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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.
    • Clean up on-page examples.
    • Clean up wicks.

    Original post 

Note: This thread was proposed by RallyBot2.

Spell My Name Wick Check

This 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

    Character Pages 

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:
    • Does his name need that second "l", or not? XSEED settles with two "l"s.
    • Is it Miriam or Millium? It's Millium in XSeed's official localization.
  • WCWNWA: Officially, his last name is spelt Zbyszko, but is sometimes misspelled like Zbysko or Zybysko.

Unclear (22/72)

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)

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.

    Others 

Multiple Official Spellings (13/79)

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)

Unsure (8/79)

Misuse (31/79)

Sinkhole (3/79)

In-Universe (1/79)

  • The Dark Hunters: From Acheron... to Asheron... and later Ash... note 

Meta (2/79)

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

GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#26: Aug 1st 2023 at 9:49:35 PM

I agree that Transliteration Trouble makes it sound broader than it is, but maybe we could still use the word "transliteration" instead of "spelling", such as Inconsistent Transliteration or Transliteration Inconsistency. I'm also not sure if we should include the word "name" because this trope could probably apply to in-universe terminology other than names.

Edit: Now that I think of it, I can't help but wonder if we should change Transliteration Trouble to redirect to Viewer Name Confusion instead of this, considering that's where spelling confusion from fans goes.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Aug 1st 2023 at 11:51:12 AM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
MacronNotes (she/her) (Captain) Relationship Status: Less than three
(she/her)
#27: Aug 2nd 2023 at 4:43:14 AM

I don't know about transliteration being in the title because the trope includes examples of names being spelled inconsistently without transliteration being involved. Also, yeah, we don't need name to be in the title of the trope's not limited to those.

Macron's notes
GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#28: Aug 2nd 2023 at 5:27:00 AM

Fair enough on whether or not to use "transliteration".

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
NitroIndigo ♀ | Small ripples lead to big waves from West Midlands region, England Since: Jun, 2021 Relationship Status: Who needs love when you have waffles?
♀ | Small ripples lead to big waves
#29: Aug 2nd 2023 at 8:29:18 AM

Maybe it could be renamed to something straightforward, like Inconsistent Spelling.

GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#30: Aug 2nd 2023 at 8:47:56 AM

[up]That might work.

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
StarSword Captain of USS Bajor from somewhere in deep space Since: Sep, 2011
Yindee Just stoic wisdom. from New England Since: Jul, 2016
GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#33: Aug 2nd 2023 at 10:39:23 AM

I already said why I don't think we should include the word "name", since it can refer to in-universe terminology other than names. That's why I'd prefer something like Inconsistent Spelling.

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Perentie Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
#34: Aug 2nd 2023 at 11:24:03 AM

I like Inconsistent Spelling as well, it's direct but also broad enough to handle all the instances where official translations give different spellings at different times or in different media.

I found this discussion as I was interested in finding a trope to use for the series Vermeil in Gold where the protagonist and some other characters have their names spelled differently depending on if its the official English version of the anime (Alto Goldfield) or the official English version of the manga (Alto Goldfilled).

GastonRabbit MOD Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#35: Aug 3rd 2023 at 11:49:56 AM

I hooked a crowner with a few name suggestions. I left out options that included "name" or "transliteration" for reasons we went over.

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
MyFinalEdits Officially intimidated from Parts Unknown (Ten years in the joint) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Officially intimidated
#36: Aug 3rd 2023 at 2:29:40 PM

Posting this comment to make public that I voted in favor of Spelling Inconsistencies. I didn't upvote or downvote any of the other options.

135 - 161 - 273 - 191 - 188 - 230 - 300
bwburke94 Friends forevermore from uǝʌɐǝɥ Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
Friends forevermore
#37: Aug 3rd 2023 at 4:49:57 PM

I'm not really fond of Inconsistencies, plural.

I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.
wingedcatgirl I'm helping! from lurking (Holding A Herring) Relationship Status: Oh my word! I'm gay!
I'm helping!
#38: Aug 3rd 2023 at 5:24:49 PM

We have no strong preferences between the options currently presented, but we voted for Inconsistent Spelling.

Trouble Cube continues to be a general-purpose forum for those who desire such a thing.
Karxrida The Unknown from Eureka, the Forbidden Land Since: May, 2012 Relationship Status: I LOVE THIS DOCTOR!
The Unknown
#39: Aug 3rd 2023 at 7:58:31 PM

I really hate the generic name options we have on the crowner, ngl. I understand why a rename is necessary and am not going to contest that, but I'd prefer stuff that's a bit snappier.

Edited by Karxrida on Aug 3rd 2023 at 7:59:15 AM

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?
amathieu13 Since: Aug, 2013
#40: Aug 3rd 2023 at 11:53:41 PM

[up]If you can think of a name that's snappy without being misleading, then go for it. Crowner's still running and no one's stopping you from doing so.

Karxrida The Unknown from Eureka, the Forbidden Land Since: May, 2012 Relationship Status: I LOVE THIS DOCTOR!
The Unknown
#41: Aug 4th 2023 at 1:26:28 AM

I mean if I had a good idea I would have nominated it lol.

If a tree falls in the forest and nobody remembers it, who else will you have ice cream with?
Grotadmorv Now we're so young, but we're probably gonna die from Getting wasted at your funeral (Fifth Year at Tropey's) Relationship Status: Waiting for you *wink*
Now we're so young, but we're probably gonna die
#42: Aug 5th 2023 at 4:48:32 PM

Inconsistent Spelling sounds closer to the pre-existing Inconsistent Coloring, so I like that more.

The things in my dreams wish they could chase me!
StarSword Captain of USS Bajor from somewhere in deep space Since: Sep, 2011
Captain of USS Bajor
#43: Aug 5th 2023 at 6:13:02 PM

EDIT: Ignore me, I missed the post where the mod specifically left it off on purpose.

Edited by StarSword on Aug 5th 2023 at 9:13:50 AM

bwburke94 Friends forevermore from uǝʌɐǝɥ Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
Friends forevermore
#44: Aug 5th 2023 at 11:10:59 PM

Inconsistently Spelled Name might work, but all the options here are so similar...

I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.
MacronNotes (she/her) (Captain) Relationship Status: Less than three
(she/her)
#45: Aug 5th 2023 at 11:55:18 PM

Options that names on the title were ruled out although I don't think they are that limiting as they can still work as redirects as vast majority examples are about names. It doesn't really matter now though. We might want to specify terms in the new description is the current one is specifically about character names.

Edited by MacronNotes on Aug 6th 2023 at 3:14:17 PM

Macron's notes
GastonRabbit MOD Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#46: Aug 6th 2023 at 4:27:07 AM

Calling in favor of Inconsistent Spelling.

I'll redirect it for now since we'll need to rewrite the description, so the rewrite can be swapped in without mod intervention.

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
RallyBot2 Since: Nov, 2013 Relationship Status: I-It's not like I like you, or anything!
#47: Aug 9th 2023 at 11:03:21 PM

And the cleanup begins...

As a sidenote, this is a translation trope that has nothing to do with characterization, so the 41% of examples that are on Characters/ pages must go elsewhere (if they're still valid and not ZCEs. If not, they can of course be axed.)

Edit: Created the sandbox. We have one usable paragraph from the original, plus the related tropes.

Edited by RallyBot2 on Aug 10th 2023 at 4:25:43 AM

StarSword Captain of USS Bajor from somewhere in deep space Since: Sep, 2011
Captain of USS Bajor
#48: Aug 10th 2023 at 9:06:05 AM

Did some description rewriting in the sandbox. Not sure about how to handle the old description's singleminded focus on names: is that still essentially the main application of the trope, or did we expand or defocus it some?

GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#49: Aug 10th 2023 at 1:58:37 PM

[up]I think this could apply to in-work terminology other than character names, which might be why the post directly above yours mentioned that this isn't strictly a character trope (unless I misinterpreted that part of the post).

Edited by GastonRabbit on Aug 10th 2023 at 3:59:03 AM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
bwburke94 Friends forevermore from uǝʌɐǝɥ Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
Friends forevermore
#50: Aug 10th 2023 at 4:57:56 PM

It's not exclusive to character names; the "My" in the old trope name was misleading, similar to My Nayme Is which isn't limited to individuals.

I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.

Trope Repair Shop: Spell My Name with an S
3rd Aug '23 11:48:44 AM

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

What should the trope's new name be?

Total posts: 106
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