Mispronounced Squaresoft/enix Names

(Remember when you're reading this not to take anything seriously. This is meant to be slightly comedic, so try to keep a good sense of humor and loosen up.)

Oh, the humanity. How long can people not realized phonetic pronunciation? This thread is dedicated to letting people know how things are ACTUALLY pronounced. Don't worry, we still love you... maybe.

Final Fantasy VII - Tifa
Correct Pronunciation: tee - fuh
Incorrect Pronunciations: ti - fuh (Tiffa), tee - fay, tai - fuh

Honestly, wouldn't this be easy to understand? Yes, for years people have incorrectly pronounced one of the most easily understood names other than Cid or Cloud. Because there is only one 'f' between the 'i' and 'a', it can't possibly ever be pronounced "Tiffa", as it is in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus. And I don't even know how to possibly explain why or how her name could ever sound like "Tifay". Sorry, I just can't, unless you want Tina Fay to be cast for our heroine. Pronouncing her name 'Tyfa' is easily understood, but because the word ends with an 'a' and not an 'e', the 'i' is not long.


Final Fantasy VII - Yuffie
Correct Pronunciation: yuh - fee
Incorrect Pronunciation: yoo - fee, yoo - fai

Really? I mean, REALLY? This is a complete blunder to me. In Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and Dirge of Cerberus, Yuffie's name is incorrectly pronounced "Yoofee", which just makes no phonetic sense, what-so-EVER. Yuffie. Two 'f's. That makes the 'u' short, so it makes an 'uh' noise. It's impossible to not understand. Really, people, a two-year-old could get this.

Final Fantasy X - Tidus
Correct Pronunciation: tai - dus
Incorrect Pronunciation: tee - dus, tay - dus, tee - doos

Okay...? For anyone who had never read a word of Shakespearian literature, Tidus is the name of one of his characters. Unlike Tifa, the word is pronounced differently... because its Shakespearian. In other words, it's pronounced tie - dus, and no other way.

Final Fantasy VIII - Seifer
Correct Pronunciation: zai - fur
Incorrect Pronunciation: see - fur, sie - fur, si - fur

Well... It's surprising people don't know a German name when they see one. Seifer is a somewhat common name in Germany, and follows their phonetics. if an 's' is at the beginning of the word is pronounced as a 'z', and an 'ei' is pronounced as a long 'i', so it should be zie - fur, right? Not according to some people. Even in Kingdom Hearts II they were close, but missed by one letter. Yes, they mispronounced the 's'. Oh well, maybe they should find out where these names come from before they do the voice acting...



Now you guys start posting too. If you know of any mispronounced names, please feel free to post on here. And remember, this is a humorous 'Squaresoft/enix Roast' thread, so making fun of the games is perfectly welcome.

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Originally Posted by Stormie BluJay

Well... It's surprising people don't know a German name when they see one. Seifer is a somewhat common name in Germany, and follows their phonetics. if an 's' is at the beginning of the word is pronounced as a 'z', and an 'ei' is pronounced as a long 'i', so it should be zie - fur, right? Not according to some people. Even in Kingdom Hearts II they were close, but missed by one letter. Yes, they mispronounced the 's'. Oh well, maybe they should find out where these names come from before they do the voice acting...

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I know you said not to take anything seriously but this isn't right at all. If you take the German phonology as a basis you should at least do it right. 'ei' is usually pronounced /ai/ and 'Seifer' is as common a German name as 'Sephiroth' is in English. However, 'Seife' means 'soap', so it does very much look like a German word and to add something amusing, a dictionary entry for it would probably look like 'Someone who uses soap' or 'Someone who applies soap to something, i.e. clothes'.

Don't know of anything else do add.

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Originally Posted by Krelian

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Originally Posted by Stormie BluJay

Well... It's surprising people don't know a German name when they see one. Seifer is a somewhat common name in Germany, and follows their phonetics. if an 's' is at the beginning of the word is pronounced as a 'z', and an 'ei' is pronounced as a long 'i', so it should be zie - fur, right? Not according to some people. Even in Kingdom Hearts II they were close, but missed by one letter. Yes, they mispronounced the 's'. Oh well, maybe they should find out where these names come from before they do the voice acting...

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I know you said not to take anything seriously but this isn't right at all. If you take the German phonology as a basis you should at least do it right. 'ei' is usually pronounced /ai/ and 'Seifer' is as common a German name as 'Sephiroth' is in English. However, 'Seife' means 'soap', so it does very much look like a German word and to add something amusing, a dictionary entry for it would probably look like 'Someone who uses soap' or 'Someone who applies soap to something, i.e. clothes'.

Don't know of anything else do add.

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Right, I guess I'll have to change it then, won't I? Stupid Babynames.com. I actually looked it up, so here:
Babynames.com - Seifer

And just to let you know I was saying a long 'i' which is pronounced 'ai'.

... At least I was right about the 'z' part, though! :D

It may be seven years after I took Japanese, but I still remember enough to know that Yuffie is pronounced yoo-fee, and Tidus is tee-dus. The names aren't English names and, therefore, shouldn't pronounced as such.

What is up with the name Gau? Its like the developers just decide to take a bunch of random letters that though look pleasing to the eye are very irritating to imagine pronounced orally and thought they wouldnt have to worry about it since there was no voice acting in the game. I mean most names theres an automatic voice in your head that tells you how to pronounce it be it wrong or not and you can just put it out of your mind. but when you see Gau its just... Gaw..Gou..Gaaawuu...

Gau makes good sense to me. When I first see it I go "Gow", but when I think about it, I say "Gaoo". Not much difference, though.

I say Gow and Yoofie, but I do say Tiedus. Whatever x)

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Originally Posted by Vivi22

It may be seven years after I took Japanese, but I still remember enough to know that Yuffie is pronounced yoo-fee, and Tidus is tee-dus. The names aren't English names and, therefore, shouldn't pronounced as such.

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I it were that way, then Yuffie has to be a French name... ._. Because it sounds NOTHING like how it's spelled. It's spelled like 'puffie'...

And Tidus isn't an English name, but it's not Japanese, either, therefore, it follows neither of their rule. Tidus is Shakespearian, so it can't be 'tee - dus'....


Besides, do you think a hero like Tidus would wanna be called 'tee - dus?'


Now, can we all start taking this thread a little less seriously.. Or at least my post? I feel like I'm getting picked on for voicing my opinions... TT_TT

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Originally Posted by Stormie BluJay

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Originally Posted by Vivi22

It may be seven years after I took Japanese, but I still remember enough to know that Yuffie is pronounced yoo-fee, and Tidus is tee-dus. The names aren't English names and, therefore, shouldn't pronounced as such.

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I it were that way, then Yuffie has to be a French name... ._. Because it sounds NOTHING like how it's spelled. It's spelled like 'puffie'...

And Tidus isn't an English name, but it's not Japanese, either, therefore, it follows neither of their rule. Tidus is Shakespearian, so it can't be 'tee - dus'....


Besides, do you think a hero like Tidus would wanna be called 'tee - dus?'


Now, can we all start taking this thread a little less seriously.. Or at least my post? I feel like I'm getting picked on for voicing my opinions... TT_TT

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Tidus is derived from the word Tidaa in Japanese, hence the correct pronunciation is Tidus. It has nothing to do with Shakespeare. And again, if you pronounce Yuffie the way a Japanese person would, it would be yoo-fee, plain and simple. The Advent Children pronunciation is correct.

And I'm not picking on you, and I have no problem poking fun at some of the character names in this series, but if we're going to correct peoples pronunciation of said names then we should at least make sure we get them right.

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Originally Posted by Vivi22

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Originally Posted by Stormie BluJay

I it were that way, then Yuffie has to be a French name... ._. Because it sounds NOTHING like how it's spelled. It's spelled like 'puffie'...

And Tidus isn't an English name, but it's not Japanese, either, therefore, it follows neither of their rule. Tidus is Shakespearian, so it can't be 'tee - dus'....


Besides, do you think a hero like Tidus would wanna be called 'tee - dus?'


Now, can we all start taking this thread a little less seriously.. Or at least my post? I feel like I'm getting picked on for voicing my opinions... TT_TT

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Tidus is derived from the word Tidaa in Japanese, hence the correct pronunciation is Tidus. It has nothing to do with Shakespeare. And again, if you pronounce Yuffie the way a Japanese person would, it would be yoo-fee, plain and simple. The Advent Children pronunciation is correct.

And I'm not picking on you, and I have no problem poking fun at some of the character names in this series, but if we're going to correct peoples pronunciation of said names then we should at least make sure we get them right.

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It sure is a weird that a word derived from an Japanese word turns out to actually be 'Tidus', which is latin... Let's just drop it. I'll stick by my guns, and you stick by yours.

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Originally Posted by Vivi22

It may be seven years after I took Japanese, but I still remember enough to know that Yuffie is pronounced yoo-fee, and Tidus is tee-dus. The names aren't English names and, therefore, shouldn't pronounced as such.

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I shall start calling Sephiroth Sefirosu! :P Wheeee!

The reason games are translated in the first place is because English and Japanese are, indeed, not the same language. Tidus could very well be, in fact, a Shakespearean name. It's very similar to "Titus" and Square has a fetish for Shakespearean, as evidenced in some references in games.

-AND- even if it isn't based on that, in English, the rules still apply. Based soley on the way it's spelled, it should be 'Tye-dus'. Since it wasn't left 'Tida', it was obviously meant to be read and spoken with English in mind.

Yuffie is unique case. "Yufi" is her Japanese name. That is -obviously- meant to be spoken "Yoo-fee", according to both Japanese and English. But her translated name is very different. "Yuffie" doesn't look Japanese at all, and was created for the English speaking market. According to how we'd say it in English, it is correctly pronounced "Yuhf-fee" because of the double F's.

Hope that helps a little. You are correct, but really only on the Japanese pronunciation of the Japanese names. :) If we pronounced all the names like the Japanese did, Sephiroth would be Sefirosu and Cloud would be Kuraudo! ^^

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Originally Posted by Frequency NecroKat

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Originally Posted by Vivi22

It may be seven years after I took Japanese, but I still remember enough to know that Yuffie is pronounced yoo-fee, and Tidus is tee-dus. The names aren't English names and, therefore, shouldn't pronounced as such.

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I shall start calling Sephiroth Sefirosu! :P Wheeee!

The reason games are translated in the first place is because English and Japanese are, indeed, not the same language. Tidus could very well be, in fact, a Shakespearean name. It's very similar to "Titus" and Square has a fetish for Shakespearean, as evidenced in some references in games.

-AND- even if it isn't based on that, in English, the rules still apply. Based soley on the way it's spelled, it should be 'Tye-dus'. Since it wasn't left 'Tida', it was obviously meant to be read and spoken with English in mind.

Yuffie is unique case. "Yufi" is her Japanese name. That is -obviously- meant to be spoken "Yoo-fee", according to both Japanese and English. But her translated name is very different. "Yuffie" doesn't look Japanese at all, and was created for the English speaking market. According to how we'd say it in English, it is correctly pronounced "Yuhf-fee" because of the double F's.

Hope that helps a little. You are correct, but really only on the Japanese pronunciation of the Japanese names. :) If we pronounced all the names like the Japanese did, Sephiroth would be Sefirosu and Cloud would be Kuraudo! ^^

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But you wouldn't pronounce Kojima as koj-I-mah would you? Japanese name, Japanese rules still apply, unless the name changes substantially to a plainly English name or word or is derived from another language or source. Your examples of Sephiroth and Cloud are flawed actually, since Sephiroth isn't a Japanese word to begin with, and neither is Cloud (I don't know if Kuraudo is the actual Japanese word for cloud, but it was translated into a plainly English name for North America). The reason for the somewhat odd sounding Japanese pronunciation is that Japanese doesn't really have some of the sounds that English and other languages have and the word needs to be changed to work in written Japanese. For example, there is no V sound in Japanese, nor is there a vowel or consenant that sounds exactly like cl in Cloud.

I'll just drop it after that little rant, but god help you if you tell me to start pronouncing Ico as I-ko. :p

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Originally Posted by Stormie BluJay

Right, I guess I'll have to change it then, won't I? Stupid Babynames.com. I actually looked it up, so here:
Babynames.com - Seifer

And just to let you know I was saying a long 'i' which is pronounced 'ai'.

... At least I was right about the 'z' part, though! :D

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Well, the website doesn't say anything about the usage in Germany today, just that the origin is German.
Ah, it's so annoying that 'i' can be a diphthong in English. You did write 'zie' later on, though, which probably isn't pronounced [zai]. But it's not important. The 'z' part is right =P

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Originally Posted by Vivi22

But you wouldn't pronounce Kojima as koj-I-mah would you? Japanese name, Japanese rules still apply, unless the name changes substantially to a plainly English name or word or is derived from another language or source. Your examples of Sephiroth and Cloud are flawed actually, since Sephiroth isn't a Japanese word to begin with, and neither is Cloud (I don't know if Kuraudo is the actual Japanese word for cloud, but it was translated into a plainly English name for North America). The reason for the somewhat odd sounding Japanese pronunciation is that Japanese doesn't really have some of the sounds that English and other languages have and the word needs to be changed to work in written Japanese. For example, there is no V sound in Japanese, nor is there a vowel or consenant that sounds exactly like cl in Cloud.

I'll just drop it after that little rant, but god help you if you tell me to start pronouncing Ico as I-ko. :p

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I guess those wacky Squeenix people will have to start having more Bobs and Rickys in their games to clear that up. ;p j/k

Right-o, dropped. Hehe, but it was a fun debate.

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Originally Posted by Krelian

Well, the website doesn't say anything about the usage in Germany today, just that the origin is German.
Ah, it's so annoying that 'i' can be a diphthong in English. You did write 'zie' later on, though, which probably isn't pronounced [zai]. But it's not important. The 'z' part is right =P

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YAY!!!! XD I speekz Deutsch! lolz. Anyway, In response to Gau, it's pretty easy for me to figure out. G-a-u, Gaow, or just Gow really.

I love a fun debate as much as the next person. Just seems like we aren't going to convince each other, so we might as well move on in the original spirit of the thread.

As for the prior post about Gau, I still have no idea how it's supposed to be pronounced. I just say Gow.

Gau looks like a German word to me. There's actually an acronym GAU which means 'Größter anzunehmender Unfall' (literally 'biggest assumable accident') and it means 'worst possible scenario' XD
So I pronounce it like that, which would probably be written 'gow' in English.

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Originally Posted by Vivi22

I love a fun debate as much as the next person. Just seems like we aren't going to convince each other, so we might as well move on in the original spirit of the thread.

As for the prior post about Gau, I still have no idea how it's supposed to be pronounced. I just say Gow.

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Which it how it's supposed to be, so don't sweat. ^_^ Unless it's French, which means it would be.... I think "Go". But it's not, so.. Gow. XD

I've actually never heard Bart's (Xenogears) last name said out loud, so I don't know if it's "fa - dih - muh" or "fa - tee - muh"... I'm going with the first one though, because that's how my mom and sis say it.

Tidus is officially pronounced Ti-daa due to the following fact:

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Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Nomura has expressed after designing serious and moody main characters for Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VIII, he wanted to give Tidus a cheerful attitude and appearance, which is reflected in the name Kazushige Nojima chose for him (Tidaa is the Okinawan word for "Sun").

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Consider that Tidus' sigil and whatnot are paired with the sun through out the game. Knowing this, you can't deny it.

HOWEVER

This is now somewhat broken due to the coming of Kingdom Hearts 2...

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Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Because his name is never spoken out loud in Final Fantasy X, its intended pronunciation has been a subject of debate among fans. Interviews with James Arnold Taylor, Tidus' English voice actor,[7] and spoken dialogue from the English version of Kingdom Hearts—which featured the character in a cameo—portray it as "tee-dus" (IPA: /tiːdəs/) whereas one instance in the English version of Kingdom Hearts 2 exists in which the character's name is uttered "tie-dus" (IPA: /taɪdəs/).

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So what was official is now less official, if that makes any sort of sense.

Personally, I call him Tie-dus because I think Ti-daa sounds smurfing retarded.

Tidus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Originally Posted by Nominus Experse

Personally, I call him Tie-dus because I think Ti-daa sounds smurfing retarded.

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Another good reason. Lolz. X3

Where's Kishi when you need him?

Anyway, whenever I see a name, I just make a guess and pronounce it that way, until I hear a way deemed 'correct'.

I once heard Hyuga (Xenogears) pronounced "Hai-yu-guh". That seems like it'd be a fairly easy one to get right..

Another one was Rue from Dewprism/Threads of Fate. Someone called him "Ru-ee" like it was spelled Rui. No joke, I still don't understand why. XDD; His name's actually a -word-.

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Originally Posted by Vivi22

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Originally Posted by Frequency NecroKat

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Originally Posted by Vivi22

It may be seven years after I took Japanese, but I still remember enough to know that Yuffie is pronounced yoo-fee, and Tidus is tee-dus. The names aren't English names and, therefore, shouldn't pronounced as such.

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I shall start calling Sephiroth Sefirosu! :P Wheeee!

The reason games are translated in the first place is because English and Japanese are, indeed, not the same language. Tidus could very well be, in fact, a Shakespearean name. It's very similar to "Titus" and Square has a fetish for Shakespearean, as evidenced in some references in games.

-AND- even if it isn't based on that, in English, the rules still apply. Based soley on the way it's spelled, it should be 'Tye-dus'. Since it wasn't left 'Tida', it was obviously meant to be read and spoken with English in mind.

Yuffie is unique case. "Yufi" is her Japanese name. That is -obviously- meant to be spoken "Yoo-fee", according to both Japanese and English. But her translated name is very different. "Yuffie" doesn't look Japanese at all, and was created for the English speaking market. According to how we'd say it in English, it is correctly pronounced "Yuhf-fee" because of the double F's.

Hope that helps a little. You are correct, but really only on the Japanese pronunciation of the Japanese names. :) If we pronounced all the names like the Japanese did, Sephiroth would be Sefirosu and Cloud would be Kuraudo! ^^

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But you wouldn't pronounce Kojima as koj-I-mah would you? Japanese name, Japanese rules still apply, unless the name changes substantially to a plainly English name or word or is derived from another language or source. Your examples of Sephiroth and Cloud are flawed actually, since Sephiroth isn't a Japanese word to begin with, and neither is Cloud (I don't know if Kuraudo is the actual Japanese word for cloud, but it was translated into a plainly English name for North America). The reason for the somewhat odd sounding Japanese pronunciation is that Japanese doesn't really have some of the sounds that English and other languages have and the word needs to be changed to work in written Japanese. For example, there is no V sound in Japanese, nor is there a vowel or consenant that sounds exactly like cl in Cloud.

I'll just drop it after that little rant, but god help you if you tell me to start pronouncing Ico as I-ko. :p

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The word for cloud is different in Japanese (it is kumo). Also, you can tell he is not supposed to be Japanese since his name is in Katakana. Then again, any character that is not Japanese in ethnicity would have their name written in katakana. Also, doesn't the Japanese team decide most character's official English name?