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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

Estvyk Since: Apr, 2011
#51: Aug 13th 2023 at 1:18:17 AM

Question: if this is mainly about translation issues in works as settled by official translations which is a very modern thing, then what to do with name variations in literature/mythology/legends etc that may or may not be caused by evolving language and going from one language to another, or else different traditions? Like in classical mythology, there's Herakles to Hercules, Akhilleus to Achilles, Odysseus to Ulysses, (apparently via the variation Olysseus), etc. Or in Arthurian legend there's Percival, Perceval, Parsifal, or Peredur; Gawain, Gawaine with an E, Gwalchmai; Lancelot, Launcelot with a U; Morgan, Morgana with an A, you get it.

If it's public domain then there's really no "official" compared to "unofficial". Are they just falling under Adaptation Name Change in the sense of a work is an adaptation of an existing mythos? It's not really changing the name like in the sense of Jim to Bob as it is just natural evolution.

Edited by Estvyk on Aug 13th 2023 at 1:48:08 AM

Berrenta How sweet it is from Texas Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
How sweet it is
#52: Sep 1st 2023 at 8:03:06 AM

Found this entry when cleaning up Teens Are Short over at Magic Knight Rayearth. There are ZCE's, which prompted the initial removal (I'll add it back once reworked).

  • Spell My Name With An S: Between the two manga translations, the video games, and the anime, there's quite a lot of this.
    • Seres/Celes/Selese/Ceres and more for Umi's Mashin. Its official name is Selece.
    • The manga calls the Humongous Mecha "Mashin", but it's rendered as "Rune God" in the anime (despite the Japanese dialogue clearly using the word Mashin).
    • Tarta/Tata.
    • Lafarga/Rafarga/Rafalga.
    • Autozam/Othsam, for some manga translations.
    • The Sega Saturn game called Emeraude "Emerald" and Zagato "Zagat", and renamed Hikaru's dog from Hikari to Flash.

she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report
bwburke94 Friends forevermore from uǝʌɐǝɥ Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
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#53: Oct 12th 2023 at 8:05:46 PM

What's the status on this?

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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)
#54: Oct 13th 2023 at 4:04:21 AM

[up]Well, this is one of the first TRS posts I've made in a decent amount of time after taking a fairly long break from TRS, but from what I can tell, Sandbox.Inconsistent Spelling needs to be finished if it hasn't already, and then moved to Main.Inconsistent Spelling, though it might be worth sorting through on-page examples and subpages first.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Oct 13th 2023 at 6:04:40 AM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
bwburke94 Friends forevermore from uǝʌɐǝɥ Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
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#55: Oct 13th 2023 at 9:13:14 PM

I did the on-page examples and subpages, but it was a long time ago by now so I might want to check again.

I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.
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)
#56: Oct 13th 2023 at 9:43:02 PM

Since they were already cleaned, the page has been moved and the revised description swapped in (I'll move the example subpages after I'm done with indexing and subpages other than example subpages).

Here are the wicks.

Updates: The subpages have been moved.

Edit: I disambiguated the old name between the new name and Viewer Name Confusion due to how it was being used, and because having a Green Link will help due to how many wicks there are.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Oct 13th 2023 at 12:17:21 PM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Ayumi-chan low-poly Shinri from Calvard (Apprentice) Relationship Status: Serial head-patter
low-poly Shinri
#57: Oct 23rd 2023 at 1:40:16 AM

I found moved SMNWAS entry (moved to Inconsistent Spelling) from The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel but I want to ask if these are misuse or valid:

  • Inconsistent Spelling: As always.
    • Place names don't escape; after five solid games of consistent spelling as "Erebonia" and "Zemuria" (when they do come up in English characters in the Japanese versions), all of a sudden Cold Steel is very insistent about calling the two Elebonia and Zemlya, respectively. This one is likely to be ignored by any future Trails releases in English, as the place names were already established as the former in Sky FC's English release.
      • "Erebonia" was actually later corrected on Cold Steel's promotional webpage... except the page URLs still have the "Elebonia" spelling. "Zemlya" persists throughout.
      • What's even worse is that it's not impossible that Zemlya was always the intended spelling—it's the Russian word for "Earth"—but between a decade of "Zemuria" being previously used and Zemuria appearing prominently as a word in one official English release, it's likely the term won't be "corrected".
    • There's also a little debate as to whether the capital of Erebonia is Heimdall or Heimdallr, even in official sources. This gets bonus points for the fun of trying to stack three l/r sounds together in Japanese (which the kana doesn't even remotely do, leading to the debate).
    • A particularly funny one involved one of the organizations in the game, as its official badge graphic read "Train Militaly Police". This one was caught by even the Japanese fans the instant it went live on the website.
    • Another hilarious one involves the Steel Maiden's name, which was spelled as "Arianload" in Sen III website. Fans quickly noticed and it has been since then changed into its original spelling "Arianrhod."
    • An ice cream stand during the school festival misspells Gelato as "Jelato".
    • With the game remastered with higher quality visuals when released on Steam, this issue becomes much more pronounced as previously low-resolution textures are now replaced with high-resolution ones and their text are far more legible than before. A lot of these were fixed with a huge unannounced patch that was released on October 11, 2017.
      • The above Train Militaly Police mistake reappears in a short cutscene outside the meeting room at the start of Chapter 4's field study, as well as some less noticeable logos inside the room itself. Jelato reappears too at Dreichels Plaza. Though most of the "Train Militaly" ones got fixed, a partially obscured one found on the floor of the room was missed.
      • In Chapter 6, one of the signposts on the highway actually spells Ymir, Rean's hometown, as Yumir, and the same mistake appears on the map of the train lines - the line from Roer to Ymir is the Yumir branch line. In the same chapter, the signboard for Roer airport spells the town's name as Rour.note 
      • In Cold Steel II, every reference to the town is translated as Ymir, while the branch line alone is translated as Yumir Branch Line. Cold Steel III then makes the confusion complete, by spelling it as Yumir everywhere.
      • In the final chapter, the mallet used for the Mishy Panic minigame actually has Michy Panic written on it. The background in the room also spells Mishy with a c, as does all the posters around campus. While the texture patch fixes the posters and the background of the room, strangely enough Durante missed out the logo that's part of the texture of the mallet.
      • And to complicate things even more, the "Ride-along Mishy" accessory is listed on the Asian Playstation Store as "HUG-HUG MICHEY"(yes, in all-caps, and one letter away from a Disney lawsuit)
    • In the digital DLC soundtrack sampler for the Steam version of Cold Steel IV, the track "Hidden Village Eryn" (theme for Eryn Village) is titled "Hidden Village Elin."
    • Falcom has spelled Lechter's surname as Arundel, Arandor, and Alandor and his given name as Lechter, Lecter, and Lector. The official English localizations have all standardized on "Lechter Arundel".

She/Her | Currently cleaning N/A
bwburke94 Friends forevermore from uǝʌɐǝɥ Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
Friends forevermore
#58: Oct 23rd 2023 at 5:01:05 AM

Remember that the text of the example must clearly state that both names were used in official releases in the same language.

  • Erebonia/Elebonia et al: Possibly valid; I'm confused on which releases used which spellings.
  • Heimdall(r): ZCE.
  • Militaly: Misspelled English word.
  • Arianload/Arianrhod: Not an example, because the former spelling never made it into an official release.
  • Gelato/Jelato: Misspelled English word.
  • 2017 Steam release examples:
    • Y(u)mir is valid, as the example clearly states which releases use which name.
    • Michy/Mishy/Michey is probably valid, but should be reduced to one sub-bullet instead of two and lose the Disney joke.
  • Eryn/Elin: We've previously judged soundtrack screw-ups to count, so this is valid.
  • Variant spellings of Lechter Arundel: ZCE, possibly invalid if the variant spellings didn't make it into any English release.

I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.
RandomTroper123 She / Her from I'll let you guess... (Not-So-Newbie) Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
She / Her
#59: Oct 23rd 2023 at 9:43:48 PM

In Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All, someone moved a Spell My Name With An S entry to Inconsistent Spelling. Do you all think it counts as IS or maybe some other trope? (For the record, I don't think it does, but I wanted to check here just to make sure.)

    The entry (spoiler warning for the first case) 
  • Inconsistent Spelling: In case 1, this is one of the big mistakes Richard Wellington makes when framing Maggey with her boyfriend's murder: he makes it seem like he wrote "Maggie" on the dirt before he died.

Amonimus the Retromancer from <<|Wiki Talk|>> (Sergeant) Relationship Status: In another castle
the Retromancer
#60: Oct 23rd 2023 at 9:46:33 PM

[up] Not an example, it's just a villain getting the name wrong.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
amyjess from Texas Since: Nov, 2014 Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
#61: Oct 23rd 2023 at 10:38:16 PM

Variant spellings of Lechter Arundel: ZCE, possibly invalid if the variant spellings didn't make it into any English release.

So I own a copy of the artbook for the Sky and Crossbell games, which was officially released in English in 2013. Lechter's name was spelled as "Lecter Alandor" there. Here's a picture for proof: https://imgur.com/a/UJYT1tz

The names used in this artbook are absolutely wild, by the way, as when it was translated only Sky FC had gotten an English localization, and even that has been heavily patched since then (e.g., the artbook uses the old "Zane Vathek" spelling that XSEED later abandoned in a patch... not like XSEED had any input into the artbook, as it was licensed by Udon Entertainment instead). No kidding, I saw "Blblanc" and "Gillias Osbourne" on other pages there. And the book's cover refers to Azure as Trails of Blue.

Edit: Here, have a picture of "Lecter Alandor"'s entry from the Crossbell side of the book too: https://imgur.com/a/OqM0NXX

Edited by amyjess on Oct 23rd 2023 at 12:51:41 PM

RandomTroper123 She / Her from I'll let you guess... (Not-So-Newbie) Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
She / Her
#62: Oct 23rd 2023 at 10:45:14 PM

[up][up]Ok thanks. I'll remove it. EDIT: It's now removed.

Edited by RandomTroper123 on Oct 23rd 2023 at 10:46:07 AM

Ayumi-chan low-poly Shinri from Calvard (Apprentice) Relationship Status: Serial head-patter
low-poly Shinri
#63: Oct 24th 2023 at 5:40:21 AM

[up][up] I'm not sure if spellings from artbooks are allowed, but correct me if I'm wrong.

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bwburke94 Friends forevermore from uǝʌɐǝɥ Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
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#64: Oct 24th 2023 at 8:00:20 AM

Artbooks, at the very least, count as officially released—but as always, care must be taken to ensure it's an actual alternate spelling and not a typo.

I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.
amyjess from Texas Since: Nov, 2014 Relationship Status: You cannot grasp the true form
#65: Oct 24th 2023 at 8:41:07 AM

So the spellings in the artbooks are all over the place.

  • Some of them are just absolute nonsense and have no relation to anything used officially elsewhere and are done with complete ignorance as to where their names come from. "Liscia Mao", "Alios McLean", "Gillias Osbourne", "Alyanrhode", etc.
  • Some of them are consistent with spellings Falcom used in Japan that got deliberately changed in localization. "Gratz", "Cecil Neues", "Łazy Hemisphere". I think I've also seen Falcom sources that say "Blblanc" but I'm not 100% on that. (edit: The various parts of Lechter's name count as this, but in piecemeal: he was "Lector Alandor" in the Japanese version of Azure's in-game picture viewer and "Lecter Arandor" on their Japanese website; the book splits the difference by calling him "Lecter Alandor")
  • Some of them are consistent with name changes XSEED did in their original localization that later got walked back in patches. "Zane Vathek", "Ayn Sernate", "Haru".
  • Some of them are inconsistent with each other. Randy's last name is properly spelled as "Orlando" but Sigmund and Shirley's are "Orland". Mueller is "Muller Vander", but Zechs is "Zex Vandarl".
  • But some weird last names are consistent. They use McLean for both Arios (sorry, "Alios") and Shizuku. They also use "Ausleze" for Alicia, Klaudia (or "Claudia" as the book calls her), Celeste, and Dunan.
  • Some of them are characters with real-world names that are spelled with diacritics when they're used in real life but got elided from their names in localization. "Sonya Bälz", "Jörg Rosenberg", "Ilya Platière".
  • The character descriptions are translated with total ignorance to the characters' roles in the story. Novartis's page spells his name right but says he "oversees thirteen factories". Not "the Thirteen Factories", just "thirteen factories" like he's some kind of industrialist.

Edited by amyjess on Oct 24th 2023 at 11:28:35 AM

bwburke94 Friends forevermore from uǝʌɐǝɥ Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
Friends forevermore
#66: Oct 24th 2023 at 10:09:06 AM

The sheer amount of inconsistency in that artbook—even with itself—makes it example-worthy.

I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.
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)
SamCurt Since: Jan, 2001
#68: Oct 30th 2023 at 12:41:00 PM

Hi, I wonder if a change in name order also falls into this trope? For example, in the case of New Game!, the localized manga (by Seven Seas Entertainment) uses the Eastern order, while the subtitled anime (by Sentai Filmworks) uses the Western order. It's currently not listed, but might worthwhile to ask.

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bwburke94 Friends forevermore from uǝʌɐǝɥ Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
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#69: Oct 30th 2023 at 12:49:29 PM

That would fit better on Name Order Confusion.

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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
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#71: Oct 30th 2023 at 8:35:55 PM

It's not indexed as IUEO, but a past thread did limit it to in-universe confusion (though I'm not sure why adding it to the IUEO index wasn't proposed as well), so SamCurt is still correct here in terms of how it's allowed to be used.

Edit: Maybe Translation Tropes has something that fits these cases.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Oct 30th 2023 at 10:43:21 AM

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RallyBot2 Since: Nov, 2013 Relationship Status: I-It's not like I like you, or anything!
#72: Nov 8th 2023 at 6:04:24 AM

[up][up][up][up]Changes in name order don't fit into any trope that we have (barring Dub Name Change but that's iffy.)

Also, I just started the second round of the migration/cleanup while the first isn't even done yet. Please stop moving Spell My Name examples without seeing if it actually fits the new definition. Some examples better fit Viewer Name Confusion or Dub Name Change.

Riolugirl Rookie Trope Repairer from whence you came, you shall remain... (Experienced Trainee) Relationship Status: He makes me feel like I have a heart
#73: Dec 27th 2023 at 4:45:08 PM

While cleaning up a Bonus Boss wick on VideoGame.Puyo Puyo Fever, I also dewicked a Spell My Name example, but wasn't sure whether to replace it with Inconsistent Spelling or Viewer Name Confusion since it referred to romanisations.

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bwburke94 Friends forevermore from uǝʌɐǝɥ Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
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#74: Dec 27th 2023 at 5:28:52 PM

It's Inconsistent Spelling, because the example says there are three different spellings of the same name within the same work.

I had a dog-themed avatar before it was cool.
bwburke94 Friends forevermore from uǝʌɐǝɥ Since: May, 2014 Relationship Status: RelationshipOutOfBoundsException: 1
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#75: Dec 28th 2023 at 2:11:04 PM

(Double post to change topics)

It wasn't exactly made clear, but I assume for the moment that name spellings presented as incorrect in-universe don't count? We have Accidental Misnaming and My Nayme Is to cover in-universe errors.

This was prompted by the currently-listed example discussed above from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Justice For All; she's consistently Maggey Byrde, and Maggie Byrde is an in-universe misspelling. In the original Japanese, she's consistently 須々木マコ Suzuki Mako, and 鈴木マコ is an in-universe misspelling.

Edited by bwburke94 on Jan 26th 2024 at 9:57:47 AM

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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