarl, which was already the name of a different Dinobot. Starting from the 2012 release of ''VideoGame/TransformersFallOfCybertron'', the character's name was changed to "[[SpellMyNameWithAnS Slug]]" and remained like that ever since.

* European dubs of ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'' renamed both the movie and the main character ''Vaiana'' (except Italy, where the title is ''Oceania'' instead), bcause of two issues: not only because"Moana" is a registered trademark in spain, but alsoto avoid issues about having a Disney movie and character sharing a name with Italian porn actress Moana Pozzi.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Coco}}'':
** The movie was drastically renamed in Brazil as "Viva: A Vida é uma Festa" (Live: Life is a Party), due to the word sounding close to "poop" - "coco" also means "coconut", but with with a diacritical sign "cocô" becomes "poop". Curiously, the rename accidentally sounds too close to the ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'' Brazilian title "Festa no Céu" (Party in the Sky), which shares a FandomRivalry with ''Coco''.
** The character the movie was named after, Socorro "Coco" Rivera, had her name changed do "Inês". Aditionally, Mamá Imelda became Mamá Amelia, probably due to sounding too close to "merda" (shit).

* Also Disney in Brazil, ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'' had the protagonist change the accentuation of her name from M'''é'''rida (Meh-readah) to Mer'''í'''da (Meh-ree-da), presumably to avert something similar to "merda", ''shit''.

* The Italian dub of ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'' not only changes the title to ''Oceania'', but the main character is renamed Vaiana, to avoid issues about having a Disney movie and character sharing a name with Italian porn actress Moana Pozzi. Most other Western European countries (except for England) followed suit and renamed the film "Vaiana" (in Spain, Moana is a registered trademark).

* The Italian dub of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyANewGeneration'' renamed Pipp Petals "Ruby Petalosa", mainly because her original name sounds too much like "Pippetta" (literally "pipette" but also a slang word for masturbation).

* The ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'' English translation changes Butz's name to Bartz, because Butz sounds like, well, Butts. Unfortunately, they left in his hometown of Lix. Cue the ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtHead'' references.

* VodkaDrunkenski from the ''Super Punch-Out'' arcade game became Soda Popinski in the UsefulNotes/{{NES}} version of ''VideoGame/PunchOut''.

* In Norway, the titular tribe of the French animated serie ''WesternAnimation/RollingWithTheRonks!'' was changed to the "Gronks". Since "Ronk" is another Norwegian word for "masturbation".