"Come, let us celebrate your win with a feast! Fire up the grill, Khush... I mean, Marco!"
Oftentimes, localizers decide to change certain names when translating a work for a different region. This can include the name of the work itself, or certain characters or things within it. The reasons for this vary, but ultimately it's driven by the desire to ensure that the work becomes as popular as possible with its new audience. However, sometimes, after a series has been around for some time, the localizer may decide to revert these changes and start using the same names as the original. This could be for a variety of reasons: the series might already be successful, and the localizers feel that changing the names is no longer necessary, the altered name may have been the result of a mistranslation or other mistake, the original creator of the work might not like the localizers' changes and request that it be changed back, or the creators might simply want to keep the names the same in all regions for consistency's sake. Technological advancement and globalization have played a role in making this more common since the Turn of the Millennium; in the age of the Internet, having the same names across all countries makes it easier for fans in different countries to engage with one another online and avoid confusion, and also simplifies the production of merchandise and marketing materials.
This trope is inherently a subversion of either Dub Name Change or Market-Based Title. Compare with Inconsistent Dub, where a dub or localization uses differing translations for the same character/concept. A subtrope of Sudden Name Change. It can fall under Adaptation Name Change if later adaptations change a character's name to their original name. Also compare Truer to the Text, where a new adaptation of a work tries to be more faithful to the original. Compare Translation Nod, when the original version of a work references something (such as a Dub Name Change) from one of its translations. Compare Early Localization Weirdness, where a work that got localized in another country initially had characters have different names to their original, but kept the original names later on.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Zigzagged with Uran from Astro Boy. The dub of the 60s series called her Astro Girl, the 1980s series went back to Uran (though the Canadian dub called her Sarah), and the 2003 series called her Zoran. The dub of Pluto also completely reverted all of the dub names, Uran included.
- The Italian dub of Beyblade X is based on the English one, keeping most of the localized names. However, the location where the Pro Blader league tournaments are played is referred to with the original Japanese name of "X Tower" instead of the English dub's "The X".
- Captain Tsubasa altered almost all names of the Japanese characters into Western names when it was brought to Europe and Latin America (the protagonist, Tsubasa Ozora, was known as "Oliver Atom" for decades in French- and Spanish-speaking countries, and he's still often referred to that way by the fandom) until the 2018 anime, when all characters are referred by their original Japanese names.
- Crayon Shin-chan: When the manga was originally published in South Korea in 1995, the series is known as "짱구는 못말려" (Jjangu the Unstoppable) and the characters were given localized Korean names (with the main character Shinnosuke "Shin-chan" Nohara renamed to "Jjangu" (짱구)). When the publishing license of the manga series given to a different publisher in early 2000s, for some reasons the series title reverted back to the original Japanese, and so are the character names. The anime series, films, video games and merchandises still uses the Jjangu the Unstoppable series title and the localized Korean names for the characters though.
- Dr. Slump: The first 50 episodes were dubbed in Italian in the 80s with many character names being changed, except for Arale and a few others. In the early 2000s, with the dub of the remake immediately followed by a redub of the original series (with the same voice actors of the remake), the original names were kept instead... except for Gacchan, who kept her original name in the original dub but was renamed "Mangi" in the remake and in the original series redub.
- Doraemon:
- It was originally dubbed in Italian with all the character names (except for the titular character's) replaced with Italian ones. Starting from the 2003 redub of the 1979 series, the original names were kept instead.
- The manga's first Vietnamese translation (which was unlicensed) changed some of the names slightly; we had Doraemon, Shizuka, Jaian and Suneo becoming Đôrêmon, Xuka, Chaien and Xêkô, respectivelynote . However, once Kim Đồng Publishing House finally acquired the license to publish the manga in Vietnam, they issued a new translation for the manga, with all the names reverted to the original ones. Most fans embraced it, but some fans didn't like this change at all, and still stick with the "unlicensed" names to this day.
- The Arabic dub of the old anime changed Doraemon's name to Abqūr and all characters' names to Arabic names. Starting with the dub of the 2005 series, character names are not changed to Arabic names.
- Dragon Ball:
- Zigzagged by the Italian dub. The first dub of the original series changed only a few names (such as Yamcha becoming "Jamka"), while its second dub (which segued into the dubs of all the other series) changed a few more names (such as Oolong becoming "Oscar" or Piccolo being renamed "Junior"). While the dub of Dragon Ball Z was going on, the films were also being dubbed by a different studio than the show, which kept all the original names... until 2003, when they were all redubbed by the same voice cast as the show, with the name changes from the series coming back. Then, when two new films came out, the Italian dub was made by the same people who worked on the first dub of the earlier movies, bringing back the original names once again... until Dragon Ball Super arrived, dubbed again by the original series studio with the name changes coming back once again. And then, when they made two more films, they were dubbed by the voice cast from the show, but with the original names (albeit Broly also has an alternate audio track with the show dub names).
- In the English and French dubs of Dragon Ball Z, Mr. Satan's name was changed to Hercule. For the former, it was due to "Satan" being a potentially offensive name for a hero in the predominantly-Christian Anglosphere. For the latter dub, it was due to Piccolo already having his name changed to "Satan's Little Heart". However, later dubs of Dragon Ball reverted him back into Mr. Satan.
- When Goku was driven to Snake Way in the English dub, Goku refers to the Turtle School as the Kame Sen'nin style of martial arts which is the Japanese name of the Turtle Hermit Master Roshi.
- The English dub of Kai started to do this with attack names being reverted back to their original Japanese ones ("Kienzan" instead of "Destructo Disk," "Makankosoppo" instead of "Special Bean Cannon," and "Taiyoken" instead of "Solar Flare" are the biggest examples) in the uncut dub on the home releases while the TV edited dub would retain the dub names. However, about halfway though the initial 98 episodes, they'd switch them back in the uncut dub randomly and they've remained that way ever since. They also reverted "Guru" to "Grand Elder" and "Hercule" to "Mr. Satan" in the uncut dub and changed the pronunciation of "Kaioken" back to its Japanese one ("Kai-oken" instead of "Kay-oken").
- Downplayed by the Italian dub of Grendizer U. The dub keeps most of the name changes from the original UFO Robo Grendizer: however, Koji Kabuto keeps his original Japanese name, with "Alcor" (his dub name from the original show) being reinvented as a nickname.
- One Piece:
- The first editions of the French manga has Usopp named "Pipo" (to keep the point that his Punny Name means "Liar"). Later editions reverted it to "Usopp".
- When the show was dubbed by 4Kids, the names of many characters were changed from their original, such as Zoro becoming Zolo and Ace becoming Trace. When Funimation took over, they kept the name changes for the Toonami broadcast for a while but used their original names for the uncut versions. After Toonami went to Adult Swim, Funimation abandoned the dub names for the characters completely, only doing a dub name for Sniper King (whose name is still translated from Sogeking).
- The anime's Italian dub originally changed a few names, such as Luffy being called "Rubber" (which already got retconned as a nickname when his Wanted poster was first shown) or Usop's name being pronounced "Asop". Starting from the dub of One Piece Film: Gold, the Japanese names were used instead.
- In the German translation of the manga (and the Danish one which one which is based on the German translation), Crocodile is named "Krokodil" (German for "crocodile") when he's first mentioned and continues to be referred to by that name for the next few volumes. When he's properly introduced at the start of the Alabasta arc, he suddenly becomes "Sir Crocodile" instead, with his introduction box mentioning that "Krokodil" is just an alias of his (which makes very little sense given that he already has "Mr. 0" as an alias). Throughout the Alabasta arc, both names are used with hardly any logic to why the characters sometimes say "Crocodile" and other times "Krokodil". After the Alabasta arc, the "Krokodil" name is dropped entirely.
- In the Danish translation, Peepley Lulu is named "Louie-Louie" (which is also his name in the German translation) when his name is first mentioned in volume 34, but he becomes "Peepley Lulu" from volume 36 onwards. In volume 35, the translator seemingly couldn't decide whether to use the German name or the original Japanese name and instead finds an odd compromise by calling him "Lou-Lou".
- When Smile PreCure! and Doki Doki! PreCure were dubbed by Saban Brands into Glitter Force and Glitter Force Doki Doki, everyone was given English names; same with Futari wa Pretty Cure, which was dubbed for the Canadian market in the late 2000s. When the main leads for those shows appeared in Soaring Sky! PreCure, they used their Japanese names instead (instead of Natalie, Emily, and Maya, they are referred to as Nagisa, Miyuki, and Mana).
- Pokémon the Series: Not a character, but a food. The English dubs attempted any number of Woolseyisms to describe onigiri (stuffed rice balls wrapped in seaweed, a common Japanese snack), from jelly doughnuts to sandwiches to popcorn. Eventually they gave up and started calling them rice balls.
- Sailor Moon:
- When Sailor Moon was first brought over to English-speaking audiences through the DIC dub of the 1992 anime, the Sailor Senshi turned into "Sailor Scouts" and all human characters were given Western names, with some changes (e.g. Usagi, a play on the Japanese legend of the rabbit in the moon, was changed to "Serena" to better foreshadow her as Princess Serenity) bigger than others (Ami changed to "Amy" and Rei to "Raye").note When the original anime was redubbed in 2014 by the same team doing the English dub for the anniversary reboot Sailor Moon Crystal, they reverted back to the original names, along with being a Truer to the Text dub of the Japanese script.
- While the Italian dub of the original anime changed many names, the dub of Sailor Moon Crystal kept all the original names (but kept the transformation phrases and attack names from the dub of the original series due to Executive Meddling).
- When Science Ninja Team Gatchaman got its third English dub (courtesy of ADV Films), following Battle of the Planets and G-Force: Guardians of Space, they took a Truer to the Text approach at translation and kept all the names the same. No more Mark and Jason or Ace and Dirk, this time they stuck with Ken and Joe, and managed to dub over all 105 episodes of the show.
- Space Battleship Yamato: When the series was brought to the West, it was renamed to "Star Blazers", all of the characters were given more Western sounding names (such as "Susumu Kodai" being changed to "Derek Wildstar"), and even the titular Yamato was renamed in-universe as the "Argo". The 2010 live-action Space Battleship Yamato film ditched these changes, and used the original names for the English dub. The remake series Space Battleship Yamato 2199 and its sequel Space Battleship Yamato 2202 were both localized in the west as "Star Blazers 2199" and "Star Blazers 2202", likely as a nod to fans who grew up with the dub, but still retained the original names for the ship and characters.
- The Italian dub of the 2001 Shaman King anime series was based on the English dub, but didn't use any of the localized names from that dub and instead had all characters using their Japanese names (with the only exception being Ren Tao keeping the English "Tao Len" name).
- In Ultimate Muscle, the Kinniku Buster is called the "Butt Buster" (a roughly crude translation of the original name meaning “muscle Buster” in Japanese) in the dub up until Kid Muscle's fight with Dial Bolic, with the explanation that he renamed it in honor of his family.
- Yatterman: While the Italian dub of the original series changed many character names, the dub of the 2008 remake instead keeps all the original names instead. This is actually played with in the episode where the Terrible Trio reunites a few of their Expies from other Time Bokan series to form a baseball team: when the narrator presents a character from Yattodetaman using his dub name ("Ottobre"), the character snaps and corrects the narrator yelling "MY NAME IS SUKADON!".
- The Italian dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! was based on the English dub and used the character names from that dub, with a few exceptions: in particular, Weevil Underwood was renamed "Bruchido Haga", which is a localized Italian version of his original Japanese name Insector Haga. However, from the Grand Tournament arc onwards the dub begins calling him Weevil as in the English dub.
- The Italian dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS is the first time Duel Disks are called with their original name, as the dubs of the earlier series renamed them Dueling Disks.
- Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL: Inverted by the Italian dub. Due to the dub being a mishmash of the original Japanese version and the English version made by 4Kids Entertainmentnote , characters introduced between episodes 26 and 49 initially kept their original Japanese names. When Anna Kozuki, Gauche and Droite reappeared in later episodes, they were suddenly changed to their English dub names Anna Kaboom, Nistro and Dextra.
Asian Animation
- When Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf was first aired in India, it went by the name Kya Bakra Hai!, meaning "What a Goat!". When a Hindi version of the season Flying Island: The Sky Adventure premiered in March 2023, the series reverted to its English name (which is also common to find used in China, where the series is from).
Comic Books
- Archie Comics: In Mexico, various characters had their names changed, such as Archie Andrews becoming Archie Gómez and Reggie Mantle becoming Carlos Marin, but in the 2000s and onwards, they went back to the original English names.
- Batman
- Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson were known as Bruno Díaz and Ricardo Tapia respectively in early Latin American translations of Batman media. Starting with Batman Begins, Bruce Wayne's name would be kept unchanged in newer translations from hereon and Dick Grayson would follow suit afterward.
- The titular character was known as Lynvingen ("Lightning Wing") in Norway until the 1989 movie came out, after which he reverted to his English name.
- A trend for Marvel comics since the early 2000s in Italy has been getting rid of any translated name as soon as a movie about that character or group is released.
- Spider-Man was literally translated as "Uomo Ragno" for years, but began keeping the English name after the Spider-Man Trilogy came out.
- Daredevil was known as just "Devil" before the 2003 film came out.
- The Marvel Cinematic Universe effectively erased many translated character names from the comic books. Gone are "Capitan America", "I Vendicatori", and "Pantera Nera", now known as Captain America, The Avengers, and Black Panther as in English-speaking countries.
- Superman was initially known in Italy as "Ciclone" and then "Nembo Kid", but later on he began keeping his English name.
- Wolverine was initially known in French as "Serval" (which referred to a different animal and was chosen over "Glouton", the French word for Wolverine's namesake animal, given that said French word also means "gluton"). However, ever since Panini Comics gained the rights to publish Marvel Comics in French starting with 1997, Logan's codename has been reverted back to Wolverine. Also, both X-Men: The Animated Series and Spider-Man: The Animated Series were dubbed prior to when Panini started translating Marvel Comics in French and thus they used "Serval". After 1997, any adaptation featuring Logan since then (such as the X-Men (Film Series), X-Men: Evolution, and the TAS revival X-Men '97 to name a few) have called him Wolverine in French.
Franchises
- Digimon:
- The Italian dub of Digimon Adventure used all the translated names and terminology from the English dub of the series (albeit the dub was based on the original Japanese version). The dub of Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna, on the other hand, keeps all the Japanese names and terms, to the point that attack names are left in Gratuitous English.
- Omegamon is a Zig-Zagged example. When it was first introduced in the west, it recieved a Dub Name Change to Omnimon. However as of Digimon World -next 0rder-, the English releases have started going back and forth between using its original name and using its dub name, with -next 0rder- and Digimon Survive reverting its name back to Omegamon while Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker's Memory, Digimon Adventure tri., Digimon Adventure: Last Evolution Kizuna, the Trading Card Game, Digimon Adventure: (2020), and Digimon Story: Time Stranger still call it Omnimon.
- Many other Digimon also zigzag between keeping their English names and their original Japanese ones, such as IceLeomon/Panjyamon or Phoenixmon/Hououmon.
- The 2020 Card Game itself features a few more examples: Crusadermon was reverted to its Japanese name LordKnightmon, and while most anime characters are referred to with their dub names when possible, Suzie from Digimon Tamers is called "Shu-Chong" while keeping her dub surname "Wong"note , and all the characters and terms from Digimon Fusion using their Japanese names (such as the Xros Heart army archetype being called as such instead of Fusion Fighters). Note that the latter was clearly a last minute change: not only the international card database used the English dub names back when the first set featuring characters from Fusion was first released in Japan, but the "Blazing Memory Boost!" Option card was printed in English with a reference to "Christopher Aonuma" rather than "Kiriha Aonuma" (and later got an errata to correct the point). The only notable exception is using OmniShoutmon as opposed to OmegaShoutmon, possibly to keep the correlation with Omnimon's name.
- When Chaosdramon made its English debut in Digimon Fusion, it received a very minor Dub Name Change to Chaosdromon. All of its English appearances afterwards changed its name back to Chaosdramon.
- The English dub of Digimon Adventure 02: The Beginning refers to Hikarigaoka by its original name, as opposed to Highton View Terrace like in the earlier Adventure dubs. The German dub also did this, calling it Hikarigaoka rather than Westendviertel.
- Digimon World 3 renamed Bearmon to Kumamon, presumably to Keep It Foreign. However, a few months after the localised release of the game, the dub of Digimon Frontier arrived, with Chakmon being renamed to…Kumamon. This understandably caused confusion within the fanbase. Later on, it came time to dub the Non-Serial Movie Digimon Frontier: Island of Lost Digimon, which included both of the species. The solution was for the former to be dubbed as Bearmon, since the latter was a protagonist in the series proper, and renaming them for the movie would be more confusing. A couple of games on the DS did name the former Kumamon again, but since then, the series settled on him being Bearmon, while the one from Frontier continues to be localised as Kumamon, presumably to maintain consistency with the anime.
- Digimon Survive uses the term evolve in English rather than the iconic digivolve term the series’ translations generally use. In this case, it’s justified by the fact that the Digimon aren’t actually digital in the game’s continuity, instead being more akin to mythical spirits.
- When Lighdramon and Huckmon were introduced, Western releases initially changed their names to "Raidramon" and "Hackmon". However, Digimon Universe: App Monsters would later introduce two Appmon who are also named Raidramon and Hackmon, meaning that later media (such as the 2020 card game and Digimon Story: Time Stranger) had to revert the former two Digimon to their Japanese names.
- Digimon Ghost Game: While the English dub generally keeps the previously localized names, DarkKnightmon, Baalmon, Bastemon, and Lilithmon are referred to by their original names rather than the names given to them in the dub of Digimon Fusion: AxeKnightmon (also used in Digimon Adventure: (2020)), Reapmon, Beastmon, and Laylamon.
- Digimon Beat Break does a half-inverted version of the trope: while the Japanese terminology is still used in dialogue, the series features shots of Digimon bios in the bounty lists Cleaners use to pick their next targets, which are written in Gratuitous English and as such use the English names and terminology.
- Transformers:
- During the early days of Transformers: Generation 1, characters had different names in Italian (Optimus Prime was called "Commander", Starscream was "Astrum", Soundwave was "Memor"...), both in cartoons and comics and on the toy boxes themselves. The practice was kept around up until Beast Wars: after that, they began using the English names (albeit Autobots were referred to as "Autorobot" up until Transformers (2007)).
- In Japanese, several of the initial 1984 Autobots had different names than the Western versions, notably Bumblebee being known as "Bumble", Brawn becoming "Gong" and Bluestreak becoming "Streak". Furthermore, the Autobots and Decepticons were known as Cybertrons and Destrons (with their homeworld of Cybertron being transliterated as "Seibertron" to differentiate it from the heroic faction). Even during Beast Wars, the Maximals and Predacons were known as Cybertrons and Destronsnote . Starting around the time of Transformers (2007), Takara-Tomy began using the Western names, beginning with their dub of Transformers: Animated (which they initially tried to market as a prequel to the live-action films until it became clear they were completely incompatible).
- Amusingly, when Japan switched to referring to characters by their English names, the switch also ended up applying to any Japanese-original characters who received a Dub Name Change in the English release, so now whenever those characters receive new toys, they're sold in Japan under their English-localized names, making this a very rare inverted example.
- Optimus Prime was famously known as "Convoy" in Japanese (based on the original Diaclone name for his toy mold). When Optimus Primal was introduced, he was also named "Convoy", resulting in Optimus Prime receiving a variety of names such as "Shodai Convoy" (literally "First Generation Convoy" or "Original Convoy"), First Convoy, or G1 Convoy. After the release of the live-action films, he became known as Optimus Prime in Japanese as well... but only in material set in new continuities like Transformers: Prime or Transformers: Cyberverse. In material set in the original G1 timeline (based on The Transformers and its various sequels), he's still known simply as "Convoy".note
- The Latin American Spanish dub of Beast Wars also infamously changed the names of most of the characters. Some went with literal translations of their English names (Optimus Primal became 'Optimus Primitivo', Waspinator became 'Avispaneitor'), while others completely changed to something else (Depth Charge became 'Mantaraya'note , Silverbolt became 'Lobo Plateado'note ). When Beast Machines came around, the dub decided to go for the English names instead... Except for Silverbolt who still went by Lobo Plateado, despite now turning into a condor.
Films — Animated
- In the Norwegian dubs of the first two Despicable Me movies, the word "Minion" was translated to hjelpere, helpers. When the Minions movie came out, the species' original English name was retained along with the original movie title, and it has stuck since.
- Disney Fairies: In Latin American Spanish dubs of previous Disney media, Tinker Bell's name was translated as Campanita. In these movies, however, she has her English name for unknown reasons.
- Ice Age: Continental Drift: In the first movie, Sid's unseen brother Marshall and uncle Fungus were called Marcelo and Francisco in the Latin American Spanish dub. In this movie, when they actually appear, they are referred to by their English names. In the European Spanish dub, Fungus is also referred to by his English name when his name was originally Champi in the first movie.
- The Loud House Movie: In the original series, the Loud family's surname was changed to Gürültü in Turkish. However, the Turkish dub of the movie exclusively refers to them by their original surname, while "Gürültü" is delegated to the title only.
- Open Season: In the Latin American Spanish dub, McSquizzy and Mr. Weenie were renamed Guido and Señor Salchicha in the first three movies. In the fourth movie, Scared Silly, they went back to their English names.
- Peter No-Tail:
- The eponymous character's actual name is "Pelle". "Pelle" is a Swedish form of "Peter", and the actual series of books and films are actually known as Pelle Svanslös (literally "Pelle No-Tail/Tail-less"). Both the American and British English dubs change his name to Peter (which technically makes it a Downplayed Dub Name Change as his name isn't really outright changed so much as Anglicized), however, both the English translation of the books (released years after the animated films were released in English) and an English dub of the 2020 animated film (which has yet to actually be released, but apparently is going to be if this trailer is any indication
) use his Swedish name.
- The 1981 British English dub changes Elaka Måns ("Mean Måns") to "Mean Mike", and Maja Gräddnos ("Maya Cream-nose") to "Molly Silknose". In the British dub of its sequel, Peter No-Tail In America (or alternatively Peter No-Tail in Americat), they are called by their original Swedish names.
- The eponymous character's actual name is "Pelle". "Pelle" is a Swedish form of "Peter", and the actual series of books and films are actually known as Pelle Svanslös (literally "Pelle No-Tail/Tail-less"). Both the American and British English dubs change his name to Peter (which technically makes it a Downplayed Dub Name Change as his name isn't really outright changed so much as Anglicized), however, both the English translation of the books (released years after the animated films were released in English) and an English dub of the 2020 animated film (which has yet to actually be released, but apparently is going to be if this trailer is any indication
- Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva: While in the Italian translation of the original video games changed Don Paolo's name to Don Pablo, the dub of the film keeps his original name for his brief cameo in the introduction.
- In the Danish dub of SCOOB!, all characters that normally have localized Danish names (e.g. Shaggy who is normally called "Stubbe" in Danish) are referred to by their English names instead.
- In the Shrek franchise, Puss in Boots in the Japanese dub is called "Nagagutsu wo Haita Neko" and was originally called just "Neko" for short. While his full title in the Japanese dub hasn't changed, starting from his 2011 spin-off movie, he instead now goes by his original name of Puss when being referred to shorthand.
- The Italian dub of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie keeps Mr. Krabs's English name, while in the proper show he's changed to "Mr. Krab".
- Inverted in the Japanese version of The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Foreman Spike from Wrecking Crew was originally known as Blacky in Japanese. The Japanese dub of the movie, however, uses the English name, and the overall franchise would follow suit.
- Tangled: This is the first Rapunzel adaptation where Rapunzel keeps her original name in the Italian dub/translation. Before this movie, the character was only known as Raperonzolo in Italian.
- Toy Story 4: Throughout the original Toy Story trilogy, Bo Peep was renamed to Betty in the Latin American Spanish dub, but in this movie her original English name began to be used. Interestingly, early Toy Story 4 merchandise featuring Bo Peep still refers to her as Betty, meaning that at some point, she was still going to being referred as Betty in Latin America.
Films — Live-Action
- Disney:
- In the Italian dub of The Jungle Book (1967), King Louie was renamed King Luigi (and he's the only character in the movie who got a Dub Name Change). In the live-action remake The Jungle Book (2016), he was reverted to his original name.
- In the Italian dubs of the original Peter Pan, most of the characters' names were changed or translated, except for Peter Pan and Wendy. The dub of the live-action remake Peter Pan & Wendy keeps many of the Italian names, but brings back the original names of Wendy's brothers John and Michael, who were renamed Gianni and Michele in the Italian dubs of the animated movie.
- The German title of the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, is just „Fluch der Karibik“note . Starting with the second movie, for the official titles, "Pirates of the Caribbean" has been used, with Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest released as „Pirates of the Caribbean: Fluch der Karibik 2“ and the subsequent ones with subtitles like „Am Ende der Welt“ for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
- Star Wars:
- In Spanish, both A New Hope and (for the longest time) the whole franchise were called "Guerra de las Galaxias", which translates into "War of the Galaxies" in English. Starting with the rerelease of the movie, it was known by the English name plus a direct translation for the subtitle; since then, the franchise also adopted its English name in the Hispanosphere.
- In Hungarian, the original trilogy was released under the translated title "Csillagok háborúja". When the prequels were released, the franchise's title was reverted to the English original, including the subsequent re-releases of the original trilogy.
- Originally, the franchise was known in Italian as Guerre Stellari and had a lot of translated character names, but this was slowly changed over the years. The Special Editions brought back the English title, the prequel trilogy reverted C-3PO and R2-D2 to their original names (instead of "D-3BO" and "C1-P8") and then the sequel trilogy removed almost every other translated name. The only change that is still kept around is Chewbacca's Affectionate Nickname being "Chube" instead of "Chewie".
- In the first French dub of A New Hope, C3-PO was renamed to Z6-PO, R2-D2 to D2-R2, Han Solo to Yan Solo, Chewbacca to Chiktaba, and Millennium Falcon to Millennium Condor. All these name changes were eventually ditched in later dubs, including re-dubsnote . Darth Vader's French dub name of « Dark Vador » was also ditched — but only in Canadian French, where most material from the prequel trilogy onwards consistently received Canadian French dubs.
- In German, the first movie was released as „Krieg der Sterne“. Starting with The Empire Strikes Back, the title was kept untranslated as "Star Wars". A similar thing occurred in French where the first movie was known as « La Guerre des Étoiles » before going back to the original title.
- Played with in the German dub of Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022). Dale's name has always been changed to Chap in German. The movie addresses this by the opening narration revealing that Dale is his real name, while "Chap" is only a stage name.
Literature
- Downplayed with the Italian translations of Captain Underpants. The original release of the books (which was interrupted after the eighth book) changed all the character names. The rereleases that began in 2017, the translations of the later books and the dubs of animated media like Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie and The Epic Tales of Captain Underpants use the English names for George, Harold, Melvin and any of their school mates that gets a name drop, while leaving all the translated names for every other character.
- In the Italian translation of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Sweetie (the dog that first appears in Dog Days)'s name was originally translated as "Uccio" (shortened form of "tesoruccio", a literal translation of "sweetie"). In Hot Mess, he's referred to with his English name instead.
- In the Spanish translations of the Discworld novels, Death's name was translated directly, as "La Muerte", but because that's grammatically feminine in Spanish, the character was depicted as female up until the release of Reaper Man. The Spanish translation of Reaper Man switched to depicting Death as male, with a translator's note explaining the situation, and the translations of subsequent novels have followed suit.
- An early Polish translation of The Expanse translates the series' title as Ekspansja, which sounds similar but really means "expansion" rather than "a vast stretch". The newer translations released after the TV adaptation stick to the series' original English title.
- Harry Potter: The first Italian translation of the books changed the last names of many characters with comedic ones that often were in faux English. Between 2011 and 2014, the books got a partial retranslation to fix many errors and issues from the original release, and in the meantime reverted multiple characters to their original English last names (mainly the ones whose translation was either a tentative to give them a Meaningful Namenote or unnecessarynote ). Only a few, like Dumbledore and Snape, kept their Italian last names ("Silente" and "Piton" respectively), while others were still translated but done differentlynote . Since the dub of the movies was based on the first translation, modern tie-in media switch between the two terminologies depending if they're talking about the books or the movies.
- The Pelle Svanslös/Peter No-Tail book series was released in English years after its Animated Adaptations were, which used the English form "Peter" to refer to the title character. The English translations of the books actually use his Swedish name, thus, naming the books Pelle No-Tail.
Live-Action TV
- The Polish subtitles for The Boys (2019) season 1 localize the supes' codenames — Homelander becomes "Ojczyznosław" and A-Train "Pośpieszny"note for example — but that was dropped by season 2, leaving only the eponymous Anti-Hero Team's codenames translated, at least until season 4 introduces Firecracker whose name is translated as "Petarda".
- Harry Potter (2026): The series retains the title Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone across the world in instead of retitling it as Sorcerer's Stone for the American market like the books and films did.
- Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: The Italian dub of the first episode translated the term "Morpher" as "Trasformabile" ("Transformable"). The name was ditched right after that, and the original name has been used ever since.
Puppet Shows
- The Muppets:
- Various Muppets had their names changed in the Latin American Spanish dub, such as Kermit becoming René, Fozzie becoming Figaredo and Bunsen becoming Basilio. Most of them reverted to their original names after the 2011 movie. Kermit justifies this in one video by saying that Kermit was actually his real name all along; people got his name wrong and he just rolled with it.
- In Castilian Spanish, the series's title was initially Los Teleñecos until the 2011 movie, where they went back to the title Muppets.
- The first Italian dub of the original show changed only two names: Beaker became Becco, while Statler was renamed Hilton. Both characters were reverted to their original names as early as The Muppet Movie.
- In Brazilian Portuguese, every The Muppets movie or cartoon had Kermit's name changed to "Caco". Beginning with the 2011 Disney movie he's called Kermit, with him explaining the change on an in-character interview, much like in the Latin American dub.
- Various Muppets had their names changed in the Latin American Spanish dub, such as Kermit becoming René, Fozzie becoming Figaredo and Bunsen becoming Basilio. Most of them reverted to their original names after the 2011 movie. Kermit justifies this in one video
- Sesame Street:
- Big Bird was initially named Abelardo in earlier Latin American Spanish releases like in Sesame Street Presents: Follow That Bird, until the 90's, when skits featuring him began to be used on Mexican co-production Plaza Sésamo, as that version also has their own big bird called Serapio Montoya, who around that same time got his name retconned to Abelardo (and it was also established that he is his cousin). Big Bird went back to being called by his original English name after that.
- While Sesame Street never got a proper Italian release before 2025, it still got some releases here and there like the Open Sesame series (a compilation of standalone skits released in a variety of countries in the late 70's), some spin-offs and other external media. The Italian dub of the former series changed multiple character names (such as Grover being "Rocco Scirocco" or Bert and Ernie being italianized into "Berto" and "Ernesto"). Later media featuring such characters use the original English names instead, but Big Bird was still localized as "Bibò" for years, coming back to his English name only in 2026 with the Italian dub of Season 55 onwards being released on Netflix.
Tabletop Games
- Starting from April 2014, all the foreign localizations of both Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 stopped using localized names for armies, units and most other lore elements, leaving them in Gratuitous English. However, this was later inverted from 2020 onwards, when the release of the ninth edition of Warhammer 40,000 brought back the localized names for foreign translations. Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, which was first released in the time period where the names weren't localized anymore, began using localized names in 2021 with the release of its third edition.
Toys
- LEGO: Throughout the 80s and 90s, many LEGO sets and characters had completely different Dub Name Changes in different markets. This practice was largely abandoned in the 2000s, causing previously-inconsistent names to become consistent across multiple languages and/or regions.
- LEGO Adventurers: When the theme began with Egypt in 1998, nearly every character had a different name between Danish, English, German, Spanish, Swedish, Japanese, Hungarian, and other languages. By the time the theme concluded with Orient Expedition in 2003, the characters had consistent names in every language, most of which matched their original Danish names. For example, the main hero went from being known as Johnny Thunder (DK, US), Sam Grant (UK), Joe Freemann (DE), Jonny Explorador (ES), Hjalten (SE), Jones (JP), and Villam Tamas (HU) to just being known as Johnny Thunder worldwide.
- LEGO Pirates: In Dutch, Captain Redbeard's name was changed to Kapitein Knoest in old LEGO catalogs and LEGO Racers. When he returned for the 4+ and LEGO Ideas lines, it was changed to Kapitein Roodbaard, which is a more literal translation of his North American name.
- LEGO Alpha Team: For the video game and early 2001 catalogs, certain Alpha Team agents had different names in German: Crunch was Tanxx, Charge was Lexon, Cam was Cosma, Flex was Migh, and Tee Vee was AT-1 (Dash, Radia, and Ogel's names were consistent). By the end of 2001, these were replaced with their English names.
- Littlest Pet Shop was known as "Tienda de Animalitos" in Latin America until 2008, where the original English title began to be used since then.
- Tamagotchi: For a while, the character known as Furawatchi in Japanese was named Flowertchi in English (the Japanese name is "Flowertchi" written in the Japanese alphabet). In 2024, the character's English name started to be spelled as Furawatchi.
Video Games
- Ace Attorney:
- In Japanese, the games follow Japanese lawyer Ryuichi Naruhodo. When localizing the games in English for international audiences, Capcom changed the setting to California and all characters' names were also changed to fit the new setting, with Ryuichi being renamed to Phoenix Wright; however, the spin-off duology The Great Ace Attorney, which would have been impossible to localize the same way as the main series since their stories take place in and deal heavily with the relationship between Victorian England and Meiji Japan, retain both the original setting and the name of Ryuichi's ancestor, Ryunosuke Naruhodo (though the subtitles for promotional videos included in-game featuring both Ryunosuke and Ryuichi retain the "Phoenix Wright" name for the latter). Similarly, the character Taketsuchi Auchi, ancestor of Takefumi and Fumitake Auchi from the modern games (localized as Winston and Gaspen Payne respectively), also keeps his name.
- The 2024 Investigations Collection version of Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth reverts iFly Airlines back to the original Japanese name, GoYou Airlines. As a result of this, the airline founder's name is changed from "Hugo Ifly" to "Ugo Hughes", and the mascot's name was also changed accordingly from "Mr. Ifly" to "Captain Ugo". Also, in Case 5, what was called "Rising Sun Dogs" in the original DS translation are now referred to as "Hinomaru Dogs", to match the Japanese flag.
- Another Code: The original game on DS was released in North America as Trace Memory. When the game was remade for Nintendo Switch as a part of Another Code Recollection, it kept the original Another Code: Two Memories title, even in North America. This was likely for the sake of consistency, as the sequel originally did not release in North America prior to the remake.
- Ape Escape: The international localizations of the first game would change the names for most of the characters from Japanese names to English-sounding names (with some names differing between the American and British versions). Starting with Ape Escape 2 onwards, Europe would stop this practice in favor of just using the original Japanese names for every character. While North America would continue renaming the characters, they still sometimes dipped into this trope.
- Casi and Jake/Buzz's appearance in bonus artwork for Ape Escape 2 refer to them by their respective Japanese names, Charu and Hiroki.
- Casi's minor appearance in Spike's arcade mode route in PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale has her be identified as Charu.
- By virtue of using the European releases, the PSN versions of Ape Escape 2 and Ape Academy 2 (which was previously unreleased in North America) still use the Japanese names.
- Cherry Tree High Comedy Club was originally localized with altered location and character names and setting the game in the United States, which raised a lot of questions like why the high school that serves as the game's setting begins its school year in April rather than August or September, why there's such a huge emphasis on school clubs, and why the clearly Japanese-style homes are inhabited by Western families. However, a post-release update allows the player to use the original setting and names while still playing in English.
- The 2020 exA-Arcadia version of DoDonPachi SaiDaiOuJou refers to it as DoDonPachi True Death. However, the 2024 Nintendo Switch version by Live-Wire calls it SaiDaiOuJou again, even in localized versions.
- The Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi series was originally known as Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! in Japanese. The fourth mainline entry in the series drops the Budokai Tenkaichi branding entirely and is referred to as Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO worldwide, though the Budokai Tenkaichi name is still referenced for marketing purposes.
- Dragon Quest:
- Due to trademark issues, the series was renamed to Dragon Warrior outside of Japan until 2005, at which point Square Enix finally acquired the rights to the original name and started using it in all languages and regions.
- In the original release of Dragon Quest IV for the NES, shopkeeper Torneko has his name changed to "Taloon" for the localization. Subsequent official media eventually retconned both his Japanese and English names, unifying them into "Torneko Taloon", thus making his original Japanese name his first name and his dub name his last name.
- Drawn to Life: In the Japanese version of the first game, Wilfre’s name was translated to ウイル Will, likely to make his name easier to pronounce while keeping the “free will” theme. Two Realms changes his name back to Wilfre (ウイルフレ).
- EarthBound's localization initially renamed Porky Minch to "Pokey". When Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released, with Porky as he appeared in his game's sequel as a boss, the Animal Motif was too prominent to ignore anymore and the name change was thus reverted.
- Final Fantasy IV and Final Fantasy VI were retitled to Final Fantasy II and Final Fantasy III during their original SNES releases, due to Square not localizing the actual second, third, and fifth games in the series. Subsequent releases, many of which were released alongside or after releases of the missing entries, retitled them to their original names. The only exceptions are the Virtual Console and Super NES Mini releases, due to using the unmodified original ROMs.
- When SNK first released Garou: Mark of the Wolves, they decided to rename the character Marco Rodriguez to prevent confusion with real-life mixed martial artist Ricco Rodriguez. Considering that their initial choice was Khushnood Butt, starting from The King of Fighters XV they settled on Marco Rodrigues with an S (as Marco is Brazilian and the "Rodrigues" spelling is more common among Portuguese-speaking countries). As seen in the current trope quote, this is lampshaded within XV itself, as Takuma Sakazaki almost calls Marco by "Khushnood" before quickly correcting himself. As further proof that SNK officially changed this character's name outside of Japan, he's indeed known as "Marco Rodrigues" worldwide in 2025's Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.
- The Vic Viper ship was renamed to a variety names in the English manuals for the localized Gradius entries, include the Warp Rattler in the NES and MSX versions of the first Gradius (aka Nemesis), the Modulated Artillery Exalter or M.A.X. for short in Gradius III on the Super NES, and the Proteus 911 in Nemesis on the Game Boy. Life Force on the NES (aka Salamander) and Gradius: The Interstellar Assault on the Game Boy are the only early entries to just leave it as the "Vic Viper".
- Kid Icarus: In the English version of the first game, Thanatos was known as Tanatos as a result of a mistranslation. Come Kid Icarus: Uprising, they get by this by having Thanatos boast in the English dub about adding the "h" to his name, stating it stands for "hamazing".
- When the first Ganbare Goemon entry on the Super Famicom was localized as Legend of the Mystical Ninja on the Super NES, Goemon and his sidekick Ebisumaru were renamed Kid Ying and Dr. Yang. When the two Nintendo 64 entries were localized by Konami, they went back to their original names, even going as far as to title the first N64 entry Mystical Ninja: Starring Goemon. Note that Goemon was already referred to by his original name in the Sega CD localization of Snatcher.
- The Legend of Zelda:
- When the Rito first appeared in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, the Italian translation renamed them "falchi viaggiatori" ("travelling hawks"). Later on, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild refers to their species with its original name.
- The first appearance of Skull Kid in a game translated in Italian was The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and it was translated as "Bimbo perduto" ("Lost Boy"). Starting from the Nintendo 3DS remake of The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, the English name was used instead. The Italian translation of Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U initially used the former name, but in the April 2015 update patch the translation was revised to reinstate "Skull Kid".
- Like a Dragon:
- The entire series was originally renamed Yakuza outside of Japan. In 2022, Sega announced that from the English release of Like a Dragon: Ishin! onward, the series would be known as Like a Dragon in English, a direct translation of its Japanese name Ryu ga Gotoku, with the preceding Yakuza: Like a Dragon presumably being titled as such to help with the transition.
- The original English dub of Yakuza renamed Shintaro Kazama to Shintaro Fuma and the Florist of Sai to Kage, as well as shortening the names of several other characters, such as Nishikiyama to just "Nishiki" (which was only used as an Affectionate Nickname in the original Japanese). Most of these changes would be reverted by Yakuza 4, except the Florist, who was renamed "Kage the Florist", a combination of his English and Japanese names, in Yakuza 2; it would take until Yakuza Kiwami (the Video Game Remake of the first game) for the "Kage" to be dropped.
- Morning Glory Orphanage was renamed "Sunshine Orphanage" in the English version of Yakuza 3, but after Yakuza 0 introduced a location named Club Sunshine, the orphanage's name was reverted to its original Japanese name to avoid confusion in all future titles (including the remastered versions of Yakuza 3 and its sequels originally released before 0).
- Little Tail Bronx has an air-robo mechanic named Diamundo, who was first introduced in Tail Concerto as someone who gives Waffle's police robo a jet booster. In the American version of that game, he was named Dr. Jones instead, but when he returned in Solatorobo: Red the Hunter as one of Red and Chocolat's friends and go-to big-scale technician for Asmodeus, the localization team decided to bring back his original Japanese name for all regions.
- Mega Man X5: In the initial releases, the Mavericks were named after members of Guns N' Roses. The Legacy Collection rerelease of X5 abandoned those names for more accurate translations of their original Japanese names.
- Warechu from Neptunia originally had a dub name change to Pirachu. When the localization went from NIS America to Idea Factory International, his name was reverted back to Warechu.
- Puyo Puyo:
- The localized English version of the first arcade game changed most of the characters' names, for example, Arle was known as Silvana. The localized English versions of Puyo Puyo Fever, called Puyo Pop Fever, Puyo Puyo Tetris, and Puyo Puyo Champions would change all the names back, at least for the characters that appeared. The only dub name to stick past the arcade game is the Dark Prince (originally Satan in Japanese).
- The English release of Puyo Puyo Tetris would drop the Puyo Pop name and revert the series back to its native name for all international versions. In addition, Raffine and Rider were changed to Raffina and Lidelle respectively, and the pronunciation of Arle changed from "Arly" (used in Puyo Pop Fever) to "Arl", which is closer to the katakana for her name. As a nod to the previous dub, "Arly" became Dark Prince's pet name for Arle.
- When the first Rayman game was localized into Japanese, Space Mama’s name was translated to ステージ・ママ Stage Mama, as a nod to her boss fight taking place in a theatre, although her name only appears in the game’s manual. This change only applies to the Japanese PlayStation and Sega Saturn versions of the game, as her name was changed back to スペースママ Space Mama in the Japanese PC and mobile releases.
- Shin Megami Tensei:
- Early localizations of games in the franchise use the supertitle Revelations, including The Demon Slayer (better known as Last Bible) and the original Persona. However, this change, along with the translations' general low quality, wasn't well-received, and later games from Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne onward would retain the "Shin Megami Tensei" title.
- Nocturne, however, lost its numeral in its original international release due to the first two games not being localized at the time, as well as being further renamed Shin Megami Tensei: Lucifer's Call in its European release. The 2021 HD remaster would revert the game's name to Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne worldwide, though the first game's localization was only officially available on a long-delisted mobile port incompatible with modern phones and the second game has still not been localized as of 2024 (it probably helps that despite the situation the game's two sequels were also released with numbers intact).
- Following the release of Nocturne, localized releases of spin-offs of the series would have the Shin Megami Tensei supertitle appended to them for international releases for marketing purposes, unlike the original Japanese releases; however, following the popularity of Persona 4, this practice would be dropped from the Persona subseries after the PSP remake of Persona, and from the series as a whole starting with Soul Hackers 2.
- In the aforementioned Revelations: Persona English localization, many of the characters' names were Westernized. Some were rather simple, like Maki (Mary) and Yuka (Alana), while some are drastic, like Kei Nanjo (Nate Trinity) and Takehisa Kandori (Guido Sardenia). The more faithful English localization of Persona 2: Eternal Punishment split the difference by keeping the Persona cast's Westernized first names and their Japanese surnames, with Kandori claiming that his Westernized name was an alias. Persona 3's localization would also retain a few references to the English localized names, but eventually, when Persona was remade for the PSP, all the names were completely reverted back to the original Japanese ones (with the aforementioned references in 3 also being reverted in later versions of that game).
- Thoughout the series, localizers sometimes mix up similar demons, and later fix these mistakes, resulting in this trope. The best example is Phoenix, Feng Huang, and Suzaku, a trio of fire-based bird demons. Feng Huang has been mistranslated as Phoenix as late as Persona 5, until Soul Hackers 2 translated its name properly. Likewise, Suzaku was called Feng Huang up until Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, until Persona 5 restored its real name. Meanwhile, the actual Phoenix was never mistranslated, but it shows up quite rarely. The fact that all three demons look quite similar, and never show up in the same game all at once, only adds to the confusion.
- Sonic the Hedgehog:
- Series antagonist Dr. Eggman was originally renamed Dr. Ivo Robotnik internationally prior to Sonic Adventure, which introduced "Eggman" as a derisive nickname that Sonic and Tails gave him due to his shape. By Sonic Adventure 2, he's started calling himself Eggman worldwide, with Sonic Frontiers explaining that he embraced Sonic's insult and gave it power. Given a Lampshade Hanging in Sonic Generations, where Classic Tails refers to Eggman as "Dr. Robotnik" to which Classic Eggman responds, "Nobody calls me that anymore."
- Early Sonic material in Italian literally translated many of the item names, such as "anelli" for the rings or "smeraldi del caos" for the Chaos Emeralds. Starting from Sonic Advance 2, the first game that received a proper Italian translation, such terms were instead kept in Gratuitous English. However, a few side media such as the dubs of Sonic X and the live-action movies would still use the translated terminology.
- Fang the Sniper was known as Nack the Weasel in English, but had his name changed back from his next appearance onward. The prologue comic for Sonic Superstars and the fifth episode of TailsTube would Hand Wave it by saying that Fang has been known by multiple aliases in the past, with "Nack the Weasel" being one fake name.
- Street Fighter:
- Guile's deceased combat buddy was initially known as just Nash in Japanese and as Charlie in English; when he returned as a playable fighter in Street Fighter V, he went by Nash in all languages. The two names were never used together initially until the Street Fighter comic series by Udon Publishing decided to make "Challe Nash" his full name. One of the animated cinematics in Street Fighter IV even depicts a pair of dog tags with that full name (likely done to eliminate the need to redo cutscenes between languages just to tweak the name shown on his dog tags), meaning he's now going by Last-Name Basis (though certain characters, like Guile, remain on a First-Name Basis with him in the English dub).
- Subverted with the Shadaloo Grand Masters. It's no secret that Capcom swapped the names of three of the four endgame opponents from Street Fighter II: M. Bison, Balrog and Vega, with Sagat being the only one spared of this due to being an existing character from the very first Street Fighter. Ever since Street Fighter IV, the three characters are credited by both names due to the series starting to feature dual voice tracks and the option to change the in-game text from that point on. This actually became a plot point in Street Fighter 6, which features dialogue revealing that the trio actually swap their names to create confusion among their enemies, the implication being that they're actually codenames for Shadaloo higher-ups and not their real names. Despite this, the three characters are still identified primarily by one of their two regional names depending on the language the game is set at (e.g. the dictator character is still called primarily Vega in Japanese and Bison in English).
- Story of Seasons: For legal reasons, XSEED Games is not allowed to use the Natsume dub names for any of the series' characters, which extends to the old international series name Harvest Moon.
- When Harvest Moon: Back to Nature was remade as Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town, all of the characters who received dub name changes had their names reverted to their original Japanese names.
- When the remake Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life was made, the original names of places and characters from Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life weren't used for the same reason. In some cases, the older names were more accurate or preserved in-game puns. For example,the valley was dubbed as Forget-Me-Not Valley; the Japanese name, Wasuredani, translates loosely to "valley that has been forgotten" which more accurately defines the solitary, small valley that has few connections. "Forget-Me-Not" more implies "a place not to forget", which isn't the same meaning. The new release changed this to Forgotten Valley instead.
- Super Mario Bros.:
- Internationally, Princess Peach was originally called Princess Toadstool, which the localizers presumably thought was a more suitable name for the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. In Yoshi's Safari and from Super Mario 64 onwards, they switched to using her original name; the latter game implies that her full name is Princess Peach Toadstool, but the series has made little to no allusions to the former name since. The idea of Toadstool being her surname while her given name starts with a "P" dates back to The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, where Princess Toadstool once randomly referred to herself as "Princess P."
- The original release of Luigi's Mansion: Dark Moon on the Nintendo 3DS is known as Luigi's Mansion 2 in the Japanese, European and Chinese versions. While it's unclear which name came first, considering the game was developed by the Canadian Next Level Games, the Nintendo Switch port is known as Luigi's Mansion 2 HD even in the North American and Korean versions.
- In Super Mario Galaxy and Super Mario Galaxy 2, the Honey Queen is referred to as "Queen Bee." She retains her original name from Mario Kart 7 onwards.
- The Norwegian dub of The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! changed the Princess' and Toad's names to Prinsesse Fluesopp and Soppe, respectively. These names were promptly discarded later on, with Norwegian promotional material and the dub of The Super Mario Bros. Movie just using the English names.
- Taiko no Tatsujin had its first Western release in 2004, named "Taiko Drum Master". Years later, when Taiko no Tatsujin: Drum Session first got an English translation and then a Western release in 2018, it would keep its original name, and the series has been released as "Taiko no Tatsujin" internationally ever since.
- Tales of Graces has a Previous Player-Character Cameo that features Kohaku Hearts, a character from Tales of Hearts, and changes her name to "Amber". However, two years later, the English translation of Hearts' Video Game Remake reverted her name back to "Kohaku", and it stayed the same ever since.
- The Western releases of the Tokyo Xtreme Racer games on Sega Dreamcast and Tokyo Xtreme Racer Zero change all of the opponents' names from Japanese names to Western, giving the impression that Japan's street racing scene is dominated by Westerners rather than native drivers. Tokyo Xtreme Racer 3 as well as all subsequent localized games in the series drop this practice and use the original names instead in all regional versions.
- Umihara Kawase was initially brought westward through a localization of Sayonara Umihara Kawase, which was released in North America by Natsume as Yumi's Odd Odyssey. The PlayStation Vita release of Sayonara went back to using Agatsuma Entertainment's European translation, which uses the Japanese names of the characters, and every installment since has kept the change.
Western Animation
- Codename: Kids Next Door: In the Brazilian dub, Numbuh 5's sister Cree received the name "Cris" on her debut episode. For the rest of the series, she reverted back to her original name.
- The Cuphead Show!:
- The French dub ignores the translated names of the video game with the few name changes being entirely different (such as Elder Kettle being "Papy Bouilloire" rather than "Sage Samovar").
- The Italian dub uses the translated names from the game for Elder Kettle, King Dice and the Devil, while leaving everyone else with their English names.
- In the Latin American dub of The Fairly OddParents!, the first episode with Chip Skylark changes his surname to Canario (making reference to another bird). All his subsequent appearances used his original surname of Skylark.
- G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero was known in the UK as "Action Force", with the bios of several Joes being rewritten so that the team was an international unit instead of a mostly American one (for example, Flint was made a member of the British armed forces instead of being an American Warrant Officer). The series was later renamed "G.I. Joe: The Action Force" before finally simply using "G.I.Joe".
- Italian dubs of Looney Tunes early on localized a few character names: Elmer Fudd was known as Taddeo, Porky Pig as Pallino, Yosemite Sam was sometimes referred to as either "Bafforosso Sam" (Red Moustache Sam) or "Sam il pirata" (Sam the pirate), and Bugs Bunny used to have various different names like Bubi Balzello, Lollo Rompicollo and Rosicchio. Later on, most of those localized names were dropped, with the only exceptions being Sylvester, Tweety and the Road Runner still being called Silvestro, Titti and Beep Beep. However, Elmer is still known as Taddeo depending on the work, with the Italian dub of Looney Tunes Cartoons (2020) still using this name.
- Two cases in the Italian dub of The Loud House:
- When Mick Swagger was mentioned for the first time, his name was translated as "Mick Spaccone". The translated name missed the fact that he's a celebrity expy of Mick Jagger, so the dub reverted to his original name by his second appearance.
- Rusty Spokes' name was translated as "Raggio arrugginito" in his first appearance, as the translator thought it was a bike-themed nickname and not his actual name. His original name came back once it was made clear that it's not a nickname.
- Muppet Babies (1984) was known as Los Pequeños Muppets in the Latin American Spanish dub. However, Muppet Babies (2018) leaves the title untranslated.
- Octonauts: Above & Beyond:
- In the Chilean Spanish dub, Tunip's name was Víctor in the previous series as well as the first season of this spinoff. In the second season, however, his name went back to Tunip for unknown reasons.
- In the European Spanish dub of season 1, Periwinkle's name was Bígaro. In season 2, he is referred to by his English name. In that same dub, Professor Inkling was previously known as Profesor Ideas, but in season 2 of this spinoff, he goes back to having his English name of Inkling.
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998): In the Mexican Spanish dub, Brick, Boomer, and Butch were renamed Bajeza, Bandido, and Bacteria in their debut episode. In all their other appearances, they keep their English names.
- Rugrats:
- The show is titled Ratjetoe in Dutch, but some Dutch people looking back on the show refer to its English name, and even official promos for reruns have occasionally ditched the dubbed title. The Dutch version hasn't aired since 2018, but thankfully, the reboot keeps the dubbed name.
- During its initial run in Norway, it was occasionally given the Norwegian title Snørrunger. Later releases, as well as the reboot, exclusively use the English title.
- In the Mexican Spanish dub, Chuckie and Chas's last name was Baldoza, but it went back to Finster in later seasons. In that same dub, Jonathan was initially named Eugenio until he later went back to his original name. Dr. Lipschitz was also known as Dr. Aquilino until his debut episode, where he started to be referred to by his English name.
- The original Japanese dub of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! changed all of the main character's names; most notably, the title character became "Kuruppa." Later dubs sometimes still call Scooby Kuruppa, but always refer to the human cast by their English names.
- Sonic Boom: The Brazilian dub keeps Shadow's original name after fans complaining it was translated to "Sombra" in Sonic X.
- The first Italian dub of South Park renamed Mr. Hat "Mr. Cilindro". The redub reverted him to the English name. A few characters in the span of the second dub were introduced with translated Italian names (Henrietta became Enrichetta, Lemmiwinks became Topofurbo, Mr. Slave became Signor Maso) and later on reverted to the original ones.
- The Italian dub of SpongeBob SquarePants had some translated names ("Pesce citrullo" for Bubble Bass, "Uomo Raggio" for Man Ray) that were later removed in favor of the original ones.
- The Italian dub of Steven Universe initially translated Rose Quartz's name as "Quarzo Rosa", but starting from the final episodes of Season 1 the untranslated English name is used instead.
- The Dutch dub of Thomas & Friends called Cranky the Crane "Krik" in season 5, but starting in season 6 he's called Cranky.
- Zigzagged by the Italian dub of Tiny Toon Adventures. The original show localized the names of almost every character: however, the three special episodes "It's a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special", "Spring Break" and "Night Ghoulery" were dubbed by a different studio from the main show, and used the original English names for all characters. The reboot Tiny Toons Looniversity would then bring back all the localized Italian names from the original dub.
- Underdogs United: The infamous Weinstein dub of Metegol, retitled as Underdogs, updated the names of Capi, Beto, and Loco to go with the dub, resulting in Captain Skip, Rico, and Ziggy. United reverted Capi and Beto's names, while Loco becomes Kiko but still retains the original four-letter naming scheme.
- Wacky Races:
- A weird example with Penelope Pitstop. In the Japanese dub of Wacky Races, she was called Milk-chan, but in the Japanese dub of The Perils of Penelope Pitstop, she uses her English name. The weird part comes in when the dub of Wacky Races (2017) went back to calling her Milk-chan.
- In the Norwegian dubs of Dastardly & Muttley in Their Flying Machines and Yogi's Treasure Hunt, the titular duo were called Roy Råttesen and Bumley respectively. Starting with the Norwegian dub of Wacky Races (2017), and carrying over to SCOOB!, they reverted to their English names.
- WinxVerse: Nearly every dub that wasn't the original Italian renamed the Sixth Ranger. Purportedly, because her name, Aisha, was Arab in origin, and sensibilities were touchy from the War on Terror — so even unaffected countries such as Latin America, went for Layla instead of Aisha (though Layla is an Arabic name too). Rumors aside, when Nickelodeon bought the franchise, it resulted in many dubs using the original name in later seasons, following the American English dub. However, most European dubs kept the name Layla in the entire animated series, in order not to confuse the viewers with a Sudden Name Change, and only in the 2021 Netflix adaptation Fate: The Winx Saga as well as the 2025 reboot series Winx Club: The Magic is Back did the character started to be called Aisha everywhere.
- Yogi Bear was previously known in Japanese as Kumagoro, but later installments go back to using his English name.