Ditching the Dub Names

"Come, let us celebrate your win with a feast! Fire up the grill, Khush... I mean, Marco!"

— Takuma Sakazaki, The King of Fighters XV

Oftentimes, localizers decide to change certain names when translating a work for a different region. This can include the name of the work itself, or certain characters or things within it. The reasons for this vary, but ultimately it's driven by the desire to ensure that the work becomes as popular as possible with its new audience. However, sometimes, after a series has been around for some time, the localizer may decide to revert these changes and start using the same names as the original. This could be for a variety of reasons: the series might already be successful, and the localizers feel that changing the names is no longer necessary, the creators might want to keep the names the same in all regions for consistency's sake, the altered name may have been the result of a mistranslation or other mistake, or the original creator of the work might not like the localizers' changes and request that it be changed back. Globalization and technological advancement also plays a role. Having the same names across all countries makes it easier for fans in different countries the ability to engage with one another online, and also simplifies the production of merchandise and marketing materials.

This trope is inherently a subversion of either Dub Name Change or Market-Based Title. Compare with Inconsistent Dub, where a dub or localization uses differing translations for the same character/concept. A subtrope of Sudden Name Change. It can fall under Adaptation Name Change if later adaptations change a character's name to their original name. Also compare, Truer to the Text, where a new adaptation of a work tries to be more faithful to the original. Compare Translation Nod, when the original version of a work references something (such as a Dub Name Change) from one of its translations.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Captain Tsubasa altered almost all names of the Japanese characters into Western names when it was brought to Europe and Latin America (the protagonist, Tsubasa Ozora, was known as "Oliver Atom" for decades in French- and Spanish-speaking countries, and he's still often referred to that way by the fandom) until the 2018 anime, when all characters are referred by their original Japanese names.
• Doctor Slump: The first 50 episodes were dubbed in Italian in the 80s with many character names being changed, except for Arale and a few others. In the early 2000s, with the dub of the remake immediately followed by a redub of the original series (with the same voice actors of the remake), the original names were kept instead... except for Gacchan, who kept her original name in the original dub but was renamed "Mangi" in the remake and in the original series redub.
• Doraemon:
  • It was originally dubbed in Italian with all the character names (except for the titular character's) replaced with Italian ones. Starting from the 2003 redub of the 1979 series, the original names were kept instead.
  • The manga's first Vietnamese translation (which was unlicensed) changed some of the names slightly; we had Doraemon, Shizuka, Jaian and Suneo becoming Đôrêmon, Xuka, Chaien and Xêkô, respectively^note Nobita is still Nôbita — they just added a diacritic.. However, once Kim Đồng Publishing House finally acquired the license to publish the manga in Vietnam, they issued a new translation for the manga, with all the names reverted to the original ones. Most fans embraced it, but some fans didn't like this change at all, and still stick with the "unlicensed" names to this day.
• Dragon Ball:
  • Zigzagged by the Italian dub. The first dub of the original series changed only a few names (such as Yamcha becoming "Jamka"), while its second dub (which segued into the dubs of all the other series) changed a few more names (such as Oolong becoming "Oscar" or Piccolo being renamed "Junior"). While the dub of Dragon Ball Z was going on, the films were also being dubbed by a different studio than the show, which kept all the original names... until 2003, when they were all redubbed by the same voice cast as the show, with the name changes from the series coming back. Then, when two new films came out, they were dubbed by the same studio from the first dub of the earlier movies, bringing back the original names once again... until Dragon Ball Super arrived, dubbed again by the original series studio with the name changes coming back once again. And then, when they made two more films, they were dubbed by the voice cast from the show, but with the original names (albeit Broly also has an alternate audio track with the show dub names).
  • In the English and French dubs of Dragon Ball Z, Mr. Satan's name was changed to Hercule. For the former, it was due to "Satan" being a potentially offensive name for a hero in the predominantly-Christian Anglosphere. For the latter dub, it was due to Piccolo already having his name changed to "Satan's Little Heart". However, later dubs of Dragon Ball reverted him back into Mr. Satan.
  • When Goku was driven to Snake Way in the English dub, Goku refers to the Turtle School as the Kame Sen'nin style of martial arts which is the Japanese name of the Turtle Hermit Master Roshi.
• One Piece
  • When the show was dubbed by 4Kids, the names of many characters were changed from their original, such as Zoro becoming Zolo and Ace becoming Trace. When Funimation took over, they kept the name changes for the Toonami broadcast for a while but used their original names for the uncut versions. After Toonami went to Adult Swim, Funimation abandoned the dub names for the characters completely, only doing a dub name for Sniper King (whose name is still translated from Sogeking).
  • The anime's Italian dub originally changed a few names, such as Luffy being called "Rubber" (which already got retconned as a nickname when his Wanted poster was first shown) or Usop's name being pronounced "Asop". Starting from the dub of One Piece Film: Gold, the Japanese names were used instead.
  • In the German translation of the manga (and the Danish one which one which is based on the German translation), Crocodile is named "Krokodil" (German for "crocodile") when he's first mentioned and continues to be referred to by that name for the next few volumes. When he's properly introduced at the start of the Alabasta arc, he suddenly becomes "Sir Crocodile" instead, with his introduction box mentioning that "Krokodil" is just an alias of his (which makes very little sense given that he already has "Mr. 0" as an alias). Throughout the Alabasta arc, both names are used with hardly any logic to why the characters sometimes say "Crocodile" and other times "Krokodil". After the Alabasta arc, the "Krokodil" name is dropped entirely.
  • In the Danish translation, Peepley Lulu is named "Louie-Louie" (which is also his name in the German translation) when his name is first mentioned in volume 34, but he becomes "Peepley Lulu" from volume 36 onwards. In volume 35, the translator seemingly couldn't decide whether to use the German name or the original Japanese name and instead finds an odd compromise by calling him "Lou-Lou".
• When Smile Pretty Cure! and Doki Doki Pretty Cure were dubbed by Saban Brands into Glitter Force and Glitter Force Doki Doki, everyone was given English names. When the main leads for those two shows appeared in Hirogaru Sky! Pretty Cure, they used their Japanese names instead.
• Pokémon: The Series: Not a character, but a food. The English dubs attempted any number of Woolseyisms to describe onigiri (stuffed rice balls wrapped in seaweed, a common Japanese snack), from jelly doughnuts to sandwiches to popcorn. Eventually they gave up and started calling them rice balls.
• Sailor Moon:
  • When Sailor Moon was first brought over to English-speaking audiences through the DIC dub of the 1992 anime, the Sailor Senshi turned into "Sailor Scouts" and all human characters were given Western names, with some changes (e.g. Usagi, a play on the Japanese legend of the rabbit in the moon, was changed to "Serena" to better foreshadow her as Princess Serenity) bigger than others (Ami changed to "Amy" and Rei to "Ray"). ^note  Cloverway kept the names when they took over dubbing for seasons 3 and 4. When the original anime was redubbed in 2014 by the same team doing the English dub for the anniversary reboot Sailor Moon Crystal, they reverted back to the original names, along with being a Truer to the Text dub of the Japanese script.
  • While the Italian dub of the original anime changed many names, the dub of Sailor Moon Crystal kept all the original names (but kept the transformation phrases and attack names from the dub of the original series due to Executive Meddling).
• Space Battleship Yamato: When the series was brought to the West, it was renamed to "Star Blazers", all of the characters were given more Western sounding names (such as "Susumu Kodai" being changed to "Derek Wildstar"), and even the titular Yamato was renamed in-universe as the "Argo". The 2010 live-action Space Battleship Yamato film ditched these changes, and used the original names for the English dub. The remake series Space Battleship Yamato 2199 and it's sequel Space Battleship Yamato 2202 were both localized in the west as "Star Blazers 2199" and "Star Blazers 2202", likely as a nod to fans who grew up with the dub, but still retained the original names for the ship and characters.
• In Ultimate Muscle, the Kinniku Buster is called the "Butt Buster" in the dub up until Kid Muscle's fight with Dial Bolic, with the explanation that he renamed it in honor of his family.
• Yatterman: While the Italian dub of the original series changed many character names, the dub of the 2008 remake instead keeps all the original names instead. This is actually played with in the episode where the Terrible Trio reunites a few of their Expies from other Time Bokan series to form a baseball team: when the narrator presents a character from Yattodetaman using his dub name ("Ottobre"), the character snaps and corrects the narrator yelling "MY NAME IS SUKADON!".
• The Italian dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! was based on the English dub and used the character names from that dub, with a few exceptions: in particular, Weevil Underwood was renamed "Bruchido Haga", which is a localized Italian version of his original Japanese name Insector Haga. However, from the Grand Tournament arc onwards the dub begins calling him Weevil as in the English dub.
• The Italian dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS is the first time Duel Disks are called with their original name, as the dubs of the earlier series renamed them Dueling Disks.
• Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL: Inverted by the Italian dub. Due to the dub being a mishmash of the original Japanese version and the English version made by 4Kids Entertainment^note More precisely: episodes 1-25 use the Japanese visuals mixed with the 4Kids scripts, episode 26-49 are fully based on the Japanese version and episodes 50+ use the 4Kids version, characters introduced between episodes 26 and 49 initially kept their original Japanese names. When Anna Kozuki, Gauche and Droite reappeared in later episodes, they were suddenly changed to their English dub names Anna Kaboom, Nistro and Dextra.

Asian Animation

• When Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf was first aired in India, it went by the name Kya Bakra Hai!, meaning "What a Goat!". When a Hindi version of the season Flying Island: The Sky Adventure premiered in March 2023, the series reverted to its English name (which is also common to find used in China, where the series is from).

Comic Books

• Archie Comics: In Mexico, various characters had their names changed, such as Archie Andrews becoming Archie Gómez and Reggie Mantle becoming Carlos Marin, but in the 2000s and onwards, they went back to the original English names.
• A trend for Marvel comics since the early 2000s in Italy has been getting rid of any translated name as soon as a movie about that character or group is released.
  • Spider-Man was literally translated as "Uomo Ragno" for years, but began keeping the English name after the Sam Raimi movies came out.
  • In a similar fashion, Daredevil was known as just "Devil" before the Ben Affleck film came out.
  • The Marvel Cinematic Universe effectively erased many translated character names from the comic books. Gone are "Capitan America", "I Vendicatori" and "Pantera Nera", now known as Captain America, The Avengers and Black Panther as in English-speaking countries.
• Superman was initially known in Italy as "Ciclone" and then "Nembo Kid", but later on he began keeping his English name.

Franchises

• Digimon:
  • The Italian dub of Digimon Adventure used all the translated names and terminology from the English dub of the series (albeit the dub was based on the original Japanese version). The dub of Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna, on the other hand, keeps all the Japanese names and terms, to the point that attack names are left in Gratuitous English.
  • Omegamon is a ZigZagged example. When it was first introduced in the west, it recieved a Dub Name Change to Omnimon. However as of Digimon World -next 0rder-, the English releases have started going back and forth between using its original name and using its dub name, with -next 0rder- and Digimon Survive reverting its name back to Omegamon while Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory, Digimon Adventure tri., Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna, the Trading Card Game and Digimon Adventure: (2020) still call it Omnimon.
  • The 2020 Card Game itself features a few more examples: both Crusadermon and Raidramon were reverted to their Japanese names (respectively LordKnightmon and Lighdramon), and while most anime characters are referred to with their dub names when possible, Suzie from Digimon Tamers is called "Shu-Chong" while keeping her dub surname "Wong"^note This was likely done to avoid confusion with a certain less family friendly Suzie Wong, and all the characters from Digimon Fusion released in the tenth booster set are instead called with their Japanese names. Note that the latter was clearly a last minute change: not only the international card database used the English dub names when the set was first released in Japan, but one Option card still mentions "Christopher Aonuma" rather than "Kiriha Aonuma" (and later got an errata to correct the point).
  • When Chaosdramon made its English debut in Digimon Fusion, it received a very minor Dub Name Change to Chaosdromon. All of its English appearances afterwards changed its name back to Chaosdramon.
  • The English dub of Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning refers to Hikarigaoka by its original name, as opposed to Highton View Terrace like in the earlier Adventure dubs.
  • Digimon World 3 renamed Bearmon to Kumamon, presumably to Keep It Foreign. However, a few months after the localised release of the game, the dub of Digimon Frontier arrived, with Chakmon being renamed to…Kumamon. This understandably caused confusion within the fanbase. Later on, it came time to dub the Non-Serial Movie Digimon Frontier: Island of Lost Digimon, which included both of the species. The solution was for the former to be dubbed as Bearmon, since the latter was a protagonist in the series proper, and renaming them for the movie would be more confusing. A couple of games on the DS did name the former Kumamon again, but since then, the series settled on him being Bearmon, while the one from Frontier continues to be localised as Kumamon, presumably to maintain consistency with the anime.
  • Digimon Survive uses the term evolve in English rather than the iconic digivolve term the series’ translations generally use. In this case, it’s justified by the fact that the Digimon aren’t actually digital in the game’s continuity, instead being more akin to mythical spirits.
• Transformers:
  • During the early days of Transformers: Generation 1, characters had different names in Italian (Optimus Prime was called "Commander", Starscream was "Astrum", Soundwave was "Memor"...), both in cartoons and comics and on the toy boxes themselves. The practice was kept around up until Beast Wars: after that, they began using the English names (albeit Autobots were referred to as "Autorobot" up until Transformers (2007)).
  • In Japanese, several of the initial 1984 Autobots had different names than the Western versions, notably Bumblebee being known as "Bumble", Brawn becoming "Gong" and Bluestreak becoming "Streak". Furthermore, the Autobots and Decepticons were known as Cybertrons and Destrons (with their homeworld of Cybertron being transliterated as "Seibertron" to differentiate it from the heroic faction). Even during Beast Wars, the Maximals and Predacons were known as Cybertrons and Destrons ^note  This led to some confusion in Beast Wars II when the space fortress Nemesis was built by "the Destrons", but it wasn't sure whether it was the Predacons or the Decepticons that did it until clarification decades later that it was the latter. Starting around the time of Transformers (2007), Takara-Tomy began using the Western names, beginning with their dub of Transformers: Animated (which they initially tried to market as a prequel to the live-action films until it became clear they were completely incompatible).
    • Amusingly, this has also worked in reverse, as whenever a japanese-original character has obtained a new toy ever since, they're also sold in Japan under their american-localized name. The japanese Transformers: Legacy releases of Scourge, Hot Shot and Override are still sold under their localized names rather than their originals (Black Convoy, Hot Rod and Nitro Convoy, respectively).
  • Optimus Prime was famously known as "Convoy" in Japanese (based on the original Diaclone name for his toy mold). When Optimus Primal was introduced, he was also named "Convoy", resulting in Optimus Prime receiving a variety of names such as "Shodai Convoy" (literally "First Generation Convoy" or "Original Convoy"), First Convoy, or G1 Convoy. After the release of the live-action films, he became known as Optimus Prime in Japanese as well... but only in material set in new continuities like Transformers: Prime or Transformers: Cyberverse. In material set in the original G1 timeline (based on The Transformers and its various sequels), he's still known simply as "Convoy". ^note  In this toy review of the Robosen Optimus Prime, for example, despite the toy being named Optimus Prime, having Tesshō Genda (the original voice actor for Convoy), and responding to the name, one of the reviewers instinctively refers to him as "Convoy".

Films — Animated

• Disney Fairies: In Latin American Spanish dubs of previous Disney movies, Tinker Bell's name was translated as Campanita. In these movies, however, she has her English name for unknown reasons.
• Ice Age: Continental Drift: In the first movie, Sid's unseen brother Marshall and uncle Fungus were called Marcelo and Francisco in the Mexican Spanish dub. In this movie, when they actually appear, they are referred to by their English names. In the European Spanish dub, Fungus is also referred to by his English name when his name was originally Champi in the first movie.
• Open Season: In the Latin American Spanish dub, McSquizzy and Mr. Weenie were renamed Guido and Señor Salchicha in the first three movies. In the fourth movie, Scared Silly, they went back to their English names.
• The British English dub of Peter No-Tail (1981) changes Elaka Måns ("Mean Måns") to "Mean Mike", and Maja Gräddnos ("Maya Cream-nose") to "Molly Silknose". The British dub of its sequel, Peter No-Tail In America (or alternatively Peter No-Tail in Americat), they are called by their original Swedish names.
  • Speaking of Peter No-Tail, The titular character's actual name is "Pelle". "Pelle" is a Swedish form of "Peter", and the actual series of books and films are actually known as Pelle Svanslös (literally "Pelle No-Tail/Tail-less"). Both the American and British English dubs change his name to Peter (which technically makes it a Downplayed Dub Name Change as his name isn't really outright changed so much as Anglicized), however, both the English translation of the books (released years after the animated films were released in English) and an English dub of the 2020 animated film (which has yet to actually be released, but apparently is going to be if this trailer is any indication) use his Swedish name.
• In the Shrek franchise, Puss in Boots in the Japanese dub is called "Nagagutsu wo Haita Neko" and was originally called just "Neko" for short. While his full title in the Japanese dub hasn't changed, starting from his 2011 spin-off movie, he instead now goes by his original name of Puss when being referred to shorthand.
• The Italian dub of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie keeps Mr. Krabs's English name, while in the proper show he's changed to "Mr. Krab".
• Throughout the original Toy Story trilogy, Bo Peep was renamed to Betty in the Latin American Spanish dub, but in Toy Story 4, her original English name began to be used. Interestingly, early Toy Story 4 merchandise featuring Bo Peep still refers to her as Betty, meaning that at some point, she was still going to being refered as Betty in Latin America.
• Tangled: This is the first Rapunzel adaptation where Rapunzel keeps her original name in the Italian dub/translation. Before this movie, the character was only known as Raperonzolo in Italian.

Films — Live-Action

• Disney:
  • In the Italian dub of The Jungle Book (1967), King Louie was renamed King Luigi (and he's the only character in the movie who got a Dub Name Change). In the live-action remake The Jungle Book (2016), he was reverted to his original name.
  • In the Italian dub of the original Peter Pan, most of the characters's names were changed or translated, except for Peter Pan and Wendy. The dub of the live-action remake Peter Pan & Wendy keeps many of the Italian names, but brings back the original names of Wendy's brothers John and Michael, who were renamed Gianni and Michele in the dub of the animated movie.
• The German title of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, is just "Fluch der Karibik"^note Curse of the Caribbean. Starting with the second movie, for the official titles, "Pirates of the Caribbean" has been used, with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest released as "Pirates of the Caribbean: Fluch der Karibik 2" and the subsequent ones with subtitles like "Am Ende der Welt" for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
• Star Wars:
  • In Spanish, both A New Hope and (for the longest time) the whole franchise were called "Guerra de las Galaxias", which translates into "War of the Galaxies" in English. Starting with the rerelease of the movie, it was known by the English name plus a direct translation for the subtitle; since then, the franchise also adopted its English name in the Hispanosphere.
  • In Hungarian, the original trilogy was released under the translated title "Csillagok háborúja". When the prequels were released, the franchise's title was reverted to the English original, including the subsequent re-releases of the original trilogy.
  • Originally, the franchise was known in Italian as Guerre Stellari and had a lot of translated character names, but this was slowly changed over the years. The Special Editions brought back the English title, the prequel trilogy reverted C-3PO and R2-D2 to their original names (instead of "D-3BO" and "C1-P8") and then the sequel trilogy removed almost every other translated name. The only change that is still kept around is Chewbacca's Affectionate Nickname being "Chube" instead of "Chewie".
  • In the first French dub of A New Hope, C3-PO was renamed to Z6-PO, R2-D2 to [D2-R2=] and Han Solo to Yan Solo. All these name changes were eventually ditched in later dubs, including re-dubs.
  • In German, the first movie was released as "Krieg der Sterne". Starting with The Empire Strikes Back, the title was kept untranslated as "Star Wars". A similar thing occured in France where the first movie was known as "La Guerre des Étoiles" before going back to the original title.
• Played with in the German dub of Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022). Dale's name has always been changed to Chap in German. The movie addresses this by the opening narration revealing that Dale is his real name, while "Chap" is only a stage name.

Literature

• Downplayed with the Italian translations of Captain Underpants. The original release of the books (which was interrupted after the eighth book) changed all the character names. The rereleases that began in 2017, the translations of the later books and the dubs of animated media like Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie and The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants use the English names for George, Harold, and Melvin while leaving all the translated names for every other character.
• The Spanish translations of the Discworld novels have a variation. Death's name was translated directly, as "La Muerte", but because that's grammatically feminine in Spanish the character was depicted as female up until the release of Reaper Man. The Spanish translation of Reaper Man switched to depicting Death as male, with a translator's note explaining the situation, and the translations of subsequent novels have followed suit.
• Harry Potter: The first Italian translation of the books changed the last names of many characters with comedic ones that often were in faux English. Between 2011 and 2014, the books got a partial retranslation to fix many errors and issues from the original release, and in the meantime reverted multiple characters to their original English last names (mainly the ones whose translation was either a tentative to give them a Meaningful Name^note Neville Longbottom had his last name changed to "Paciock", from "Pacioccone" ("chubby", "clumsy"), which ended up clashing heavilly with what happens to the character in later books or unnecessary^note Oliver Wood's last name was translated as "Baston", from "bastone" ("stick", referring to the broomsticks and bats used to play Quidditch)). Only a few, like Dumbledore and Snape, kept their Italian last names ("Silente" and "Piton" respectively), while others were still translated but differently^note Stan Shunpike's last name was originally translated as "Picchetto" ("pike"), ignoring the actual meaning of "shunpike": the new translation changed it to a more faithful "Tiracorto". Since the dub of the movies was based on the first translation, modern tie-in media switch between the two terminologies depending if they're talking about the books or the movies.
• An unusual cross-medium example: As stated above in the animated films section, the Pelle Svanslös/Peter No-Tail book series was released in English years after its Animated Adaptations were, which used the English form "Peter" to refer to the title character. The English translations of the books actually use his Swedish name, thus, naming the books Pelle No-Tail.

Live-Action TV

• Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Italian dub of the first episode translated the term "Morpher" as "Trasformabile" ("Transformable"). The name was ditched in late Season 2 and the original name has been used ever since.
• Sesame Street:
  • Big Bird was initially named Abelardo in the Latin American Spanish release, but when the show introduced another bird with the same name (who was said to be his cousin), he went back to being called Big Bird.
  • While Sesame Street never got a proper Italian release, it still got some releases here and there like the Open Sesame series (a compilation of standalone skits released in a variety of countries in the late 70's), some spin-offs and other external media. The Italian dub of the former series changed multiple character names (such as Grover being "Rocco Scirocco" or Bert and Ernie being italianized into "Berto" and "Ernesto"). Later media featuring such characters use the original English names instead, with the only example being Big Bird that is still referred to with his dub name "Bibò" even in newer products.

Puppet Shows

• The Muppets:
  • Various Muppets had their names changed in the Mexican Spanish dub, such as Kermit becoming René and Bunsen becoming Basilio. Most of them reverted to their original names after the 2011 movie. Kermit justifies this in one video by saying that Kermit was actually his real name all along; people got his name wrong and he just rolled with it.
  • In Castilian Spanish, the series's title was initially Los Teleñecos until the 2011 movie, where they went back to the title Muppets.
  • The first Italian dub of the original show changed only two names: Beaker became Becco, while Statler was renamed Hilton. Both characters were reverted to their original names as early as The Muppet Movie.
  • In Brazil, every The Muppets movie or cartoon had Kermit's name changed to "Caco". Beginning with the 2011 Disney movie he's called Kermit with no explanation given to his previous name.

Tabletop Games

• A massive example happened with Games Workshop products. Starting from April 2014, all the foreign localizations of both Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 stopped using localized names for armies, units and most other lore elements, leaving them in Gratuitous English. However, this was later inverted from 2020 onwards, when the release of the ninth edition of Warhammer 40,000 brought back the localized names for foreign translations. Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, which was first released in the time period where the names weren't localized anymore, began using localized names in 2021 with the release of its third edition.

Toys

• LEGO: Throughout the 80s and 90s, many LEGO sets and characters had completely different Dub Name Changes in different markets. This practice was largely abandoned in the 2000s, causing previously-inconsistent names to become consistent across multiple languages and/or regions.
  • LEGO Adventurers: When the theme began with Egypt in 1998, nearly every character had a different name between English, German, Spanish, Swedish, Japanese, and other languages. By the time the theme concluded with Orient Expedition in 2003, the characters had consistent names in every language. For example, the main hero went from being known as Johnny Thunder, Sam Grant, Joe Freemann, Jonny Explorador, Hjalten, and Jones to just being known as Johnny Thunder.
  • LEGO Pirates: In Dutch, Captain Redbeard's name was changed to Kapitein Knoest in old LEGO catalogs and LEGO Racers. When he returned for the 4+ and LEGO Ideas lines, it was changed to Kapitein Roodbaard, which is a more literal translation of his North American name.
  • LEGO Alpha Team: For the video game and early 2001 catalogs, certain Alpha Team agents had different names in German: Crunch was Tanxx, Charge was Lexon, Cam was Cosma, Flex was Migh, and Tee Vee was AT-1 (Dash, Radia, and Ogel's names were consistent). By the end of 2001, these were replaced with their English names.

Video Games

• Ace Attorney: In Japanese, the games follow Japanese lawyer Ryuichi Naruhodo. When localizing the games in English for international audiences, Capcom changed the setting to California and all characters' names were also changed to fit the new setting, with Ryuichi being renamed to Phoenix Wright; however, the spin-off duology The Great Ace Attorney, which would have been impossible to localize the same way as the main series since their stories take place in and deal heavily with the relationship between Victorian England and Meiji Japan, retain both the original setting and the name of Ryuichi's ancestor, Ryunosuke Naruhodo (though the subtitles for promotional videos included in-game featuring both Ryunosuke and Ryuichi retain the "Phoenix Wright" name for the latter). Similarly, the character Taketsuchi Auchi, ancestor of Takefumi and Fumitake Auchi from the modern games (localized as Winston and Gaspen Payne respectively), also keeps his name.
• Another Code: The original game on DS was released in North America as Trace Memory. When the game was remade for Nintendo Switch as a part of Another Code Recollection, it kept the original Another Code: Two Memories title, even in North America. This was likely for the sake of consistency, as the sequel originally did not release in North America prior to the remake.
• Ape Escape: The international localizations of the first game would change the names for most of the characters from Japanese names to English-sounding names (with some names differing depending on the region). Starting with Ape Escape 2 onwards, Europe would stop this practice in favor of just using the original Japanese names for every character. While North America would continue renaming the characters, they still sometimes dipped into this trope.
  • Casi and Jake/Buzz's appearance in bonus artwork for Ape Escape 2 refer to them by their respective Japanese names, Charu and Hiroki.
  • Casi's minor appearance in Spike's arcade mode route in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale has her be identified as Charu.
  • By virtue of using the European releases, the PSN versions of Ape Escape 2 and Ape Academy 2 (which was previously unreleased in North America) still use the Japanese names.
• The Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series was originally known as Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! in Japan. The fourth mainline entry in the series drops the Budokai Tenkaichi branding entirely and is referred to as Sparking! Zero worldwide, though the Budokai Tenkaichi name is still referenced for marketing purposes.
• Dragon Quest:
  • Due to trademark issues, the series was renamed to Dragon Warrior outside of Japan prior to 2005, at which point Square Enix finally acquired the rights to the original name and started using it in all languages and regions.
  • In the original release of Dragon Quest IV for the NES, shopkeeper Torneko had his name changed to "Taloon" for the localization. Subsequent official media eventually retconned both his Japanese and English names, unifying them into "Torneko Taloon", thus making his original Japanese name his first name and his dub name his last name.
• Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI were renamed to Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III during their original SNES releases, due to Square not localizing the actual 2nd, 3rd, and 5th games in the series. Subsequent releases, many of which were released alongside or after releases of the missing entries, retitled them to their original names. The only exceptions are the Virtual Console and SNES Mini releases, due to using the unmodified original ROMs.
• When SNK first released Garou: Mark of the Wolves, they decided to rename the character Marco Rodriguez to prevent confusion with real-life mixed martial artist Ricco Rodriguez. Considering that their initial choice was Khushnood Butt, starting from The King of Fighters XV they settled on Marco Rodrigues with an S. Lampshaded within XV itself, as Takuma Sakazaki almost calls Marco by "Khushnood" before quickly correcting himself.
• Kid Icarus: In the English version of the first game, Thanatos was known as Tanatos as a result of a mistranslation. Come Kid Icarus: Uprising, they get by this by having Thanatos boast in the English dub about adding the "h" to his name.
• The Legend of Zelda:
  • When the Rito first appeared in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, the Italian translation renamed them "falchi viaggiatori" ("travelling hawks"). Later on, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild refers to their species with its original name.
  • The first appearance of Skull Kid in a game translated in Italian was The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and it was translated as "Bimbo perduto" ("Lost Boy"). Starting from the Nintendo 3DS remake of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, the English name was used instead. Curiously, the Italian translation of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U initially used the former name, but it was switched to the latter after an update in early 2015.
• Like a Dragon:
  • The entire series was originally renamed Yakuza outside of Japan. In 2022, Sega announced that from the English release of Like a Dragon: Ishin! onward, the series would be known as Like a Dragon in English, a direct translation of its Japanese name Ryu ga Gotoku.
  • The original English dub of Yakuza renamed Shintaro Kazama to Shintaro Fuma and the Florist of Sai to Kage, as well as shortening the names of several other characters. Most of these changes would be reverted by Yakuza 4, except the Florist, who was renamed "Kage the Florist", a combination of his English and Japanese names, in Yakuza 2; it would take until Yakuza Kiwami for the "Kage" to be dropped.
  • Morning Glory Orphanage was renamed "Sunshine Orphanage" in the English version of Yakuza 3, but after Yakuza 0 introduced a location named Club Sunshine, the orphanage's name was reverted to its original Japanese name to avoid confusion in all future titles (including the remastered versions of Yakuza 3 and its sequels originally released before 0).
• Little Tail Bronx has an air-robo mechanic named Diamundo, who was first introduced in Tail Concerto as someone who gives Waffle's police robo a jet booster. In the American version of that game, he was named Dr. Jones instead, but when he returned in Solatorobo: Red the Hunter as one of Red and Chocolat's friends and go-to big-scale technician for Asmodeus, the localization team decided to bring back his original Japanese name for all regions.
• Mega Man X5: In the initial releases, the Mavericks were named after members of Guns N' Roses. The ''Legacy Collection'' abandoned those names for more accurate translations.
• Warechu from Neptunia originally had a dub name change to Pirachu. When the localization went from NIS America to Idea Factory International, his name was reverted back to Warechu.
• Puyo Puyo:
  • The localized English version of the first arcade game changed most of the characters' names, for example, Arle was known as Silvana. The localized English versions of Puyo Puyo Fever, called Puyo Pop Fever, Puyo Puyo Tetris, and Puyo Puyo Champions would change all the names back, at least for the characters that appeared. The only dub name to stick past the arcade game is the Dark Prince (originally Satan in Japanese).
  • The English release of Puyo Puyo Tetris would also drop the Puyo Pop name and revert the series back to its native name for all international versions. In addition, Raffine and Rider were changed to Raffina and Lidelle respectively, and the pronunciation of Arle changed from "Arly" (used in Puyo Pop Fever) to "Arl", which is closer to the katakana for her name. As a nod to the previous dub, "Arly" became Dark Prince's pet name for Arle.
• Shin Megami Tensei:
  • Early localizations of games in the franchise used the supertitle Revelations, including The Demon Slayer (better known as Last Bible) and the original Persona. However, this change, along with the translations' general low quality, wasn't well-received, and later games from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne onward would retain the "Shin Megami Tensei" title.
  • Nocturne, however, lost its numeral in its original international release due to the first two games not being localized at the time, as well as being further renamed Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call in its PAL release. The 2021 HD remaster would revert the game's name to Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne worldwide, though the first game's localization was only officially available on a long-delisted mobile port incompatible with modern phones and the second game has still not been localized as of 2024 (it probably helps that despite the situation the game's two sequels were also released with numbers intact).
  • Following the release of Nocturne, localized releases of spinoffs of the series would have the Shin Megami Tensei supertitle appended to them for international releases for marketing purposes, unlike the original Japanese releases; however, following the popularity of Persona 4, this practice would be dropped from the Persona subseries after the PSP remake of Persona, and from the series as a whole starting with Soul Hackers 2.
  • In the aforementioned Revelations: Persona English localization, many of the characters' names were Westernized. Some were rather simple, like Maki (Mary) and Yuka (Alana), while some are drastic, like Kei Nanjo (Nate Trinity) and Takehisa Kandori (Guido Sardenia). The more faithful English localization of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment split the difference by keeping the Persona 1 cast's Westernized first names and their Japanese surnames, with Kandori claiming that his Westernized name was an alias. Persona 3's localization would also retain a few references to the English localized names, but eventually, when Persona 1 was remade for the PSP, all the names were completely reverted back to the original Japanese ones (with the aforementioned references in 3 also being reverted in later versions of that game).
  • Thoughout the series, localizers sometimes mix up similar demons, and later fix these mistakes, resulting in this trope. The best example is Phoenix, Feng Huang, and Suzaku, a trio of fire-based bird demons. Feng Huang has been mistranslated as Phoenix as late as Persona 5, until Soul Hackers 2 translated its name properly. Likewise, Suzaku was called Feng Huang up until Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, until Persona 5 restored its real name. Meanwhile, actual Phoenix was never mistranslated, but it shows up quite rarely. The fact that all three demons look quite similar, and never show up in the same game all at once, only adds to the confusion.
• Sonic the Hedgehog
  • Series antagonist Dr. Eggman was originally renamed Dr. Robotnik internationally prior to Sonic Adventure. That game had one reference to Eggman being a nickname that Sonic and Tails gave to him, similar to what Super Mario 64 did with Princess Peach. Unlike the Mario series, however, Robotnik remained the character's real name in canon, although the use of it within the games was rare. Given a Lampshade Hanging in Sonic Generations, where Classic Tails refers to Eggman as "Dr. Robotnik" to which Classic Eggman responds, "Nobody calls me that anymore."
  • Early Sonic the Hedgehog material in Italian translated literally many of the item names, such as "anelli" for the rings or "smeraldi del caos" for the Chaos Emeralds. Starting from Sonic Advance 2, the first game that received a proper Italian translation, such terms were instead kept in Gratuitous English.
  • Fang the Sniper was known as Nack the Weasel in English, but had his name changed back from his next appearance onward. The prologue comic for Superstars and fifth Episode of TailsTube Hand Wave it by saying that Fang has been known by multiple aliases in the past, with "Nack the Weasel" being one fake name.
• Street Fighter: Guile's friend and mentor was known as Nash in Japanese and as Charlie in English; when he reappeared in Street Fighter V, he went by Nash^note although in Street Fighter IV, the character's full name was confirmed to be Charlie Nash, meaning he's now using Last-Name Basis.
• For legal reasons, X Seed Games is not allowed to use the Natsume dub names for any of the Story of Seasons characters, which extends to the old international series name Harvest Moon. When Harvest Moon: Back to Nature was remade as Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town, all of the characters who received dub name changes had their names reverted to their original Japanese names.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Internationally, Princess Peach was originally called Princess Toadstool, which the localizers presumably thought was a better name for the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. In Yoshi's Safari and from Super Mario 64 onwards, they switched to using her original name; the latter game begins with a letter which she signs as "Princess Toadstool—Peach", implying that "Toadstool" is her last name, but the series has made little to no allusions to the former name since. The idea of Toadstool being her surname while her given name starts with a "P" dates back to The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, where Princess Toadstool once randomly referred to herself as "Princess P.".
  • The original release of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon on the Nintendo 3DS is known as Luigi's Mansion 2 in the Japanese, European and Chinese versions. While it's unclear which name came first, considering the game was developed by the Canadian Next Level Games, the Nintendo Switch port is known as Luigi's Mansion 2 HD even in the North American and Korean versions.
  • In Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2, the Honey Queen is referred to as "Queen Bee". She retains her original name from Mario Kart 7 onwards.
• Taiko no Tatsujin had its first Western release in 2004, named "Taiko Drum Master". Years later, when Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Session first got an English translation and then a Western release in 2018, it would keep its original name, and the series has been released as "Taiko no Tatsujin" internationally ever since.
• Tales of Graces has a Previous Player-Character Cameo that features Kohaku Hearts, a character from Tales of Hearts, and changes her name to "Amber". However, two years later, the English translation of Hearts' Video Game Remake reverted her name back to "Kohaku", and it stayed the same ever since.
• Umihara Kawase was initially brought westward through a localization of Sayonara Umihara Kawase, which was released in North America by Natsume as Yumi's Odd Odyssey. The PlayStation Vita release of Sayonara went back to using Agatsuma Entertainment's European translation, which uses the Japanese names of the characters, and every installment since has kept the change.

Western Animation

• In the Latin American dub of The Fairly OddParents!, the first episode with Chip Skylark changed his surname to Canario (making reference to another bird). All his subsequent appearances used his original surname of Skylark.
• G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero was known in the UK as "Action Force", with the bios of several Joes being rewritten so that the team was an international unit instead of a mostly American one (for example, Flint was made a member of the British armed forces instead of being an American Warrant Officer). The series was later renamed "G.I. Joe: The Action Force" before finally simply using "G.I.Joe".
• Codename: Kids Next Door: In the Brazilian dub, Numbuh 5's sister Cree received the name "Cris" on her debut episode. For the rest of the series, she reverted back to her original name.
• The French dub of The Cuphead Show! ignores the translated names of the video game with the few name changes being entirely differents (such as Elder Kettle being "Papy Bouilloire" rather than "Sage Samovar").
• Two cases in the Italian dub of The Loud House:
  • When Mick Swagger was mentioned for the first time, his name was translated as "Mick Spaccone". The translated name missed the fact that he's a celebrity expy of Mick Jagger, so the dub reverted to his original name by his second appearance.
  • Rusty Spokes' name was translated as "Raggio arrugginito" in his first appearance, as the translator thought it was a bike-themed nickname and not his actual name. His original name came back once it was made clear that it's not a nickname.
• Muppet Babies (1984) was known as Los Pequeños Muppets in the Latin American Spanish dub. However, Muppet Babies (2018) leaves the title untranslated.
• Octonauts: Above & Beyond:
  • In the Chilean Spanish dub, Tunip's name was Víctor in the previous series as well as the first season of this spinoff. In the second season, however, his name went back to Tunip for unknown reasons.
  • In the European Spanish dub of season 1, Periwinkle's name was Bígaro. In season 2, he is referred to by his English name. In that same dub, Professor Inkling was previously known as Profesor Ideas, but in season 2 of this spinoff, he goes back to having his English name of Inkling.
• The Powerpuff Girls (1998): In the Mexican Spanish dub, Brick, Boomer, and Butch were renamed Bajeza, Bandido, and Bacteria in their debut episode. In all their other appearances, they keep their English names.
• Rugrats: In the Mexican Spanish dub, Chuckie and Chas's last name was Baldoza, but it went back to Finster in later seasons. In that same dub, Jonathan was initially named Eugenio until he later went back to his original name. Dr. Lipschitz was also known as Dr. Aquilino until his debut episode, where he started to be referred to by his English name.
  • The show is titled "Ratjetoe" in Dutch, but some Dutch people looking back on the show refer to it's English name, and even official promos for reruns havs occasionally ditched the dubbed title. The Dutch version hasn't aired since 2018, but thankfully, the reboot keeps the dubbed name.
• The original Japanese dub of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! changed all of the main character's names; most notably, the title character became "Kuruppa." Later dubs sometimes still call Scooby Kuruppa, but always refer to the human cast by their English names.
• The first Italian dub of South Park renamed Mr. Hat "Mr. Cilindro". The redub reverted him to the English name.
  • Furthermore, a few characters in the span of the second dub were introduced with translated Italian names (Henrietta became Enrichetta, Lemmiwinks became Topofurbo, Mr. Slave became Signor Maso) and later on reverted to the original ones.
• Sonic Boom: The Brazilian dub keeps Shadow's original name after fans complaining it was translated to "Sombra" in Sonic X.
• The Italian dub of SpongeBob SquarePants had some translated names ("Pesce citrullo" for Bubble Bass, "Uomo Raggio" for Man Ray) that were later removed in favor of the original ones.
• The Italian dub of Steven Universe initially translated Rose Quartz's name as "Quarzo Rosa", but starting from the final episodes of Season 1 the untranslated English name is used instead.
• The Dutch dub of Thomas & Friends called Cranky the Crane "Krik" in season 5, but starting in season 6 he's called Cranky.
• A weird example with Penelope Pitstop from Wacky Races. In the Japanese dub of Wacky Races, she was called Milk-chan, but in the Japanese dub of The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, she uses her English name. The weird part comes in when the dub of Wacky Races (2017) went back to calling her Milk-chan.
• Winx Club: Nearly every dub that wasn't the original Italian renamed the Sixth Ranger. Purportedly, because her name, Aisha, was Arab in origin and sensibilities were touchy from the War on Terror — so even unaffected countries such as Latin America, went for Layla instead of Aisha (though Layla is an Arabic name too). Rumors aside, when Nickelodeon bought the franchise, it resulted in many dubs using the original name in later seasons, following the American English dub. However, most European dubs kept the name Layla in the entire animated series, in order not to confuse the viewers with a Sudden Name Change, and only in the 2021 Netflix adaptation, Fate: The Winx Saga, the character started to be called Aisha everywhere.
• Yogi Bear was previously known in Japanese as Kumagoro, but later installments go back to using his English name.

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