To-do list:
- It was decided to rename Spell My Name With An S to Inconsistent Spelling, only allow official and intentional examples, and allow long vowels by removing the rule forbidding long vowels. Clean up that don't fit the revised definition. Only official and intentional alternate spellings are allowed; fan spellings are not allowed, but may fit Viewer Name Confusion instead.
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Clean up on-page examples. - Clean up wicks.
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Note: This thread was proposed by RallyBot2.
Spell My Name Wick CheckThis trope has many, many problems. The last thread for it came to a non-crowner consensus to restrict to official examples, but was never actually cleaned up.
The trope's own description implies it's for works not officially released in English, explains why fans use weird spellings, and then goes into a long-winded rant about transliteration that has nearly nothing to do with the trope. It then gives an arbitrary rule that "minor differences" such as the various ways to transliterate long vowels are barred from being examples.
Fan spelling examples are more prevalent that official spelling examples at the moment, but outright misuse (usually for other translation tropes or My Nayme Is) is more common than either.
My proposed solution:
- Make the trope for only official and intentional spellings in the same language (i.e. fan spellings, third-party sources, and the English differing from the romaji don't count.)
- Remove the "no long vowels" rule as it's an artifact from the era of fan spellings.
- Rewrite the description to clarify what the trope is supposed to be.
Other possible solutions:
- Rename or merge into Inconsistent Dub. (Only if the problems with the trope are so widespread as to make it unsalvageable, which I did not quite find.)
Wick check:
As of writing, there are 3241 wicks in Characters/ and 4735 from other namespaces (excluding Sandbox as usual.) I'll split the character pages proportionally from the rest, leading to a check of 50 character pages and 73 non-character pages.If a page has more than three examples, I'm only counting the first three (to prevent misuse from a single work page throwing off the numbers.) I will ignore a pothole/sinkhole if there's a proper example for the same name on the same page.
Categories are:
- Multiple Official Spellings
- Fan Spellings
- Unclear (it's not clear whether it's two official spellings)
- Unsure (more information needed; the line between these two categories is pretty thin)
- Misuse
- Sinkhole
- In-Universe
- Meta
Multiple Official Spellings (16/72)
- Castlevania The Belmont Clan: His name is listed as Simon Belmondo at the end of the first game (as well as Chronicles), but it's Simon Belmont in the sequel. Japanese material tends to be based on the former, while the latter is the English standard.
- Doctor Who Expanded Universe: ...with his only permanent companion being his beloved car, Bessie (there renamed "Betsy"). Pothole on a Demoted to Extra example, at the end of a long unrelated paragraph.
- .hack//First Generation: Early English-language printings of the manga romanized her name as "Orca."
- EDENS ZERO: Oración Seis Galáctica Associates: Kodansha's simulpub originally spelled her name as "Milani", which was changed to "Mirrani" in the volume edition once its mirror-related theme became apparent. I'm assuming "simulpub" here means English.
- Fairy Gone: The Funimation subs for the show spell her name as "Marlya" while in other materials it is Maria.
- Jellystone!: Jonny's name is spelled 'Johnny' in the closed captions and episode credits. Existing character (Jonny Quest) so the "Jonny" spelling is known to be valid.
- Kim Possible - Villains: The DisneyNOW closed captions spell her name as "Sheego".
- My Hero Academia - Katsuki Bakugo: The last part of official hero name, "Dynamight", is pronounced the same way as "Dynamite", and the katakana used doesn't lend itself to one spelling over the other. Initially, "Dynamite" was used for the official translations, but it was later updated to use "Dynamight".
- Need for Speed Rivals: It's clear his name is spelled F-8, but it's also clear the onscreen subtitles at times display "Fate" instead of F-8. Is that an intentional pun?
- Sailor Moon Dark Kingdom: In the DiC dub, their official site and the synopsis on the back of their VHS's spell his name "Neflite", but other sources have spelled his name "Nephlite" (which most fans of this dub agree on nowadays) or "Neflyte".
- Scott Pilgrim: "Roxie" in the comic, "Roxy" in the movie.
- The Boys (2019): Other: What exactly is her last name? The show's subtitles and dialogue calls her Mannheim, but a chryon calls her Manning. Assuming the "chryon" [sic] is not an in-universe mistake or something.
- The Garden of Sinners:
- Even the official manga translation can't seem to decide if it's "Kokutou", "Kokuto" or "Kokutoh".
- His second name is "Godot Word" in the official subtitles.
- The Nostalgia Critic: Tamara's Characters: It's not quite clear whether her surname is two words or one. It's typically spelt as "Hyper Fan Girl" on social media and in the titles of in-character vlogs, but a few spell it as "Hyper Fangirl" (such as her Q&A video). Hyper lampshades in her hate comments video how many fans misspell her name, but she singles out "Fan Girl" as the misspelling, despite that being the spelling used in that same video's title.
- World End What Do You Do At The End Of The World Are You Busy Will You Save Us: The official site spells her name as Lillia, but the anime shows it on-screen as Lilya.
Fan Spellings (15/72)
- Aikatsu Stars! Flower Song Class: Her name is officially romanized as "Rola Sakuraba". Most fans however find Rola to be a strange name and often refer to her as Laura and less commonly, Lola, both of which were theorized names before it was confirmed.
- Don't Toy with Me, Miss Nagatoro:
- His family name "Hachiouji" can also be spelled "Hachioji" or "Hachiōji".
- Her family name is romanized as "Gamou" by the author himself, instead of alternatives like "Gamō" or indeed "Gamo". The last option wasn't taken probably because as spelled in Japanese script, it's clear that the "Gamo" in "Gamo-chan" is pronounced-slightly differently from her family name.
- "Ichiro" could also be spelled "Ichirou" or "Ichirō".
- EDENS ZERO: Oración Seis Galáctica Associates: Before the ship's name is shown in the manga proper, it's spelled as "Berial Goer", then "Belial Goer", and finally "Belial Gore". The English anime dub and subtitles stick with "Belial Goer".
- Fairy Gone: Its name as spelled in the subtitles literally translates to "Egg Head." It's probably supposed to actually be "Eisenkopf" which means "Iron Head."
- Honkai Impact 3rd - Anti Entropy: His surname is either "Young" or "Yang", though his Stigmata set, the comics and Post-Honkai Odyssey's English localization go with the latter. Considering that in Japanese version, his name is read as "Welt You", it's likely that "Yang" is the more proper spelling.note
- Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ: Mashymre is his official English name, though "Mashymyre" and "Mashmyre" have been used in unofficial translations.
- My Hero Academia - Katsuki Bakugo: His last name can be romanized as "Bakugo", "Bakugō", or "Bakugou". Official materials translate it as "Bakugo", but fans use "Bakugou" just as often.
- My Hero Academia - Shota Aizawa: His first name can be spelled "Shōta", "Shota", or "Shouta".
- Pretty Rhythm Aurora Dream: Rizumu's name is canonically spelled "Rizumu" on official marketing, but you still have fans writing her name out as "Rhythm."
- Shaman King: Like his master, he runs afoul of this due to the Chinese language transliteration. In his native language, it would be Ma Sun, which becomes either Ma Son or Ba Son in Japanese, depending on how the kanji is read. The English translation and the anime decided on the latter, so Bason it was.
- Trails Series Erebonia Thors Class VII Original:
- WCWNWA: Officially, his last name is spelt Zbyszko, but is sometimes misspelled like Zbysko or Zybysko.
Unclear (22/72)
- Arena Of Valor Archer Heroes: There's a confusion on how to spell her. It ranges between 'Teeri' and 'Tilly'.
- Bungo Stray Dogs Chuuya Nakahara: Sometimes his first name has one U in it instead of two.
- Chrome Shelled Regios: His surname is sometimes spelled "Vallen".
- Digimon Hybrid Digimon: The credits for an episode of Digimon Fusion list it as Beowulfmon.
- Digimon Mega Digimon A To M:
- It's named "Abbadomon" in the Digimon Reference Book, even though it's based on the Hebrew "abaddon".
- Its name in Digimon World Championship was "Brakedramon".
- Digimon - Olympos XII: Its name in Digimon World DS is "Neptunmon", which removes an 'e' from its name.
- Double Decker: Catherine/Katherine Roshfall/Rochefort.
- Honkai Impact 3rd - Anti Entropy: Her first name is occasionally spelled as "Lieserl".
- Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ:
- The official English translation is Karn, but Khan and Kahn have also been used.
- Kyara Soon or Chara Soon?
- Naruto - Other Leaf Village Members: Viz’s translations Fū as “Foo”. Bad grammar aside...
- Sailor Moon Dark Kingdom:
- Metalia? Metallia? Metaria?
- Zoicite. Zoycite. Zoisait.
- Saint Seiya Specters:
- Gigant or Giganto.
- Rune? Lune? René?
- Shaman King:
- Is it Ren or Len? note
- Li or Lee? Bai Long, Bailong, Pai Long, Pyron? Most official translations seem to go with the latter in both cases. What does "most" mean?
- The Garden of Sinners: In some translations, his name is spelled as Leo and Rio.
- The Legend of Drizzt: Has been spelled both "Rai'gy" and "Rai-guy."
- The Ragged Edges: Apparently, both "Chen" and "Shen" are valid.
- Wise Man's Grandchild: The official English translation for the anime gives her name as "Sizilien von Klode". Inside a character folder with a different name. Perhaps the manga (or LN if it was translated) had it the other way.
Unsure (8/72)
- Fairy Tail – Edolas:
- Her name is spelled "Knightwalker" by Funimation. From context, it's clear that Kodansha USA spells it Nightwalker. The example is valid if Funimation's translation is, but a commented-out note claims that Knightwalker is from a fan translation.
- Other sources spell Natsu's last name 'Dragion'. What other sources, and are they in English?
- Despite his Japanese name being pronounced something akin to "soh-ROOJ", his surname is commonly spelled as "Surge". Spelled by whom?
- Hawkeye: Enemies: Sort of. He’s Trickshot, his predecessor was Trick Shot. Pothole on a Legacy Character example. If it's not the same character and the only difference is a space, I'm leaning towards it not being an example.
- Ring of Honor: Also known as Ty Darius, Ty Darious and...well most people just call him TD. "Also known as" by whom? Is it canonical? (Does wrestling even have canon?)
- Street Fighter II: His wife's name can be spelled as either Sari or Sally, while son's name is either Datta, Dhatta (accurate for Indian culture), or (going by SVC Chaos' "translation") Dadda. The latter makes me think we have two actual translations, though Capcom did not develop or publish SVC Chaos.
- The Inbetweeners: The Lads: Alternates between spelling his name as "Neil" and "Niel" throughout the yearbook, presumably because he's too stupid to know how to properly spell it consistently. Does a character not knowing how to spell his own name count as this trope?
- Yu-Gi-Oh! Other Characters: Her original name is シンディア, which can be transliterated as Cyndia, although some spell it as Cynthia or Cindia. Then there's her dub name, Cecelia Pegasus, which becomes Cecilia, despite the fact that the proper dub name was shown in episode 40. The first sentence is fan spelling, but does the second sentence imply it's shown up as Cecilia once? Weird phrasing.
Misuse (10/72)
- Digimon Hybrid Digimon: In English, the 'a' in "Raihimon" is replaced with an 'h'. You're looking for Dub Name Change.
- Digimon Mega Digimon A To M: The only real explanation for how Bandai of America could have gotten "Embrace Haze" from "Empress Haze" for her initial dub attack. That's "Blind Idiot" Translation, not this.
- Ghost Stories: Reo was changed to Leo. It's possible that his name was actually supposed to be Leo, considering that it's written in katakana.
- Characters/Jellystone: It's hard to tell what the proper way to spell Dee Dee's last name is due to her current lack of role to episode plots. The staff has called her "Dee Dee Sykes" which is what the Other Wiki had her name as for a while until SCOOB! came out and her incarnation in that film used "Skyes". Seems more like a name change than a spelling change.
- On the Edge of the Devil's Backbone: A corruption of the name, Cynthia. My Nayme Is.
- Patrik The Vampire: His name lacks a "c" in it. Not My Nayme Is; it's the normal spelling in some countries.
- Super Why!: It's Whyatt. With an "h". My Nayme Is.
- Teen Titans (2003): Core Team: When officially part of the Titans, Terra's uniform was a midriff-baring outfit featuring a black shirt with a yellow "T" on it. Today's misuse is Brought to You by the Letter "S".
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Champions: She's called Urbosa internationally and Urboza in Japan. Pothole from Barely-Changed Dub Name. I'd say you're looking for Dub Name Change, but that's the supertrope to this one.
- X-Men: Sentinels: His name is officially spelled Steven Lang, but it is often misspelled both In-Universe and out as Stephen Lang. "Character's name gets misspelled often" is not this trope.
In-Universe (1/72)
- Final Fantasy VII: Machinabridged: An in-universe running gag is whenever she's in battle with the group, the result screen will write her name as "Aeris". As this is machinima, I'm assuming that "results screen" refers to clips from FFVII itself, in which she can be renamed. This makes it an intentional decision on the part of the creators, thus a valid in-universe example.
Multiple Official Spellings (13/79)
- Confession Cam: In the Saints Row IV DLC Enter the Dominatrix, Jane Valder(r)am(m)a interviews many of the Saints in this style about one of their "deleted scenes," a story that was partially "shot" but never released called Enter the Dominatrix.
- Heel–Faith Turn: In Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, late-game character Renault (or Renaud for those in PAL regions) reveals through Support conversations with other characters that he was once a mercenary, and that the death of a friend of his had prompted him to turn to the Church of St. Elimine for guidance.
- Hihi'irokane: Hihi'irokane (sometimes spelled with a g instead of a k) is a legendary Japanese metal said to shine brightly in a way that resembles flames. Its name translates roughly as "Flame-Colored Metal" or "Brilliant Scarlet Metal". Pseudo-historical does not mean real life, so this trope being NRLEP doesn't doom this one.
- Fanon.Frozen: "Agdar" and "Idunn" are almost always the names chosen for Anna and Elsa's parents when they do show up in a fanfic, based on translation of the Runic inscriptions on their gravestones. These names have since been used in licensed material with inconsistent spelling from work to work, though eventually the series settled on "Agnarr" and "Iduna".
- JustForFun.Quotes That Make Sense In Context Web Video: In this abridged retelling of Breaking Bad, there are a lot of spelling mistakes as part of the comedy of it all, explaining why Gus is asking Mr. "Wight" where his moth (meth) is.
- Recap.Homestar Runner Goes For The Gold: "Dijjery Doo" or "Dijjery Do"? The original script wasn't consistent on the spelling, so this cartoon isn't either.
- Noob: ...The only somewhat official case is Nazetrîme's accents: it was spelled Nazetrimé on the official site when it still gave direct links to actor Facebook pages but Nazetrîme in the books due to the name being an anagram of "Maître Zen".
- LEGO Adventurers: Aside from character names, Pharaoh Hotep's magic ruby is called the "ReGou" in the 1998 UK catalog◊ and Bricks 'n' Pieces◊ magazine, but this is written without CamelCase as "Re-Gou" in The Curse of the Mummy, the 2000 Denmark catalog◊, Standing Small◊, and 10273 Haunted House's lore.
- Amanda the Adventurer: At the part with the mutton carcasses, the game inputs for you "Woolie", though most fans tend to spell it at Wooley or Wooly. Possibly as a result, the full game has you spell the name as "Wooly", and the corresponding text input only have five spaces. Bizarrely enough, the itch page calls him by "Wooly" as well, but in game, the name is typed as "Woolie".
- Gradius: Are the bad guys called "Bacterions" or "Bacterians"? It's not clear, especially when Gradius Gaiden use both names in the same context.
- Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town: Elli's and Mary's names are spelled as "Elly" and "Marie", which is what their Japanese names translate to. Given that this is a remake of a remake, I'll give the benefit of the doubt that these names have been translated before.
- Bruiser Brody: In several NWA territories such as Georgia, his last name was written as "Brodie."
Fan Spellings (11/79)
- GratuitousEnglish.Video Games: In the Japanese Tales of Symphonia, two of the main characters were named in Gratuitous English: the healer was named Refill, and her brilliant little brother was named Genius. These were thankfully changed to Raine and Genis for the English translation, although some fans use them anyway.
- Headscratchers.Yu Gi Oh Sevens: Neiru is a valid, if very literal, transliteration of the character's name. Nail is also valid, though a lot of subs go with Neil. It's a decent compromise, but it's ultimately up to personal preference.
- Disgaea Novels: Most of the new characters' names, since there are no official spelling for their names in English. Also a ZCE.
- Full Metal Panic!: Tessa's full name seems like it ought to be "Theresa" or "Teresa," but the official spelling is "Teletha" instead.
- NMB48: Word of God hasn't confirmed how カモネギックス is spelled: most common spellings are Kamonegics, Kamonegikkusu and Kamonegiks.
- Sunmi: Sunmi can be spelled as "Seonmi".
- Kamen Rider Gaim:
- The name of the monsters might be seen as Inves, Invase, Inbess, and so on. Officially, it's "Inves"◊; though "Invase" might be more accurate since the name is derived from "invasive species" (as Ryoma calls the Helheim flora in #20).
- Is "Lockseed" one or two words? Officially, Lockseed is just one word◊.
- Mitsuzane's nickname could be spelled as "Micchy", "Micchi", "Mitchy" or "Mitch".
- Noob: Happens a lot among fans only following the webseries, despite the fact that cursors keep the name of anyone that matters from getting any worse than a Freeze-Frame Bonus. Kary is a big victim of it, with mispelling going up to "Carrie" and anything in between existing. Other common mistakes are "Istos" and "Gaia".
- Tales Of The Rays: The naming scheme for the Bifrost Empire is heavily based on Norse mythology which is already rife with this trope. And with no official romanizations, expect fan translations to have different spellings for all of them.
Unclear (10/79)
- Sealed Evil in a Six Pack: In Dragon Ball Z: Wrath of the Dragon, Hildegarne (or Hirudegarn) was a giant monster split in half and sealed inside two siblings, Tapion and Minosha (who were themselves placed in magic music boxes kept whole solar systems apart). The heroes spent a part of the movie fighting the bottom half, until the top half appeared and joined the other half.
- Series Mascot: Compile's cute mascot, Randar (or Lander), appeared in several of their games before being replaced by Puyo Puyo's Carbuncle during the mid-90's.
- Slouch of Villainy: In Fist of the North Star, Ken-oh, Souther and Uighur/Wigul/Wiggle show that anime villains have a proud tradition of slouching villainously.
- We Cannot Go On Without You: In Front Mission, if Roid/Lloyd/Whatever's wanzer goes down during a battle he is killed and it's an instant Game Over.
- Transformers Alter Verse: Happens with some of the characters' names. Especially the Autobots and Decepticons, and sometimes with the humans and the Seraphims. ZCE.
- HoYay.Black Butler: In the anime, Pluto (Pleute? Puru?) a dog who turns into a fit naked man also gets a little bit of this with Sebastian, when he gets held by Sebastian with Pluto licking Sebastian's face, and clearly adoring him.
- Pantheon.Firearms: Rushuna Tendou, Goddess of Enemy Disarmament and Bathing Beauties (Rushuna Tendo, The Beautiful Senshi... I don't know how Pantheon does things, but that's a little unnecessary to list a one-character difference as a separate name. Anyway, neither the work page nor the character page give away whether it's a legitimate example.
- Pantheon.Lyrics: Timon & Pumbaa, Gods of Care-Free Songs [...] Pumbaa: Pumbaa Smith, Pumba, Pig, Mr. Pig, Uncle Pumbaa, Mook) Again, the relevant pages give no clue. It's Disney, so I'd guess that they're consistent, but...
- Richman: Wu Mhi is spelled "Umi" in Fight.
- Tales Of The Rays: Dub Name Change: Frequently invoked this or Spell My Name With An S (followed by a bulleted list of characters) I don't know whether any of these had been translated before and I'm not going to go on a long Wiki Walk to get context for one example.
Unsure (8/79)
- X-Wing Rogue Squadron: The various weird spellings of Klivian, lampshaded by the man himself. Not sure whether the misspelling is in-universe or by fans.
- DieForOurShip.Anime And Manga: Goten/Bra vs. Goten/Marron vs. Goten Palace/Paris/Valese is another popular shipwar. I'm not going to dig through Dragon Ball's over 9000 character pages to figure out whether it's official or not.
- Rainbow Brite and the War of Darkness: Moonglow is spelled both "Moonglow" (the official way) and "Moonglo" (a misspelling from a VHS). This is a fanfic. Is the VHS in-universe?
- Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla: King Caesar, whose name is likely officially romanized that way because most people outside of Japan are unfamiliar with Japanese folklore [...] Star Maker's blurb also spelled it as "King Seeser", which was common on Toho's own materials at that time. Who or what is Star Maker? If they're English (unlikely), it's an example.
- Animal Farm: Is it Mollie or Molly? The book itself tends to use the first, while some other references (including us) use the second. What other references?
- Pantheon.Voices: Tigrex, Celestial Monster of Mighty Roars (Tigarex, Brute Tigrex, [...] Diorex/Diorekkusu, Coming for Dat Ass, Sean Connery as the Voice of Draco) I can't even tell where that name came from, much less whether any version of it is official.
- WMG.Dragon Ball Fighter Z: Also, there's a Kaioshin with the name Kai (or Khai) and none of the game's cast would care about him. It's Dragon Ball again.
- Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964): Is it Hermey, Hermie, or Herbie? ("Hermey" seems to be the official spelling.)
Misuse (31/79)
- Squat's in a Name: ...predecessor series Mega Man Zero had its Four Guardians named after mythological beasts - Harpuia from harpies (despite being male), Leviathan from the biblical monster of the same name, Fefnir from the norse dragon/dwarf Fafnir and Phantom from... Weird "original language to katakana to English" translations are not this trope.
- Gigantic Formula: Susanoo is written "SXANO" because it is ONYXS inverted. In-universe intentional weird spelling (I think.) Not My Nayme Is because it's a mecha, not a person.
- Talos Angel: Gilferd von Baggins or Gilfred von Baggens, or something like that. Troll Fic author who intentionally misspells character names.
- Total Loud Island: The author spells Ezekiel's name as "Ezekial" throughout the course of the story. Fanwork creators misspelling character names is not this trope, it's Adaptation Name Change.
- Gamera: Guardian of the Universe: ...and the music was composed by Kow Otani (or Koh Otani). NRLEP.
- Plump Fiction: The name of the female half of the Natural Blonde Killers is pronounced like Valerie, but spelled like Mallory, but with a V instead of an M. Pretentious Pronunciation.
- Funny.Big Mouth: Greg's nametag says "Grag". One-time misspelling by a character.
- Funny.Blazing Saddles: "IT'S HEDLEY!" Especially when said to the woman who's actually talking about Hedy Lamarr. Accidental Misnaming. Also it's a ZCE.
- A Swiftly Tilting Planet: How do you even pronounce "Zylle" to make it distinct from "Zyll" and "Zillie"? Pick a pronunciation trope, any pronunciation trope.
- Opus 100: Starting on page 102, Dr Asimov begins sharing examples of when publishers had gotten his name wrong on the covers of his books, introduced because he had seen a British version of one of his books change the title to Quick and Easy Maths. It may be the author of the Trope Namer talking about his inspiration for it, but it's still a biography and the trope is NRLEP.
- Super-Science Fiction:
- In the February 1957 issue, Manly Banister was written as Manly Bannister.
- In the April 1957 issue, Curtis W Casewit was written as Curtis W. Casewitt.
- On the cover of the April 1958 issue, Isaac Asimov was written as Issac Asimov. The Trope Namer indirectly strikes again! All three of these are transcription errors, which is not this trope.
- Kero Kero Bonito: In addition to the band, Gus Lobban also has a solo project called Augustus and a heavy-on-Stylistic Suck PC Music-affiliated project called "kane west" (not to be confused with that other guy). Similarly Named Works.
- Twenty One Pilots: They're always "Twenty One Pilots", never "21 Pilots". Despite this, it's still generally acceptable to abbreviate their name to either "top" (or more distinctly "tøp") or "21p". Viewer Name Confusion?
- OverlyLongName.Real Life: The father-in-law of Muhammad (SAW) may take the cake: Abdullah ibn 'Uthman ibn Amir ibn Amr ibn Ka'ab ibn Sa'ad ibn Taym ibn Murrah ibn Ka'ab ibn Lu'ai ibn Ghalib ibn Fihr al-Quraishi, better known as Abu Bakr/Bakar. NRLEP.
- Pantheon.Mammals: So far there are two known Incubators, the one known as Kyubey (who goes by many names) and the one known as Jubey. I Have Many Names.
- Pantheon.Western Animation Other: Gaea, Protogenoi of The Earth (Gaia, Terra, The Earth Mother... Multiple unrelated works.
- Recap.My Gym Partners A Monkey S 1 E 24 Up All Night: The spelling of Kerry's name is shown in this episode. Not this trope and not any trope.
- RoyallyScrewedUp.Real Life:
- Amarindra/Amarinthra, Rama I's wife, was furious when her husband paid more attention to his concubine Khamwaen than to her. So she beat Khamwaen with a wooden stick. Rama I threatened to murder Amarindra for this, forcing her to flee for her life. NRLEP.
- Lan Xang faced a Succession Crisis in the late 17th century. King Sourigna Vongsa/Suliyavongsa had two sons, but one of them was executed for adultery and the other was caught having an affair with his half-sister and fled to avoid being executed too. When Sourigna Vongsa died a nobleman seized the throne. Again, NRLEP.
- Queen Seondeok: (empty example) ZCE, of course.
- The Mod Squad: In the credits for the episode "Cricket", Harlan Warde's name is misspelled as Harlan Wade. Casual misspelling.
- UsefulNotes.Qing Dynasty: Thirdly, a man named Sun Yixian (you may know him as Sun Yat-sen or Sun Zhongshan) realised that China was still way behind, and that Cixi was taking China down a highway to Diyu. NRLEP.
- Vlad the Impaler: He usually signed Romanian documents just as Vlad, but sometimes he signed as Drakulya. In Latin documents he rendered his name as Wladislaus Dragwlya, though his birth name was just "Vlad" instead of "Vladislav" - the names were equated in Latin but not in Romanian. Other variations of "Dracula" include Draculea and Dragolea. All of this has mostly stopped now, as if he's being fully named he's just referred to as Vlad III Dracula, Vlad III, or Vlad the Impaler (or Vlad Țepeș in Romanian). NRLEP.
- Castlevania II: Simon's Quest: Several of the location names. For example, Brahm's Mansion and Bodley Mansion are references to Bram Stoker and Elizabeth Báthory, respectively, and Storigoi Graveyard is supposed to be Strigoi Graveyard. "Blind Idiot" Translation. Also not the only time they'd butcher "Báthory."
- El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron: Lucifel's name - done for a reason, though. The end of his name signifies that he is an Archangel who has not fallen. An intentional name change from the mythological reference is not this trope.
- SpellForce: We have in lore and in person in Shadow of the Phoenix Belial the God of Death, who is practically identical in name and nearly identical in function to an important god (also worshipped by necromancers) in another (once) JoWooD-owned franchise... This is no more than a Shout-Out, which is where the example already is.
- Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Lanz is a slightly more fantastical variation of the mundane name Lance. My Nayme Is (or Aerith and Bob, which is where you'll already find this example.)
- Life Sketch: The real spelling of Myuto's name is Mytho. Myuto offers a better pronunciation guide. Not quite My Nayme Is, but that's the closest we got.
- Popeye the Sailor Meets Sindbad the Sailor: The short starts off with a close-up on the isle of Sindbad the Sailor, and not long after we see the man himself, he begins his epic villain boast song, complete with amazing live-action model set and animation blending, ending with the introduction of Popeye himself, singing his theme song. Weird transliteration does not an example make. Also the markup's screwed up.
- WhatCouldHaveBeen.Frozen: Hans' original name was "Admiral Westergard". He was also genuinely nice, if dim. Word of God is that Hans' surname is still "Westergard" and the licensed book A Frozen Heart has his surname written as "Westergaard" (which could also be written as "Westergård"). The only thing I see here is a name changing slightly during development.
Sinkhole (3/79)
- Encyclopaedic Knowledge: Sheska from Fullmetal Alchemist remembers every little thing she reads, logically resulting in Encyclopedic Knowledge being mixed with a good dose of Human Data Storage.
- Funny.Phineas And Ferb Season 3: Absolutely everything about Baljeet's Drunk on the Dark Side spiel is hysterical.
- Food Wars!: Shokugeki no Soma literally means "Body or Physique of Food Clash", yet it can be interpreted as "Soma of Shokugeki". The word "Soma" is a pun on Soma's name in the Japanese version, and a direct reference to his name in the English localization.
In-Universe (1/79)
- The Dark Hunters: From Acheron... to Asheron... and later Ash... note
Meta (2/79)
- Fridge.Ace Combat Zero The Belkan War: Mission 8 is named "Merlon." Wait a second, shouldn't that be "Merlin," to go along with the rest of the game's heavy King Arthur references? Not this time. A merlon is the solid upright section of a castle wall's battlement, i.e. the raised parts that defending archers hide behind to avoid return fire. Something you're going to be wishing you had when the Excalibur starts firing at the end of the mission. It's also misuse, but I'm giving priority to its meta-ness.
- Skip Beat!: A minor example, but the ou-versus-o romanization varies even within this very page. Very likely also misuse.
Totals:
- Multiple Official Spellings: 29/151 (19%)
- Fan Spellings: 26/151 (17%)
- Unclear: 32/151 (11%)
- Unsure: 16/151 (21%)
- Misuse: 41/151 (27%)
- Sinkhole: 3/151 (2%)
- In-Universe: 2/151 (1%)
- Meta: 2/151 (1%)
Assuming fan spellings are out, that means that at best around one-third of examples are correct usage with proper context. It's more likely closer to one-fourth.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Oct 13th 2023 at 11:43:42 AM
Paging ~RallyBot2 to the thread. Anyway, I agree with the proposed solutions, and I think renaming wouldn't hurt either due to the clunky name.
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.The "long vowels" rule is there because Japanese おう can be transliterated as o, oo, ou, oh or ō, all of which are valid (and similarly with other vowels). It's meant to avoid the trope being bogged down with having to list this fact for every character whose name contains a long vowel (mainly Japanese; some other languages may have similar issues).
That wouldn't be relevant if we only list official and intentional spellings, as mentioned in the bullet point above the one about the long vowel rule, since how many ways a long vowel could be transliterated wouldn't matter if the creators only use a small amount of transliterations.
That strikes me as something that ended up there due to fan spellings, but we already have Viewer Name Confusion for fan spellings, so this should be limited to spellings actually used by the creators.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 18th 2023 at 6:12:58 AM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.The reason the "no long vowels" rule exists is to prevent cases such as "しろう can be romanized in six different ways." That's not a trope, it's a quirk of language.
If the name is romanized in two or more different ways within a work, then it becomes noteworthy.
Edit:
Edited by RallyBot2 on Jul 18th 2023 at 7:16:17 AM
I agree.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 18th 2023 at 6:16:54 AM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.Plus there's cases, especially with foreign names, where there's a fairly obvious name the author was going for but the translator was apparently ignorant of it. E.g. Booty Royale: Never Go Down Without a Fight! has a character whose name was officially translated as "Maria Louisa Riviera", but she's Brazilian so the name was almost certainly meant to be "Maria Luisa Ribeira". Or Leoncio Echevalria in Reign of the Seven Spellblades, whose surname was spelled "Etchevalria" in the Japanese version's color inserts but was undoubtedly supposed to be the Basque "Echevarria".
If we enact the proposals the OP lists for Spell My Name With An S, I'm pretty sure those would go under Dub Name Change instead of Spell My Name With An S (or whatever we call it if we rename it).
Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 18th 2023 at 9:17:00 AM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.I'm leaning on renaming because I don't feel the name is demonstrative.
I agree that the name is non-indicative. That's why I called the it clunky, and why I'm also in favor of renaming.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 18th 2023 at 9:51:38 AM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.Gaston, can you explain what do you mean by "intentional" spelling differences? As in, how do you know if it's intentional or not?
Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra NovaVariant spellings are intentional if official materials use them, including official supplementary material external to the main work (such as the main work using one spelling and a Concept Art book using another). That's what we were getting at with the push against using this for fan spellings and focusing on official ones.
I think the use of this for fan spellings is due to a very long-lasting case of Missing Related Trope, since Viewer Name Confusion didn't exist until late 2020, while this trope was launched before the site tracked article creation dates.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 19th 2023 at 2:10:10 PM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.to OP's solutions + a rename
TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper WallGreat. I thought you were introducing a new (and potentially subjective) standard. In this case, I have no opposition to it.
Scientia et Libertas | Per Aspera ad Astra NovaIs there any reason not to merge with Inconsistent Dub? I feel like the proposed solution of only using official spellings creates too much overlap.
If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?This is narrow enough to be distinct (as it only applies to transliterations of names, while Inconsistent Dub also covers "full" Dub Name Change or non-name stuff.)
I feel like the "long vowels don't count" rule could be retooled into "diacritics don't count". To give the obvious non-Japanese example, Jose/José would be treated as the same spelling.
99% of the time, when a diacritic should exist in an English-language work but doesn't, it's laziness on the part of the creator (or a technical limitation if it's a video game), not a deliberate creative decision to omit the diacritic.
I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.So, what do we do here? Do we have enough discussion for a crowner?
TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper WallNot quite yet. We can take this slowly.
I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.We might be able to make a crowner with the options in the OP, but I'd prefer if someone else drafted a crowner because I haven't been feeling the best lately, so lately I've been having to pace myself with mod work and I've been sticking to simpler crowners while deferring to everyone else on more complex ones.
Edit: Also, I'd like to point out that we've already been taking this slowly because this thread was made on the 18th.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Jul 26th 2023 at 1:17:41 PM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.Came back from vacation to discover next to no progress... maybe I should have checked in more often.
Anyway, let's get that crowner going.
Options are:
- Only official and intentional spellings count.
- Remove the "no long vowels" rule.
- Rename.
- Merge into Inconsistent Dub.
Thanks Rally! Was going to write out crowner options but I've been disorganized and unfocused lately so I didn't get a chance.
TRS Queue | Works That Require Cleanup of Complaining | Troper WallCrowner hooked as requested.
Macron's notesCalling in favor of the following:
- Rename
- Only allow official and intentional examples
- Allow long vowels
Get the name options ready.
Edited by Berrenta on Aug 1st 2023 at 11:36:01 AM
she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope ReportWell, maybe the redirect Transliteration Trouble? That's probably too limiting though so scratch that.
Spelling Inconsistency or Name Spelling Inconsistency then.
Edited by MacronNotes on Aug 1st 2023 at 12:43:40 PM
Macron's notes
Crown Description:
Consensus was to do the following with Spell My Name With An S:- Rename
- Only allow official and intentional examples
- Allow long vowels
To-do list:
Clean up on-page examples.Note: This thread was proposed by RallyBot2.
Spell My Name Wick CheckThis trope has many, many problems. The last thread for it came to a non-crowner consensus to restrict to official examples, but was never actually cleaned up.
The trope's own description implies it's for works not officially released in English, explains why fans use weird spellings, and then goes into a long-winded rant about transliteration that has nearly nothing to do with the trope. It then gives an arbitrary rule that "minor differences" such as the various ways to transliterate long vowels are barred from being examples.
Fan spelling examples are more prevalent that official spelling examples at the moment, but outright misuse (usually for other translation tropes or My Nayme Is) is more common than either.
My proposed solution:
Other possible solutions:
Wick check:
As of writing, there are 3241 wicks in Characters/ and 4735 from other namespaces (excluding Sandbox as usual.) I'll split the character pages proportionally from the rest, leading to a check of 50 character pages and 73 non-character pages.If a page has more than three examples, I'm only counting the first three (to prevent misuse from a single work page throwing off the numbers.) I will ignore a pothole/sinkhole if there's a proper example for the same name on the same page.
Categories are:
Multiple Official Spellings (16/72)
Fan Spellings (15/72)
Unclear (22/72)
Unsure (8/72)
Misuse (10/72)
In-Universe (1/72)
Multiple Official Spellings (13/79)
Fan Spellings (11/79)
Unclear (10/79)
Unsure (8/79)
Misuse (31/79)
Sinkhole (3/79)
In-Universe (1/79)
Meta (2/79)
Totals:
Assuming fan spellings are out, that means that at best around one-third of examples are correct usage with proper context. It's more likely closer to one-fourth.
Edited by GastonRabbit on Oct 13th 2023 at 11:43:42 AM
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.