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Black & White English names

Bachuru said:
No, you're not going to continue using the Japanese names. People say that every generation and they never do it, because it always, always turns out the names aren't as bad as they thought once they've actually gotten used to them.

Also, Kyurem is it's Japanese name. If the u is adding to it the way you pronounce it, you're pronouncing it wrong. :/
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To be fair, this generation has a difference in information flow. The 4th generation brought series online with WiFi, and as such broadened the audience and environment greatly - albeit I speak from the competitive community standpoint, mostly. Nonetheless, with that foundation up, 5th gen came into view far faster than previous generations. It may not be the case for everyone, but the Japanese names /are/ the ones I'm used to - I've been playing the JP version since release, and the game at large has, of course, only been referred to through the Japanese names. I've never been a huge fan of the English names, but yes, I did 'get used to them' - I went straight into the English releases, after all. For this generation, I've already got them ingrained, and I don't think it's right to generalise such things based on previous releases.

On that note, Kyuremu was an earlier translation - as Jack said, the literal form, and it's what has been thrown around the places I browse.

Zhorken said:
Er, hurr durr probably is half the actual reference. Why do people keep thinking they couldn't possibly intentionally be calling it a musclehead? o_o
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Fair enough, didn't think of that. Still a bit silly, albeit, but it makes sense.
 
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Bachuru said:
No, you're not going to continue using the Japanese names. People say that every generation and they never do it, because it always, always turns out the names aren't as bad as they thought once they've actually gotten used to them.
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Hey, I still use the japanese names more than the english ones for gen IV and switch between the two for the other generations :/

... But then again I am probably a specialer snowflake than most of the people who claim they will NEVER USE THE ENGLISH NAMES EVER. (PSST, THE JAPANESE NAMES AREN'T ANY BETTER. THEY JUST SOMETIMES HAVE BETTER JOKES. ... AND OFTEN HAVE WORSE JOKES.)


Also I say this as someone who paid quite a lot of attention to people's playthroughs of Gold and Diamond and played through Platinum and White in Japanese: it really doesn't take long to adjust. I default to japanese names for gens IV and V and for a lot of gens I-III (mostly II and III), but it's not hard at all to get used to seeing the English name instead and using it, even if sometimes it takes a moment to figure out what chirutto is in English.
 
Little Bluberry Bomb said:
On that note, Kyuremu was an earlier translation - as Jack said, the literal form, and it's what has been thrown around the places I browse.
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Kyuremu is the correct literal romanization, yes - heck, it's the one I'm using until there is an official English name - but the fact the official romanization is 'Kyurem' means that in some sense that was what they were actually going for when they created the name, just like when the Japanese say 'hanbaagaa' they're actually going for 'hamburger' (but limited by their syllabic writing system and different pronunciation rules). The u is technically there, but if you were to hear a Japanese person saying the name casually, they probably wouldn't pronounce it, or only barely; they drop a lot of u's, especially at the end of words, unless they're enunciating it especially clearly. The official romanization shows that in this particular name, that is not just likely but expected. Retaining the u in the English name would erroneously give English-speakers the impression that the u is explicitly supposed to be there, because English doesn't have the same thing with dropping u's at the end of words.
 
enekoiru said:
(PSST, THE JAPANESE NAMES AREN'T ANY BETTER. THEY JUST SOMETIMES HAVE BETTER JOKES. ... AND OFTEN HAVE WORSE JOKES.)
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I do not claim to have the same mastery of the Japanese names that you do, but I do know that after investigating several the only ones I recall having any respect for at all are the bulbasaur line's. There are probably other cool ones but hell if I remember them.
 
Kratos Aurion said:
I do not claim to have the same mastery of the Japanese names that you do, but I do know that after investigating several the only ones I recall having any respect for at all are the [fushigidane] line's. There are probably other cool ones but hell if I remember them.
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Oh, if you're looking for names that aren't awful, don't touch Kanto at all. Rizaado, rizaadon! Kokuun, supiaa! Pijon! Koratta, ratta! Sando! Aabo, aabokku! Goosu, goosuto! Sandaazu, shawaazu, buusutaa! Rakkii! Faiya, sandaa, furiizaa! Many many many others that I would include if I didn't really need to reboot my laptop!

Later generations at least tried to include, I don't know, wordsmushes and puns. ... But the first gen's got a *lot* of 'this is an english word'.

I do love that Lucky evolves into Happiness, though.
 
Oh, yeah, I know most of Kanto was terrible, which is probably why bulbasaur fushigidane et al stuck out as so interesting. It's kind of hard not to look interesting right next to "lizard", of course, but...

Also, @Bluberry: True, it's not fair to generalize, but you're probably going to find yourself using the English names more often than not anyway just because everyone around you is. Especially when you talk to the people who have entirely forgotten the super-speshul-shiny foreign names and so have no idea what the hell an "ononokusu" is and what have you.
 
enekoiru said:
Oh, if you're looking for names that aren't awful, don't touch Kanto at all. Rizaado, rizaadon! Kokuun, supiaa! Pijon! Koratta, ratta! Sando! Aabo, aabokku! Goosu, goosuto! Sandaazu, shawaazu, buusutaa! Rakkii! Faiya, sandaa, furiizaa! Many many many others that I would include if I didn't really need to reboot my laptop!

Later generations at least tried to include, I don't know, wordsmushes and puns. ... But the first gen's got a *lot* of 'this is an english word'.

I do love that Lucky evolves into Happiness, though.
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pikushii. mankii. dokuck. suriipu, suriipaa. kurabu. koiru, reakoiru. bariyaado. sutoraiku. koikingu. putera. miniryu.

chansey to blissey is kind of like taking lucky to happy and applying some thesaurus abuse, though.
 
There's some good names this generation, my favourite being Haxorus. Maybe I've set my standards lower to avoid disappointment... I think that they've concentrated on the actual sound of the name this year, rather than just making sure every name is a combination of two words.
 
3 new English names:

#530 Doryuuzu is Excadrill
#540 Kurumiru is Sewaddle
#594 Mamanbou is Alomomola


Upon checking with the list that appeared on fansites, it's a match.
 
So the chance that someone knew ahead of time all of the names that are just now getting leaked and used them to make his list of fake names look real is growing less and less likely. I think it's pretty safe to consider these legit now.
 
It's been, like, seven years now and I still call Taillow Subame. It's the only one, and I completely mispronounce it and I don't know why but I can't help it.
 
I'm glad that the 'leaked' names are slowly becoming more legit, all the English names are growing on me :D I've even started to refer to the Gen V Pokemon as their English names, despite the fact that most of them haven't been confirmed yet. They just sound so... right to me.

However, I'll probably use Cofagrigus's/Desukaan's Japanese name for a little while longer, it's easier to say and spell. But I'll get used to Cofagrigus eventually.
 
Tell me why I keep dyslexc reading Victini as Vincti and now I can't call it anything but that, after calling it that ever since it was leaked.

And I think Victini soudns too much like Dratini.


AND HOLY SHIT GUYS I'VE STARTED TO ACCEPT BEING CALLED BRAVIARY. But I still like being referred to as Wargle.
 
The only legends that have changed names at all (minor spelling changes notwithstanding) are the birds and lake guardians. (Only 2/3 of the lake guardians, if you pronounce Uxie like they do in the anime with a YOOK at the beginning.)

EDIT: And, if the rumors are true which it looks like they probably are, the roaming Flyers. (Or 2/3 of them, if you count Landorus (Eng) and Landlos/Randorosu (Jap) similar enough.)
 
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