Quote Originally Posted by grim07 View Post
When it came out in America, her name was switched to Aeris. For pronunciation purposes. Not mistranslation. So her name in FFVII in America is Aeris, and it was meant to be that way.
But then, there's no harm in updating her name in future uses, in order to attain greater consistency. The character's creators called her 'Aerith'; that was modified for aesthetic reasons in the English translations; but nonetheless she was originally called 'Aerith' by the artists who conceived the character. If someone in the English-speaking world prefers to call her 'Aeris', then so be it. However, since that name only appears in the English-language script for the original game, and not in any of the subsequent or supporting materials, it's arguably not her officially canonical name.

In Japan, the character designer's name is Nomura Tetsuya. In the west, this is anglicised to Tetsuya Nomura. Does that mean that his name is "really" Tetsuya Nomura, when he's discussed outside Japan? Surely his "real" name is the one he was given, the one he had originally. His name doesn't actually change as it crosses borders; it's simply altered slightly for largely aesthetic reasons.

Edit: People are still acting way too angsty over this. Seriously, it's not something that should be able to trigger genuine hostility...