English Name Thread!

[Tamanoir]

Is the removal of the T from Tsubaki's name really that much of a deal

It is the choice that makes me the angriest for some reason.

Though my brain still refuses to call Arthur Harold.(or vice-versa)

EDIT :

Wat.

"Tak" doesn't even look like a name, and it sounds like a sound effect. At least "Subaki" sort of looked like a name.

Tak is thanks in Swedish.

I mean, it's still better than Tacos, but just barely.

Edited June 19, 2015 by Tamanoir

[Bovinian]

Sakura and Hinoka are very simple Japanese names. Spelling Ryouma as Ryoma is actually a valid way to transliterate the "ou" sound into English (and I know a Ryoma in real life who spells it that way), so tbh I would hardly even call that a change.

Takumi is just as easy as Sakura and Hinoka and has no other valid transliterations, so if it happens to be changed then I'm convinced that the localization team is just trolling.

[Sylphid]

I thought I was cool with all name changes they could make. They were silly or weird, but I thought I could just roll with them. All the other either made some amount of sense to me (shortening Suzukaze and changing Joker to Jakob) or just didn't matter that much (Marx to Xander)

But then Subaki became a thing and I'm FURIOUS about the change. That's frigging stupidest name change I've ever seen!!

(I'm stealing someone else's brilliant joke here, but) maybe we should start talking about giant Sunamis, zatsiki and Hailand for easier pronounciation...

I probably wouldn't mind this much if Tsubaki wasn't both my current favorite Hoshido character and favorite Japanese name though.

[Belmont]

I actually prefered Cyrus over Silas but whatever.

[Ambulz]

Relevant:

[spoiler=stupid thing I made]

While many of the localized names are groanworthy to me, I can tolerate them in time. I've already gotten over just about each one so far that I hadn't preferred over the original. But "Subaki" is just too damn egregious. I hope the localization team corrects themselves. This is just so silly.

Edited June 19, 2015 by Ambulz

[Bovinian]

They're only really pronounced differently if they're in the middle of words, not at the beginning

This isn't true, as eclipse and egobarrier pointed out. It's just that most Americans will pronounce words like tsunami as if the 't' is silent. In Japanese it's very noticeable, unless the speaker is talking really fast. But that doesn't mean the T should be taken out altogether because "lawl westerners won't know the difference"

It also bugs me that they only feel the need to do this sort of dumbing down with Asian names. Like, how many people actually know how Cherche and Lughnasadh are supposed to be pronounced? But those are just fine?

Edited June 19, 2015 by Bovinian

[Thane]

Oh brilliant I didn't know Aqua was a daedric lord in disguise.

Gotta say these localization choices seem quite facepalm worthy.

BY AZURA BY AZURA BY AZURA! IT'S THE GRAND CHAMPION! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT'S YOU STANDING HERE NEXT TO ME!

Seriously though, Azura is less in your face with the whole water motif at the very least, so I can accept that. But like many others I find Tsubaki's to be particularly odd.

I've gotten over the Marx - Xander debacle though; honestly I think Xander is really starting to grow on me.

[nordopolica]

I don't understand why they simplified something like Tsubaki when they had names like Tharja and Kjelle which everyone pronounces differently. Seriously, to this day I'm not sure how you say Kjelle. I always said Kyel, but many people say Kuh-jell or Chell. I say Thar-ya based off her Japanese name but so many people say Thar-juh. Simplifying Tsubaki just seems redundant.

[HappyHawlucha]

Here are my current opinions on the English Names:

Kamui = Corrin: Kinda makes sense on terms of a unisex name and kinda sound like Kamui in a way, not too big a fan of it though.

Aqua = Azura: Fits her to a tee, the whole Azure in her name lightly suggests the whole water motive, without necessarily calling her a word directly associated with water.

Ryouma = Ryoma: Not too bothered about the missing 'U', now I can pronounce him Ree-oh-ma without thinking it's wrong.

Rinka = Rinkah: Meh

Suzukaze = Kaze: Meh

Kazahana = Hana: I see that they are trying too simplify the Hoshidan names while keeping them true to their Japanese origin, I'm fine with this. I do have a personal issue with this though, I am gonna marry Hana in my first Birthright playthrough, but my sister is also called Hana, which kinda wierds me out!

Tsubaki = Subaki: Same as Hana, but I prefer Tsubaki better tbh.

Marx = Xander: I REALLY like it! Thought that since I got used to it I wouldn't like it changed, but I prefer it to Marx.

Leon = Leo: Saw it coming.

Cyrus = Silas: It's alright, but there is a Serial Killer in a soap opera where I live called Silas, and that is the image that comes to my head when I think of that name.

Elfie = Effie: At first I thought it was the same, but when I found out it was double F, it kinda dissapointed me, would have still prefered Ellie either way.

Harold = Arthur: Never expected this big of a change, but it fits him as good as Harold does in my opinion.

[Lawful Angry]

Since i saw Suzukaze's name get cut in a half i've expected they would do something similar to Kazahana, but why the hell "Subaki"? Was it too hard to leave the "T" alone?

[Sock]

Was there something about Yatogami being Yato now?

If so, can that be added to the OP, pretty please?

Is "Ganglari" pronounced gang-lari or gan-glari?

...I've been trying to ignore the name changes in order to keep my sanity.

Tsubaki's change, though...

/seethes with rage

Whenever someone drops the T it makes me want to knock their fucking teeth out. >:\

For shit's sake, can't you pronounce "its" or "cats"?? D:<

....

Hmmm...

CATSUBAKI :D

/insta-moodchange

maybe we should start talking about giant Sunamis, zatsiki and Hailand for easier pronounciation...

Erm, I got tsunami, but what on earth are the other two supposed to be? ._.;

[Sylphid]

Erm, I got tsunami, but what on earth are the other two supposed to be? ._.;

I was afraid those might be hard to get...

Anyways, Thailand and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzatziki

I wish I had thought of cats instead ;P

[Tamanoir]

I was afraid those might be hard to get...

Anyways, Thailand and https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tzatziki

I wish I had thought of cats instead ;P

And let's not forget Nietzsche.

And the tsetse fly.

[NekoKnight]

This isn't true, as eclipse and egobarrier pointed out. It's just that most Americans will pronounce words like tsunami as if the 't' is silent. In Japanese it's very noticeable, unless the speaker is talking really fast. But that doesn't mean the T should be taken out altogether because "lawl westerners won't know the difference"

It also bugs me that they only feel the need to do this sort of dumbing down with Asian names. Like, how many people actually know how Cherche and Lughnasadh are supposed to be pronounced? But those are just fine?

There is a pretty serious disconnect between their philosophy of 'simplifying' Japanese names to be less difficult to pronounce (even though Japanese is a phonetic language so they're actually EASIER to pronounce) and the other "western" names in the series. Beyond character names like Kjelle, we have weapons such as:

Hauteclere

Vidnofnir

Gae Bolg

Audhulma

Tyrfing

But heaven help us if we have a Tsubaki or Suzukaze.

Edited June 21, 2015 by NekoKnight

[Fuzzlekins]

Japanese is a lot easier to pronounce than a lot of other languages in my opinion. I knew this was coming though, so I'm not too upset. It would have been nice if they retained their original names.

To be honest some of the name changes I am fine with though, like Azura instead of Aqua. With Aqua I keep thinking of either Team Aqua or the Kingdom Hearts character. I'm also fine with Silas instead of Cyrus because it's a pretty reasonable way to romanize his name. We just got attached to Cyrus because that's how fan-translators chose to write it.