You might assume that your favorite characters from your go-to TV shows, books and movies go by the same names wherever they’re found across the world. How could Dumbledore ever not be “Dumbledore”? Does Donald Duck keep his name in Italy, Finland and Bulgaria? Translating pop culture content from one language to another is often not very straightforward. It involves tweaking all sorts of elements to fit new cultural and linguistic contexts, often with some silly results. Check out these famous fictional characters’ names in other languages.
Albus Dumbledore
Everyone’s favorite half-moon-spectacled headmaster from the Harry Potter series has been getting a lot of attention lately for his role in the most recent Fantastic Beasts movie. He’s Albus Dumbledore in the original linguistic renditions of the books and movies, but his name’s not the same in most of the non-English world:
Dutch: Albus Perkamentus (in Dutch, perkament means “parchment”)
Italian: Albus Silente (“Silent”)
Afrikaans: Albus Dompeldorius
Japanese: アルバス・ダンブルドア Arubasu Danburudoa (the “nipponized” garaigo form of his English name)
Czech: Albus Brumbál (this one stays true to the “bumblebee” that inspired the name “Dumbledore”)
Donald Duck
He can be ill-tempered and fussy, but you can’t help but love that famous Disney duck. The way he waddles, his quintessential sailor get-up and his famed alaryngeal vocalization all make him instantly recognizable across the planet. English speakers call him Donald Duck, but that’s not necessarily the case in other parts of the world. Here are his names in other languages:
Danish: Anders And
Finnish: Aku Ankka
Italian: (Paolino) Paperino
Spanish: El Pato Donald
Bulgarian: Patoka Donald
Lithuanian: Antulis Donaldas
Squirtle
The beloved Japanese Pokémon series has caught on like wildfire since its inception, spurring translations into dozens of languages worldwide. You might not have known that the name for Pikachu across most languages is just that—”Pikachu” (or some transliteration of it). That’s not very interesting. Instead, enjoy the names for his adorable shelled water-type Pokémon pal Squirtle (who, one can argue, is cuter anyway):
German: Schiggy (it comes from Schildkröte, or “turtle”)
French: Carapuce (a portmanteau of carapace, “shell,” and puce, “cute”)
Japanese: ゼニガメ Zenigame (his original name before it was localized to English)
Korean: 꼬부기 Kkobugi (from 꼬마 kkoma, “kid,” and 거북이 geobugi, “turtle”)
Spanish: Squirtle (Spanish phonetics would give it the pronunciation skeert-lay)
Spongebob Squarepants
The undersea, patty-flipping, pineapple-dwelling titular character of the show Spongebob Squarepants is basically an international phenomenon. The show has been dubbed and translated into more than two dozen languages, and it’s served as the muse for countless memes across the weird and wacky internet. Here’s Spongebob’s full name in languages across the world:
Estonian: Käsna-Kalle Kantpüks
Albanian: Bob Sfungjeri Pantallona-katrori
Danish: SvampeBob Firkant
Spanish: Bob Esponja Pantalones Cuadrados
Turkish: SüngerBob KarePantolon
Cinderella
Before she was a Disney princess, she was the ash-covered, down-on-her-luck girl next door out of 17th-century French literature. She made her way into the 1812 collection of folk tales compiled by the Brothers Grimm, and her rags-to-riches redemption tale has become the ultimate glow-up story for generations. Though today she mostly goes by her English name around the world, here’s what Cinderella has been called in different languages:
German: Aschenputtel (aschen, “ashes,” + puttel, an old Hessian word for “dirty girl”)
Spanish: Cenicienta
French: Cendrillon (her original name in Charles Perrault’s 1697 work Histoire ou contes du temp passé)
Italian: Cenerentola
Swedish: Askungen