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Translating titles makes sense. After all, an English audience will have a better idea what a film is about when it's named ''[[Seven Samurai]]'' rather than ''Shichinin no Samurai''.
But that doesn't mean you can't change the title around if it's already in English (or whatever the language of the market). There are multiple reasons for
Most of this is [[Executive Meddling]] from the assumption that [[Viewers
Note: If something is entirely written in a foreign language, including the title, then any translation is not an instance of this trope, regardless of whether the translation is not direct (and whether it could be). That's [[Completely Different Title]]. [[Dolled
▲Note: If something is entirely written in a foreign language, including the title, then any translation is not an instance of this trope, regardless of whether the translation is not direct (and whether it could be). That's [[Completely Different Title]]. [[Dolled Up Installment]] and [[Translation Matchmaking]], when the new title makes it "part of" another popular work, are also not this.
▲{{examples|Examples:}}
* The manga/anime ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'' was officially titled ''Chrno Crusade'' in Japan because the original mangaka's English was poor and he romanized it wrong. The English release corrected the
▲== Anime and Manga ==
▲* The manga/anime ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'' was officially titled ''Chrno Crusade'' in Japan because the original mangaka's English was poor and he romanized it wrong. The English release corrected the mispelling...which amazingly caused a serious backlash against ADV for not preserving the creator's admitted mistake.
** In the recent reprint of the manga, the series has a new cover with a brand-new logo that restores the "O" in "Chrono", albeit with a different font. There's even a ''flame'' on the formerly missing O, as if to say "Okay, I get it, it needs a vowel there!"
** The official French translation uses the original ''Chrno Crusade'' title.
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** Also, ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'', ''[[Digimon Adventure 02]]'', ''[[Digimon Tamers]]'' and ''[[Digimon Frontier]]'' were merged together under the banner title of ''[[Digimon]]: Digital Monsters'' in numerous countries outside of Japan, respectively becoming seasons 1, 2, 3, and 4 of said banner show.
* ''[[Dragon Ball Kai]]'' is to be released internationally under the title ''Dragonball Z Kai''.
** The Japanese version of the manga is called ''[[
* In the original Japanese as well as the English manga release of ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'', "Mermaid Melody" is the subtitle (although it comes ''before'' the main title... supertitle?). In the German version and [[ADV Films]]' proposed English dub, it was the other way around, probably to avoid [[Title Confusion]].
* ''[[
** However, many American viewers would know it by the Japanese title, because the bumpers on Kids' WB, the block where it aired, referred to it as "Card Captor Sakura".
* The ''[[Slayers]]'' TV series was released outside of Japan as ''The Slayers''. The ''Slayers'' OAV and movies retained the original name, because said versions were licensed to [[ADV Films]].
* ''[[Rose of Versailles]]'' became ''[[Lady Oscar]]'' for most European countries.
* ''[[
* ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' has a spin-off manga named ''Gundam Wing Dual Story: G-Unit'', which was released in 1996...the same year [[
* The English versions of ''[[Pokémon Special]]'' (North America and Singapore) were renamed ''Pokémon Adventures'' - cause, let's face it, that use of "Special" sounds a little off to our ears. In addition, the North American releases stopped for a while and are pretty far behind, so they began running a later story arc as a separate series, named ''Pokémon Adventures: Diamond and Pearl/Platinum''.
** When the original ''Adventures'' finished the story arc it was on, it was ended and replaced with the current ''Special'' arc (the one that follows ''Diamond and Pearl/Platinum'') under yet another new name, ''Pokémon Black and White'' (noted as a "''Pokémon Adventures'' special edition").
*** Additionally, Viz made the choice to publish the entirety of the Diamond/Pearl arc of Special after they published the entirety of ''[[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl Adventure
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* One [[The Eighties|
== Comics ==▼
* The American ''[[Dennis the Menace (US comic strip)|Dennis the Menace]]'' cartoon was renamed ''Dennis'' in the UK, presumably due to [[Dennis the Menace UK|the existing UK comic character]] of the [[
▲* One [[The Eighties|80's]] issue of [[Spider Man]] dealt with Spidey busting an arms trafficking ring, complete with an [[Anvilicious]] message about gun violence. The Brazilian title was ''A Cidade Apresenta Suas Armas'' (''The City Presents Its Weapons''), which also happened to be the first verse of a popular, then-recently released Brazilian rock song by band Paralamas do Sucesso. It fit [[Woolseyism|amazingly well]], possibly because the song had a similar [[Anvilicious|anti-violence theme]].
▲* The American ''[[Dennis the Menace US|Dennis the Menace]]'' cartoon was renamed ''Dennis'' in the UK, presumably due to [[Dennis the Menace UK|the existing UK comic character]] of the [[Names the Same|same name]]. Likewise the British ''[[Dennis the Menace UK|Dennis the Menace]]'' cartoon is known as ''Dennis and Gnasher'' internationally, likely for the same reason (Gnasher is the name of the British Dennis' dog, by the way).
** The subsequent UK-Australian co-produced cartoon is called ''Dennis and Gnasher'' even in the UK, however.
* The fourth ''[[Die Hard]]'' movie is known as ''[[Live Free or Die Hard]]'' in the US, but as ''Die Hard 4.0'' in the UK. It stands to reason that most people will simply refer to the movie as ''Die Hard 4'', and might also have something to do with the film's plot: ''4.0'' sounds more "computery" than ''4'', and the plot is about a bunch of crackers shutting down the USA.▼
▲* The fourth ''Die Hard'' movie is known as ''[[Live Free or Die Hard]]'' in the US, but as ''Die Hard 4.0'' in the UK. It stands to reason that most people will simply refer to the movie as ''Die Hard 4'', and might also have something to do with the film's plot: ''4.0'' sounds more "computery" than ''4'', and the plot is about a bunch of crackers shutting down the USA.
** Probably the other reason it was changed is because "Live Free or Die Hard" sounds like a [[Tagline]] to a movie, and would be considered a [[Word Salad Title]] if released under that name.
** "Live Free or Die" is the state motto of New Hampshire, a fact that's less commonly known outside of the US.
* The title of ''[[Austin Powers]]: The Spy Who Shagged Me'' was changed in many English-speaking countries, where the word "shag" is considered much more offensive [[Did Not Do the Bloody Research|than it is in America]].
** It retained its title in the UK, though more prudish cinemas inserted asterisks or referred to it as "The Spy Who..." when referring to it on their display boards. Other posters simply read ''Austin Powers 2'' (or, in Japan, ''Austin Powers Deluxe'').
* The movie called ''The 51st State'' in the UK is known as ''Formula 51'' in North America, partially because the latter sounds more dynamic, partially because ''the 51st State'' is a somewhat controversial phrase in England referring to American dominance over politics/culture.
* American [[Executive Meddling|executives]] ''nearly'' renamed the movie ''[[Snatch]]'' ''Snatch'd'', presumably because "snatch" is an American slang term for female genitalia. It's almost certain that Guy Ritchie knew and intended this.
** This is the same reason Team Snatch in ''[[Pokémon]] Colosseum'' and ''XD'' was renamed to "Team Snagem".
* In the UK, the comedy ''Harold and Kumar go to White Castle'' was renamed ''Harold and Kumar Get the Munchies'', as Brits would be unlikely to know of the association White Castle has to an American audience. Interestingly, as White Castle does not operate nationwide, there are many ''Americans'' that have never heard of the fast food chain White Castle, either.
* The American film adaptation of the book ''[[Fever Pitch]]'' [[Cultural Translation|is a baseball movie about a die-hard fan of the Boston Red Sox.]] The original novel was about a die-hard fan of English football/soccer club Arsenal F.C. The change was made because [[Separated
** That being said, it was originally produced because the Red Sox had a similar air of futility as Arsenal did at the time of the book's release. Then, [[Real Life Writes the Plot|the Red Sox]] [[Reality Subtext|won the World Series during production...]]
** The international release of the American film is typically called "''The Perfect Catch''".
* ''[[Saving Silverman]]'' became ''Evil Woman'' outside of America.
* Presumably because baseball terminology doesn't make sense to most non-American audiences, the '90s ''Angels in the Outfield'' remake was renamed simply ''Angels'' in the UK.
** Although the term 'outfield' is used, with much the same meaning, in cricket.
** It's also called ''Angels'' in Japan, despite the fact that baseball is popular over there.
* Germany has the nasty habit of changing English titles into "[[Exactly What It Says
** For a list (that's not even close to complete but still very long), see [http://rateyourmusic.com/list/XonE/horrible_german_film_title_translations__with_re_translations____/ here].
** The German title for the Britney Spears-starring box office bomb ''Crossroads'' was ''Not a Girl'' (part of the title of Spears' song for this movie).
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*** That was the original US title, before it was changed in deference to some bizarre cultural sensitivity to words that kinda sound like ''arab'' or ''Iraq''.
** ''The Last Samurai'' became ''Last Samurai'', along with many other examples of dropping the English article.
*** Which is weird, because German has a habit of putting articles in front of people's names and other nouns where they are dropped in English.
*** "The Sentinel" being "Der Sentinel" - even though that word doesn't exist in German.
**** ...and loads of other cool-sounding titles made German by adding German articles.
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** For some bizarre resaon, ''[[We Were Soldiers]]'' became We Were Heroes (even though overly patriotic themes are typically looked down on in Germany).
* This is much more prevalent with the Japanese, who changed the ''[[League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'' to "League of Legend".
** The Japanese also changed ''[[Snakes
** In an example of the Japanese name [[Your Mileage May Vary|possibly being better]] than the original, they changed ''[[Batman Begins]]'' to ''Batman Genesis''.
** Although the Japanese name for [[Napoleon Dynamite]] is ''Bus Man'', which doesn't make too much sense.
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** ''Quatermass II'' became ''Enemy from Space''.
** ''Quatermass and the Pit'' became ''Five Million Years to Earth''.
** Another release simply restored traditional spelling of "Experiment" to the first movie's title. That peculiar title only made sense in Britain, where ''The Quatermass Xperiment'' was given an X rating. The British "X" was applied to much tamer material than its American equivalent, but highlighting the rating in the film's title gave notice that the movie [[Rated "M" for Money|featured stronger fare than the norm, for those who like that sort of thing]].
* The [["Weird Al" Yankovic]] vehicle ''[[UHF (film)|UHF]]'' was known as ''The Vidiot From UHF'' internationally, mostly due to [[Executive Meddling]].
* The Edith Piaf [[Biopic]] ''La Môme'' was re-titled ''La Vie En Rose'' in English-speaking markets: Piaf was known as "La Môme" ("the kid"), but only in France, so outside France the film was [[Titled After the Song|named after her most famous song]].
* ''[[
** ''[[X Men Origins
* The fourth film of the [[Rambo]] series was named ''John Rambo'' in [[
** In Japan, ''[[
* Same thing happened to ''[[
* An even odder case happened with the 1985 ''[[
* The UK working title for the 1989 [[James Bond (
** The Ultimate Edition DVD documentary ''Inside License to Kill'' explains that the reason for the change was that to Americans, the term "license revoked" denotes lost driving privileges.
* A certain anti-marijuana film became infamous under the title ''[[
* [[Peter Jackson]]'s ''[[
* ''[[Lucky Number Slevin]]'' became ''The Wrong Man'' in Australia for no apparent reason and then ''Lucky # Slevin'' for the DVD release.
** That's "Lucky Number ''S7evin''"!
* When producers in America got the rights to the sequel film ''Godzilla Raids Again'' they renamed it ''Gigantis The Fire Monster'' (And even referred to Godzilla as "Gigantis" within the English dub of the film itself) because they thought that audiences wanted to see a different monster than Godzilla. Needless to say, they were wrong.
** Other examples of [[Godzilla]] films being renamed for their US release-
{{quote|
''Ebirah: Horror of the Deep'' became ''Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster''.
''Mothra vs. Godzilla'' became ''Godzilla vs. the Thing''.
''Godzilla vs. Hedorah'' became ''Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster''.
''Godzilla vs. Gigan'' became ''Godzilla on Monster Island''.
''Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla'' became both ''Godzilla vs. the Bionic Monster'' and, after a lawsuit from the creators of the ''[[The Bionic Woman]]'', ''Godzilla vs. the Cosmic Monster''. }}
** The 1984 ''Godzilla'' and 1993 ''Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla'' were titled ''Godzilla 1985'' and ''Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II'' in America, presumably because we're too stupid to tell the difference between these films and the 1954 ''Godzilla'' and 1974 ''Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla''.
* Similarly, all of the Showa [[Gamera]] movies released by AIP-TV were re-titled for their English dubs
{{quote|
''Gamera vs Gyaos'' became ''Return of the Giant Monsters''.
''Gamera vs Viras'' became ''Destroy All Planets'' (most likely to cash in on the concurrent release of ''Destroy All Monsters'', even though the two have nothing in common).
''Gamera vs Guiron'' became ''Attack of the Monsters''.
''Gamera vs Jiger'' became ''Gamera vs Monster X'' (even though Jiger was never called that in the dub). At least got to keep ''Gamera'' in the title. }}
* ''[[Danny the Dog]]'' was released with that title in France and Hong Kong, but renamed to ''Unleashed'' for the US, UK and Australia. The original title sounds like a children's program, and might cause viewers to mistake the film for a family entertainment or simply not take it seriously.
* ''Wonderful Days'', despite its [[Foreign Language Title|title already being]] [[Gratuitous English|in English]], was released as ''[[
* The movie ''[[
* The Swedish movie ''Fucking Åmål'' was retitled ''Show Me Love'' in English, for presumably obvious reasons. The renaming, that
** That is, until [[Titled After the Song|the Robyn song plays over the credits]].
* The Japanese title of ''[[Legally Blonde]]'' is ''"Cutie Blonde"'', as if it really needed to sound even more hyper and cutesy. The sequel is even ''more''
** The Russian title tried to preserve the pun by calling it ''Blondinka v Zakone'', or "Blonde in Law". The "in-law" particle has a very different connotation in Russian - rather than referring to relatives-in-law, all of whom have separate terms in Russian, it refers to ''vory v zakone'' or "thieves in law", the elite of [[The Mafiya]].
** In French, it became "Revenge of a Blonde".
* When ''[[Star Trek II:
** Also, when ''[[Star Trek IV:
* [[Bruce Lee]]'s debut film, ''The Big Boss'', was originally going to be retitled ''The Chinese Connection'' for the American market in order to cash in on the success of ''[[The French Connection]]'' (as both films' plot involved drug trafficking). Unfortunately the American distributor screwed up by accidentally switching the title with that of Bruce Lee's following film, ''Fist of Fury'' (in singular), which was meant to be called ''Fist'''s''' of Fury'' in America. For awhile, ''The Big Boss'' was known as ''Fists of Fury'' in America, while ''Fist of Fury'' was ''The Chinese Connection'', until later re-releases restored the original titles.
* To capitalize on Mr. T's popularity in the Philippines, ''D.C. Cab'' had its name changed to "Mr. T and Company" there...despite the fact that [[Billing Displacement|he's a tertiary character in the film]].
* A recut version of the British film ''The Boat That Rocked'' was released in the US under the title ''Pirate Radio''.
** It didn't help that several reviewers used the title line "The Film That Sucked".
* The French-British CGI film ''[[The Magic Roundabout]]'' was mostly redubbed (the voices of of [[Kylie Minogue]] and Sir Ian McKellen were retained - curiously, the [[Evil Brit]] trope is averted due to the bad guy (done by Tom Baker) getting revoiced by [[Jon Stewart]]) and retitled ''Doogal'' in America.
* ''[[Mad Max]] 2'' was retitled ''The Road Warrior'' in the USA, due to the original ''[[Mad Max]]'' having a much more limited release and being rather unsuccessful in that country.
* In Brazil, ''[[Total Recall]]'' got a name inspired by ''The [[Terminator]]''; since the latter was called "The Terminator from the Future", ''Recall'' became "The Avenger of the Future".
* ''[[Airplane!]]'' is called ''Flying High'' in Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, due to the fact that that isn't how you spell it there (at least in the former two). Why they couldn't just change it to ''Aeroplane!'' is unknown (perhaps a legal issue, like many other examples on this page) but it does add a mildly amusing double entendre.
** It isn't spelled like that in the UK either, but the film was not renamed there.
* Walt Disney Home Video released the [[Terry Jones]] film version of ''[[The Wind in
** The theatrical release (done by [[Columbia Pictures]]) did retain the original title though.
* The 1985 film ''Vision Quest'' was retitled ''Crazy For You'' in the UK and other countries just to cash in on Madonna's involvement.
* ''[[Encino Man]]'', a 1992 comedy, was retitled ''California Man'' for Europe and South America, presumably because everyone's heard of California and [[Viewers
* ''[[Dracula 2000]]'' was released in the UK a year later than the US, under the title ''Dracula 2001''.
* The [[Sonny Chiba]] film ''Timeslip'' was released in the US as ''G.I. Samurai''. Both titles are accurate, but the American one ''rhymes''.
* ''[[Tangled]]'' retained it's work-in-progress title of ''Rapunzel'' in Asia and certain parts of Europe. However, it also gained the [[Title Drop|title dropping]] [[The Foreign Subtitle|foreign subtitle]] of ''A Tangled Tale''. Yeah, an English foreign subtitle.
* [[Dario Argento]]'s ''[[Deep Red]]'' was titled ''Suspiria 2'' to cash in on the success of that movie.
* According to the Transformers Wiki, the only countries where ''[[Transformers (
** ''Dark of the Moon'' has become ''Dark Side of the Moon'' or ''The Hidden side of the Moon'', which is also more grammatically correct than the original subtitle. However, in several other countries, it has become just ''Transformers 3''.
* When ''[[Captain America:
* ''[[The Avengers (
* ''[[The Untold Story]]'' was released under many names such as ''Bun Man'' (a better translation would've been "Dumpling Man") or ''Five Immortals Restaurant'' (the name of the restaurant featured in movie).
* In Italy, ''[[Dawn of the Dead (
** The ''Troll'' films were given the same treatment. [[Troll 2]] famously involved goblins and not trolls because it was never meant to be a sequel and originally had the more appropriate name '''Goblins'''. The Italian producer of that movie then took the horror movie ''Trees'' and renamed it Troll 3 (supernatural plants were involved in the first troll films but this movie was obviously far different). They then went on to rename yet another movie ''Troll 3''. This time, it was the alternate title of a barbarian movie that was part of yet '''another''' B-movie franchise (a goblin costume from Troll 2 was used in the movie... and that's it). ''[[
* ''[[Big Tits Zombie]]'' has alternate titles that were likely less marketable than the more commonly known title.
* The remake of ''[[The Karate Kid]]'' was renamed ''The Best Kid'' in South Korea. This was probably due to the original not being as famous and because [[Fridge Logic|the distributors knew the difference between kung-fu and karate]].
* A straight-to-DVD crime thriller was released in some Asian markets as [[Memento
* Spoofed in the ''[[Death Proof]]'' segment of ''[[Grindhouse]]''. The movie obviously had an alternate titlecard which was quickly covered with the new "Death Proof" title. This was a common occurance in b-movies of the 70's, which this film was a parody of.
* [
* The 1933 Nazi film ''Hitlerjunge Quex'' (Hitler Youth Quex) was released in the US under the title ''Our Flag Leads Us Forward''.
* The direct-to-video ''[[American Girl]]'' film ''McKenna Shoots for the Stars'' is known simply as ''American Girl: Shooting For The Stars'' presumably as the doll line isn't as well known internationally as it is in the States.
* ''Hardcore'' was renamed ''[[Hardcore Henry]]'' for its North American release. Presumably because "hardcore" on its own as a film name implies pornography but with a name attached it's clearly (the intended meaning) of saying a character is a [[Badass]].
▲== Literature ==
** ''[[Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (novel)|Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone]]'' became ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' in America. The book was initially marketed as a children's book, and [[Executive Meddling|some of the higher-ups]] believed [[Viewers are Morons|it less cerebral for a kid to know what a ''sorcerer''
▲* ''[[Harry Potter]]''
** For the seventh book, Rowling herself suggested that translation could be based on the phrase "[[Harry Potter and
▲** ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'' became ''Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone'' in America. The book was initially marketed as a children's book, and some of the higher-ups believed it less cerebral for a kid to know what a ''sorcerer'' is compared to a ''philosopher''. Her American publisher initially proposed changing the first book's title to ''Harry Potter and the School of Magic,'' but Rowling didn't like it; she then suggested "Sorcerer's Stone" as a compromise.
▲** For the seventh book, Rowling herself suggested that translation could be based on the phrase "[[Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows|Deathly Relics]]".
* The first novel in ''The Adventures Of Eddie Dickens'' series was called ''Awful End'' in its native country and in most others. The Awful End of the title was not a literal end, it was the house of the protagonist's Mad Uncle Jack and Even Madder Aunt Maud. Nonetheless, the American publication called it ''A House Called Awful End''. Probably because the custom of naming houses, while not unheard of, is far less common in America than Britain.
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' became ''Yubiwa Monogatari'' (roughly "Tale of the Rings") when it was released in Japan.
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** IIRC, on his website, Philip Pullman states the title Golden Compass actually refers to a mathematical compass, not the alethiometer, and it's a reference to Paradise Lost.
** The fact that the alethiometer looks like a compass (and is depicted on the cover) is just an unfortunate coincidence that leads people (and the [[Film of the Book]]) to the mistaken conclusion that the title is supposed to refer to it, a mistake that's compounded by the fact that the other two books in the series take their names from plot centric items that feature on the cover. However, the name was selected before the cover was made and before the sequels were named and it was a simple clerical error that lead to it being attached to the first book.
* ''[[Where's Wally]]'' is published as ''[[Where's Waldo]]'' in the U.S. and Canada. They're similar enough that people both sides of [[The Pond]] have taken the other title to be a [[Brand X]] or [[Fan Nickname]]. Even creator Martin Handford refers to him as "Waldo" in many interviews and press releases. The name of the character's [[Evil Twin]] is Odlaw ("Waldo" backwards), even in the UK. Admittedly, "Yllaw" doesn't have the same ring to it.
* ''[[Mortal Engines]]'' and its sequels are collectively known as "The Hungry City Chronicles" in America, despite the series already having a perfectly good name - the Mortal Engines Quartet. Perhaps they felt the premise of cities eating each other wasn't quite obvious enough.
* The series ''The Saga of Darren Shan'' (originally from the U.K.) is known as ''Cirque du Freak'' (the title of the first book) in the U.S.
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* ''[[Matthew Reilly|Seven Ancient Wonders]]'' was renamed ''Seven Deadly Wonders'' in the US, to make it sound more like an action book.
* The ''[[Fighting Fantasy]]'' book ''House of Hell'' became ''House of Hades'' in America, because ''hell'' can be used as a curse word over there.
* The [[Poppy Z. Brite]] horror novel ''Birdland'', a title that makes perfect sense when you read the story, had its title changed to ''Drawing Blood'' by the publisher. Because it's a horror novel and the main character is an illustrator. Drawing blood. Get it?
* Two of the books in the ''[[Confessions of Georgia Nicolson]]'' series had their titles changed for a US release. "It's OK, I'm Wearing Really Big Knickers" became "On the Bright Side, I'm Now the Girlfriend of a Sex God" ("knickers" in British English means women's underpants; in American English it means "knickerbockers", or knee-length trousers). "... And Then It Came Off In My Hand" was deemed to be too rude, and was changed to "Away Laughing on a Fast Camel."
* Two [[Dalziel and Pascoe]] novels were retitled for their American release: ''The Death of Dalziel'' became ''Death Comes for the Fat Man'' and ''A Cure for All Diseases'' became ''The Price of Butcher's Meat.''
* Ian Rankin's ''Fleshmarket Close'' turned into ''Fleshmarket Alley'' for American audiences (no doubt to clarify matters).
* The third of Stuart MacBride's crime novels is called ''Broken Skin'', except in America where it became ''Bloodshot'', as the publishers thought ''Broken Skin'' was too violent a title. Oddly enough, they had no problem with the fourth book being called ''Flesh House''. MacBride got so tired of people asking if they are different books, he's put a message on the front page of his website explaining that they're not.
* The American title of the English translation of ''[[Let the Right One In]]'' was changed to ''Let Me In'', which removes the vampiric nuances of the original title. It was changed due to the original title being "too long". Thanks to the release and success of the [[Film of the Book]], the title has been changed back.
** They even thought that the author John Ajvide Lindqvist's name was too long and asked him if they could change that too.
* Diane Duane's second Feline Wizards book, ''To Visit the Queen'', is titled ''On Her Majesty's Wizardly Service'' in the UK. No idea why the difference exists.
** We Brits do watch a lot of [[James Bond]] films. Possibly the publisher just figured we'd appreciate a reference to ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service'' more than one to "Pussycat, Pussycat".
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* The sixth novel in ''[[The Hollows]]'' series, ''The Outlaw Demon Wails'', was renamed ''Where Demons Dare'' in the UK because the publisher felt the namesake movie for the latter would be more familiar to a British audience than the former.
* The first-published book in C.S.Forester's ''[[Horatio Hornblower]]'' series was titled ''The Happy Return'' in the UK, and ''Beat To Quarters'' in the United States. Several of the TV films similarly had alternate titles, usually while still managing a [[Title Drop]].
* The first ''[[James Bond (
* Quite a number of [[
* ''[[Kiln People]]'' by [[David Brin]] was published in the UK as ''[http://www.flickr.com/photos/57037724@N03/5452451599/ Kil'n People].''
* The fifteenth [[Aubrey-Maturin]] novel, ''Clarissa Oakes'', was published as ''The Truelove'' in the USA.
==
* The British spy series ''[[Spooks]]'' was titled ''MI-5'' in America. "Spook" is slang for "spy" in both American and British English, but in American English it's also a (mostly obsolete) racist slur. American viewers who were unaware of that slur would probably have been disappointed that this series didn't have more supernatural elements, as "spook" is also a (slightly archaic) term for an apparition in American English.
* ''[[Eureka]]'' was entitled ''A Town Called Eureka'' in Britain, although this was just because there was already a show called ''Eureka''.
* ''[[Lois and Clark]]: The New Adventures of Superman'' was just called ''The New Adventures of Superman'' in the UK because it was assumed UK viewers would not have heard of the Lewis and Clark expedition. After transferring to ITV the original titlecard is retained but the network still refers to it as "The New Adventures of Superman" (although when the final season premiered on Sky it was called by the original title). The DVDs retain the original title aswell.
* For the first seasons, ''[[Beverly Hills 90120]]'' was renamed to ''L. A. Beat'' in Finland.
* ''[[
* Why wasn't the [[Distaff Counterpart]] to ''[[The Six Million Dollar Man]]'' named ''The Six Million Dollar Woman''? To start with, it was thought that having done all the R&D on Steve Austin, a second bionic agent wouldn't cost as much. But saying she was cheaper might anger women's groups. At the same time, (and with impressive double-think) they thought "The Six Million Dollar Woman" sounded like a ''really'' expensive hooker. So, Jaime Summers was ''[[The Bionic Woman]]''. [[Lampshaded]] in one episode where Steve asks about the cost of her bionics, and Oscar says they cost less than Steve's because they were smaller, but then the parts cost more because of inflation...
* ''[[We Can Be Heroes]]: Finding The Australian Of The Year'' had the subtitle changed to ''The Nominees'' outside of Australia.
* ''[[Men Behaving Badly]]'' (the British series) was advertised as ''British Men Behaving Badly'' on BBC America to avoid confusion with an American show [[
* ''[[Wonders In Letterland]]'' became ''Troubles With T-Bag'' in Australia to avoid a copyright problem. One of the makers said that whilst neither title satisfied him, at least the second one referenced the character of the show.
* ''[[Unaccompanied Minors]]'' became known as ''Grounded'' in the U.K.
* ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'' became known simply as ''Mighty Power Rangers'' or just ''[[Power Rangers]]'' in Malaysia due to the fact "morphin" sounded like "morphine". The ban is not upheld these days and it is possible to find Malay dubbed VCDs of the original series with the full name intact on the cover. Other countries such as Spain also referred to the original series simply as ''[[Power Rangers]]'', though not for reasons of censorship.
** In Korea, ''[[Power Rangers
*** Oddly enough, they later switched from ''[[Power Rangers]]'' dubs to ''[[Super Sentai]]'' dubs, yet kept the ''Power Rangers'' name (often some version of ''"Power Rangers: [[The Something Force]]"'').
* The Australian television show ''Prisoner'' was billed ''Prisoner Cell Block H'' in the UK and United States (though the show itself retained the original title in the UK) and ''Caged Women'' in Canada. This was to avoid confusion with ''[[The Prisoner]]'', an unrelated British show.
* ''[[Home and Away]]'' is known in France as ''Summer Bay'', which is the location of where the show is set.
* The British version of the [[Game Show]] ''[[
* To better cash in on Bruce Lee's popularity most Southeast Asian countries retitled ''[[The Green Hornet]]'', ''The Kato Show''. It's still shown on some channels to this day on late night schedules.
* The [[Teen Nick]] airings of the Australian tweens' show ''[[
* Several of the ''[[Horatio Hornblower]]'' TV films were renamed for the American market. Indeed, in the UK, the series was simply titled ''Hornblower'', the naming being extended to include the character's first name for the US.
** ''The Even Chance'' became ''The Duel''
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* ''[[Ocean Girl]]'', an Australian kids' sci-fi, was renamed ''Ocean Odyssey'' for British consumption.
* When the late-70s adventure series ''The American Girls'' was screened in Britain, the title was changed to ''Have Girls, Will Travel'' for no apparent reason.
* ''[[
* ''The Great British Bake Off''[[Tradesnark™|®]] (UK trade marks 2557737 and 2603787, registered 2010 and 2011) had to use a different market-based title on the US [[PBS|Public Broadcasting Service]] because Pillsbury® stateside had trademarked ''Bake Off''® for its ''Grand National Recipe and Baking Contest'', first held in 1949.
* In Ghana, ''[[Who Wants to Be
* British band Alabama 3, most well known for the theme to ''[[The Sopranos]]'' "Woke Up This Morning," is known as A3 in America allegedly to avoid potential legal conflicts with existing country band, Alabama.▼
▲== Music ==
▲* British band Alabama 3, most well known for the theme to ''[[The Sopranos]]'' "Woke Up This Morning," is known as A3 in America allegedly to avoid potential legal conflicts with existing country band, Alabama
* The British band called The Beat came to be known as The English Beat in the US after discovering the existence of an American band of the same name (which is known as Paul Collins' Beat in the Europe due an agreement by both bands not to use the name "The Beat" in each other's main area of operations).
* Due to a lawsuit from an obscure folk singer, the British rock band Suede is legally known as The London Suede in the US, even though most fans of the band in the country commonly call the band by their actual name.
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** Goth rockers The Mission are known as The Mission UK in the US, due to a lawsuit by a Philadelphia-based R&B group
** Wham! were briefly called Wham! UK in the United States due to a similarly named artist. By the time they became popular, the suffix was gone.
* The German group Inga & Anete Humpe has an album, released in 1987, titled ''Swimming with Sharks''. The American version of this album had basically the same cover picture, except that the group name was erased from it; this effectively changed the group's name to "Swimming with Sharks" in the US, and the album into a [[Self
* Japanese duo Puffy added the singers' names - Ami and Yumi - when they began releasing albums in North America, to avoid confusion with Sean "What's my name this week?" Combs.
* And, yet another band forced to change their name in another market is the British band Bush, briefly known as BushX in Canada, due to a band from the 70s already holding a trademark on that name in Canada. This particular case is interesting as the older Bush released the trademark in exchange for the British band making a couple charitable donations.
* Nick Lowe's album known as ''The Jesus of Cool'' in the UK is called ''Pure Pop for Now People'' in the US.
* The song entitled ''Sukiyaki'' when released by ''A Taste of Honey'' in the US had an entirely different title and lyrics in the Japanese original. It was renamed after a traditional Japanese food dish solely on the presumption that the name would look more familiar to North American audiences.
* In a curious aversion, The Radiators is the name of bands from the US and Australia. Both bands were formed in the late seventies, both are still playing, and neither has objected to the other, even though both have sold records in the other's country. More recently, a British band known as The Radiators from Space, which was formed in exactly the same year as the US Radiators, re-formed as...The Radiators! Still no complaints from any side, and I see albums by all three in the same bin at my local record store.
* In a reverse US-UK case, the American soul band the Spinners were known as the Detroit Spinners in the UK because of a well-known UK folk group with the same name.
* Australian rockers The Angels faced a lawsuit from both the glam band Angel and the 60's girl group The Angels, which forced them to use the name "Angel City" in the U.S.
* The first [[Electric Light Orchestra]] album famously ended up with a different title in the US by accident: Someone from the US label that was distributing the album had called up ELO's manager to find out the album title, and when they didn't reach him, they left a note simply reading "no answer". Someone else thought the content of the note ''was'' the album title, and thus what was a [[Self
* Due to a lawsuit from a band of the same name, English [[Synth Pop]] duo Yazoo is known as Yaz in the US. Oddly enough, this led to a little further confusion when a pop singer who went by Yaz'''z''' cropped up a bit later in [[The Eighties]].
* For a while, the Australian group Bumblebeez had to be billed as Bumblebeez 81 in the US, due to an existing group called The Bumblebees - apparently the use of [[Xtreme Kool Letterz]] and lack of a "the" wasn't enough to differentiate the two. They're now back to being just Bumblebeez in both countries though.
* Due to yet another case of another band already laying claim to a name, British band The Bees are known in the US as A Band Of Bees.
* [[
* Due to [[Unfortunate Implications]] with [[World War II]] gas chambers, [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] had to rename their ''Elimination Chamber'' pay-per-view event in Germany to ''No Way Out'' (which was the predecessor to ''Elimination Chamber''). This worked for three years, until WWE decided to revive ''No Way Out'' in 2012, which meant ''Elimination Chamber'' had to be called ''No Way Out'' while ''No Way Out'' was renamed ''No Escape''.▼
▲== Professional Wrestling ==
▲* Due to [[Unfortunate Implications]] with [[World War II]] gas chambers, [[WWE]] had to rename their ''Elimination Chamber'' pay-per-view event in Germany to ''No Way Out'' (which was the predecessor to ''Elimination Chamber''). This worked for three years, until WWE decided to revive ''No Way Out'' in 2012, which meant ''Elimination Chamber'' had to be called ''No Way Out'' while ''No Way Out'' was renamed ''No Escape''.
* Similarly in France, ''Fatal 4-Way'' was renamed ''4-Way Finale''.
* The Japanese ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series suffered a lot from this. ''[[
▲== Video Games ==
▲* The Japanese ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series suffered a lot from this. ''[[Final Fantasy II (Video Game)|Final Fantasy II]]'', ''[[Final Fantasy III (Video Game)|Final Fantasy III]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy V (Video Game)|Final Fantasy V]]'' were never released outside of Japan, so ''[[Final Fantasy IV (Video Game)|Final Fantasy IV]]'' became ''Final Fantasy II'' and ''[[Final Fantasy VI (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VI]]'' became ''Final Fantasy III'' in North America. This was bad enough, but then they dropped this scheme, and ''[[Final Fantasy VII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VII]]'' was named that in all countries. As a result, North American fans were left to wonder what happened to ''Final Fantasy IV'' through ''VI'', when the actual question was what happened to ''II'', ''III'', and ''V''.
** This is one of the few cases where wiser heads eventually prevailed. The various games have seen multiple re-releases, and every rerelease gives the game its "proper" number. Some non-Japanese re-releases of IV and VI do note that they were originally released as II and III, however.
* When the original SNES game was released, Nintendo were unable to use the name ''[[Star Fox (
* ''[[Mega Man (
** ''Rockman DASH'' was changed to ''[[
** And the ''Battle Network Rockman.EXE'' games were brought over, not as ''Battle Network Mega Man.EXE'', but as ''[[
*** Similarly, the sequel Series ''Ryuusei no Rockman''/''Shooting Star Rockman'' had its name changed to "[[
*** In the third game, the localization actually shoehorns it into the plot as the name of the
* Similar to the ''Star Fox'' example, Enix found that there was already an old RPG released in North America had used the title ''DragonQuest'' and SPI (the publisher of said game) still held the trademark to the name. Thus, when bringing the series over, they were forced to use the name ''Dragon Warrior''. Technically it was the camelcase DragonQuest, which, while not exactly the same, was still close enough to prevent Enix from calling its video games series ''[[Dragon Quest]]''. Disuse of the DragonQuest trademark pretty much prevented any problems Square Enix would have had with obtaining the ''Dragon Quest'' trademark.
** And nowadays Europe drops all numbers from ''Dragon Quest'' releases, probably to avoid that little [[Sequel First|"some titles were never released there" problem.]] The UK seems to be exempt from this rule, however; and IX on the DS was released about a year before VI.
* One [[Super Mario Bros.|Yoshi-themed]] puzzle game for the original [[Game Boy]] was titled ''Yoshi's Egg'' in Japan, ''Mario and Yoshi'' in Europe, and simply ''Yoshi'' in North America.
* ''[[Animal Crossing]]: Let's Go to the City'' was released in North America with the subtitle ''City Folk'', for seemingly no reason.
* ''[[
* ''God Slayer: Haruka Tenkū no Sonata'' (''God Slayer: Sonata of the Far-Away Sky'') became known as ''[[Crystalis]]'', presumably to avoid offending religious people.
* ''[[Fahrenheit (2005 video game)]]'' was marketed as ''Indigo Prophecy'' in the US, in order to avoid confusion with the film ''Fahrenheit 9/11''.
** However, the uncut version (a sex scene was removed to get an M rating in the US) was released as ''Fahrenheit''.
* The first ''[[Jet Set Radio]]'' is known as ''Jet Grind Radio'' in North America, allegedly to avoid confusion with the band Jet Set Satellite. Apparently they weren't as worried about this confusion for the release of the game's sequel/remake, ''Jet Set Radio Future''.
* ''[[Metal Gear Ghost Babel]]'' for the [[Game Boy Color]] was retitled ''[[Metal Gear Solid]]'' (after its [[
** The [[Mission Pack Sequel|extra missions disc]] that came with ''Metal Gear Solid: Integral'' (the [[Updated Rerelease]] of ''Metal Gear Solid'' in Japan) was released as a stand-alone game under the title of ''Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions'' in North America and ''Metal Gear Solid: Special Missions'' in Europe.
** ''Metal Gear Solid: Digital Graphic Novel'' for the PSP is known in Japan as ''Metal Gear Solid: Bande Dessinée'', which is a bit pretentious, considering the game was adapted from an American-produced comic book, while "Bande Dessinée" is a French term.
* The ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' series was originally called ''Ninja Ryukenden'' in Japan. An odd case, as Tecmo simply switched one Japanese word for another ([[Gratuitous Japanese|and with one that doesn't make much sense in context]]), instead of actually translating the title into English. Note that ''Ninja Gaiden'' was actually the [[Working Title]] in Japan before they eventually settled with ''Ninja Ryukenden''. Tecmo thought that the title ''Ninja Ryukenden'' would've been too hard to pronounce for English speakers, so they kept the name ''Ninja Gaiden'' for the American version.
** The PAL versions of the ''[[Ninja Gaiden]]'' games (particularly the arcade version and the first two NES games) were released ''Shadow Warriors'' as using the word 'ninja' was forbidden for children's toys under some European laws - see also the ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' below.
* Because they were were preceded by an [[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (
** The American ports of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles the Arcade Game
** The NES/Famicom-exclusive ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project'' was treated as ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Manhattan Project'' (with no use of a roman numeral) in Japan.
** The SNES version of ''[[
* ''Biohazard'' is known as ''[[Resident Evil]]'' outside Japan, because ''Biohazard'' was too generic to be properly trademarked in America; both a band and another video game use the name.
** The subtitle for the third game was also changed from ''Last Escape'' to ''Nemesis'' (after the titular monster), even though Jill [[Title Drop|title drops]] her "last escape" during the opening monologue.
** The seventh game would combine the two titles, being named ''Biohazard 7: Resident Evil'' and ''Resident Evil 7: Biohazard'', but the 8th would go back to the two being separate.
* ''[[Pokémon]]'' was originally known as ''Pocket Monsters'' in Japan. However, it's used globally including Japan, since the former title is a [[Portmanteau Series Nickname]] of the latter (Poketto Monsutaa).
** The reason they couldn't use Pocket Monsters in the US was that it was too close to the already trademarked ''[[Monster in My Pocket]]''.
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*** Despite the fact that Nintendo apparently also holds/held the trademark for "WaterBlue"...
*** In Japan there was a third game to the originals, a slightly upgraded game named Pokémon Blue. The codebase from that version was combined with the version-exclusive Pokemon from Red and Green to become the rest of the world's Red and Blue. (There was never a version released with Japanese Blue's particular combination of version exclusives outside of Japan.)
** Because of the obscurity of the ''[[
* The arcade [[Beat
** Amusingly enough, said film is also an example of this trope; It's known as ''Wheels on Meals" pretty much everywhere else in the world.
* Many early Japanese game consoles had their names changed for the overseas market:
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*** The Super Famicom only has minor differences to the North American SNES, the PAL verison is 100% identical, however a lockout chip prevents most games from working on the other console.
** [[Sega]]'s Mark III was released as the [[Master System]] overseas (a name later used in Japan for a revised version of the Mark III). Its successor, the Mega Drive, was released as the [[Sega Genesis]] in North America (but was still called the Mega Drive everywhere else). As a result, its [[Add On]], the Mega CD, became known as the Sega CD in America. The Super 32X in Japan was exported to Europe as the Mega 32X and to America as the Genesis 32X.
** The PC Engine became the [[
* On the subject of ''[[Shin Megami Tensei]]'', its more kid friendly spinoff ''Devil Children'' has been given several names to circumvent the rather unfortunate connotations "Devil Children" has in western countries. When Atlus translated the GBA games, they were named ''Demi Kids'' and TMS Entertainment is adamant in referring to the anime tie-in as ''DeviChil: Goddess Rebirth'' (as a side, this series did get some airtime in Italy).
* ''[[Bully (
* When Namco of America localized ''[[
* ''It's A Wonderful World'' became ''[[
* For no fathomable reason, the three [[
** ''Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War'' got off the lightest, merely losing the number to become ''Ace Combat: The Belkan War''
** ''Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies'' became ''Ace Combat: Distant Thunder''
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* ''[[River City Ransom]]'' was released as ''Street Gangs'' in the PAL regions.
* ''[[Elebits]]'' is called ''Eledees'' in Europe. It's a pun on [[LE Ds]], small electronic components which produce light for indicating the circuitry conveys the electricity properly.
* All of the sequels to ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]'' have had their subtitles changed in Europe - ''[[Ratchet and Clank Going Commando|Going Commando]]'' became ''Locked And Loaded'' and ''[[Ratchet and Clank Up Your Arsenal|Up Your Arsenal]]'' was just called ''Ratchet & Clank 3''. Presumably by then changing the title was simply a tradition, as ''[[Ratchet: Deadlocked|Deadlocked]]'' became ''Gladiator'' and all ''Ratchet and Clank [[Story Arc|Future]]'' titles had the "Future" part removed.
** Except in Ireland, where ''Going Commando'', ''Up Your Arsenal'' and ''Deadlocked'' retained their original titles.
*** In Norway, ''Going Commando'' and ''Up Your Arsenal'' apparently kept their original titles while ''Deadlocked'' was changed. There's hardly any consistency.
** The exceptions are the PSP games (which were developed by a different team who have links with the original team), which are named ''[[Ratchet and Clank Size Matters|Size]] [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|Matters]]'' and ''[[
** Pre-''Ratchet and Clank'', Insomniac Games' second entry in the ''[[Spyro the Dragon]]'' series was named ''Ripto's Rage!'' in North America and ''Gateway to Glimmer'' in Europe.
* [[Blizzard Entertainment]]'s early ''[[Flashback (
* ''[[Illusion of Gaia]]'' is known as ''Illusion of Time'' in Europe.
* The ''[[Wild
* For some strange reason, the game known as ''Dewprism'' in Japan was turned into ''[[Threads of Fate]]'' in the US.
* The arcade version of ''[[Contra]]'' was released as ''Gryzor'' in Europe, presumably to distance the game from the Iran-Contra scandal, since support for the Nicaraguan Contras was considered politically incorrect in Europe. However, the arcade version of ''Super Contra'' kept its original title in Europe for some unknown reason. The subsequent console versions were released under the ''Probotector'' title, [[Bowdlerize|replacing the human characters with robotic counterparts]]. This was done so that the games could be sold to children in Germany without any problems due to the country's strict censorship laws. This lasted until ''Contra: Legacy of War'' for the [[
** In Japan, ''Operation C'' is simply called ''[[Recycled Title|Contra]]'', ''Contra III: The Alien Wars'' is known as ''Contra Spirits'', ''Contra: Hard Corps'' is known as ''Contra: '''The''' Hard Corps'', ''Contra: Shattered Soldier'' is known as ''Shin Contra'', ''[[Super Title 64 Advance|Contra Advance: The Alien Wars EX]]'' is known as ''Contra: Hard Spirits'', and ''Contra 4'' is known as ''[[Super Title 64 Advance|Contra: Dual Spirits]]''. Additionally, the NES version of ''Super Contra'' was shortened to ''Super C'' for its American release, although its Famicom counterpart was still called ''Super Contra''. Had the Famicom version of ''[[Dolled
* In Japan, the Famicom version of ''[[Double Dragon|Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones]]'' is titled ''Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone'' (same as its arcade counterpart, only with a Roman numeral instead of the Arabic "3"), while ''Super Double Dragon'' is called ''Return of Double Dragon''.
* In Europe, ''[[Castlevania Bloodlines]]'' is known as ''Castlevania: The New Generation'', while the SNES version of ''Castlevania: Dracula X'' was retitled ''Castlevania: Vampire's Kiss''.
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** The second DS game in the series is known as ''Advance Wars: Days of Ruin'' in North America and ''Advance Wars: Dark Conflict'' in Europe and Australia.
* Some of the ''[[Street Fighter]]'' games are titled differently between regional releases and even console ports.
** The very first ''Street Fighter'' was released for the [[
** In Japan, ''Street Fighter II: Champion Edition'' is known as ''Street Fighter II Dash'', while ''Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting'' is known as ''Street Fighter II Dash Turbo''. The word "dash" is not spelled out on the title of either game, but represented by a prime mark (′) as a sort of [[Stealth Pun]] (both games were derivatives of the original ''[[
** ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'' was originally called ''Super Street Fighter II X: Grand Master Challenge'' in Japan.
** The ''Street Fighter Alpha'' series is known as ''Street Fighter Zero'' in Japan and Asia. The second game, ''Street Fighter Zero 2'', had an [[Updated Rerelease]] for the arcade in Japan and Asia that was titled ''Street Fighter Zero 2 Alpha'', which then got ported to the home consoles as ''Street Fighter Zero 2 Dash''. The console version was released in America as ''Street Fighter Alpha 2 Gold'' and in Europe as ''Street Fighter Alpha 2 Dash''.
** The GBA version of ''Street Fighter Alpha 3'' is known as ''Street Fighter Zero 3 Upper'' in Japan, taking its title from a Japan-only upgrade of the arcade version. Thus, the PSP version, ''Street Fighter Zero 3 Double Upper'' became ''Street Fighter Alpha 3 MAX''.
** The console version of ''[[Street Fighter (
** The PS versions of the ''[[Capcom vs. Whatever|Vs.]]'' games dropped the "EX Edition" subtitle for each game when they were released outside Japan (hiding the fact that they were watered down ports that removed the tag team feature).
* The arcade version of the original ''[[Gradius]]'', as well as the three [[MSX]] games in the series, were released under the ''Nemesis'' title outside Japan. In a form of [[Recursive Import]], the ''Nemesis'' name was used in Japan for the two [[Game Boy]] games (the second which came out as ''Gradius: The Interstellar Assault'' in North America) and ''Nemesis '90 Kai'' for the [[Sharp
* ''Samurai Spirits'' is known as ''[[Samurai Shodown]]'' outside Japan: an odd case considering the international title actually misspells the replacement word ("Sho'''w'''down").
** It was supposed to be called "Shogun Shodown", a punny if not so clever title. However, for some reason, the misspelt word stayed that way.
* The original arcade version of ''[[
* The PS version of ''[[Soul Series|Soul Edge]]'' was released as ''Soul Blade'' in North America and Europe due to trademark issues with the original title thanks to professional trademark troll Tim Langdell (the same guy who attempted to sue [[Electronic Arts]] over the title of ''[[
* The ''[[Backyard Sports]]'' games are known by their original name, Junior Sports, in Europe.
* ''[[Digimon World 3]]'' became known as ''Digimon World 2003'' in Europe. It's been speculated to have been done to avert likely confusion resulting from ''Digimon World 2'' not being released in Europe.
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* The [[Data East]] run-and-gun shoot-em-up ''[[Bloody Wolf]]'' is known as ''Battle Rangers'' in Europe since "Bloody" is considered a profane word in England.
* ''[[Ray Force]]'' is a huge offender. The original Japanese and American arcade releases are called ''RayForce'', and the European verison ''GunLock''. The Japanese console release? Due to trademark issues, it was renamed ''Layer Section''. And when Acclaim got the rights to public the Saturn port in North America, they renamed it ''Galactic Attack''. Its sequel, ''RayStorm'' has a lesser example of this; the Japanese Saturn port is called ''Layer Section II'', but all other versions retained the original title.
* Enix had a rhythm game in Japan known as ''Bust A Move''. Unfortunately, ''[[Bubble Bobble
* The [[
* The original Japanese version of ''Super Mario Bros. 2'' is known as ''[[Super Mario Bros the Lost Levels
** The overseas version of ''[[Super Mario Bros
** ''[[Super Mario World (
* ''MOTHER 2: Gyiyg Strikes Back'', better known outside Japan as ''[[
** Speaking of ''MOTHER'', the leaked English prototype and early promotional materials indicated that in the original plans to internationally release it (which [[No Export for You|obviously never happened]]), it was [[
* The ''[[
* The Konami arcade game ''Green Beret'' was released in North America as ''[[Rush
* ''Pokemon Trozei'' was named ''Pokémon Link'' in Europe.
* ''[[Kirby]] Mouse Attack'' is the European name of ''Kirby Squeak Squad''.
* ''[[Astyanax]]'' was originally titled ''The Lord of King'' in Japan.
* ''[[Forgotten Worlds]]'' was originally titled ''Lost Worlds'' in Japan.
* The ''[[Saturday Night Slam Masters
* ''Vampire'' became ''[[
* ''[[Tenchu]]: Dark Shadow'' was changed into ''Dark Secret'' for its English release.
* ''[[Cannon Dancer]]'' was changed into ''[[Character Title|Osman]]'' for its English release.
* Two out of the three games forming part of ''[[Three Wonders]]'' had their names expanded: ''Roosters'' became ''Midnight Wanderers: Quest for the Chariot'' and ''Chariot'' was given the subtitle ''Adventure through the Sky''.
* Sinclair Research changed the titles of several early [[Hudson Soft]] games when publishing them for the [[ZX Spectrum]]: ''[[
* The sequel to Level-5's Playstation 2 action-RPG ''[[
* A Russian video game called [[
* ''[[
* ''Tokushu Butai Jackal'', [[Konami]]'s overhead jeep shoot-em-up for the arcades, is known simply as ''Jackal'' worldwide and ''Top Gunner'' in the states. Strangely, the Famicom Disk System version was released under the completely different title of ''Final Command: Akai Yōsai'' ("The Red Fortress"), while its NES counterpart was titled ''Jackal'' in the states (yet, it never came out in Europe).
* Of the ''[[Aleste]]'' series, various installments were distributed internationally by four different companies, who obscured the relations between them with different titles. All ''Aleste'' games distributed by [[Sega]] became ''Power Strike'' outside Japan (including one game that was never released in Japan); ''Musha Aleste'' dropped "Aleste" and made a backronym of the rest; ''Dennin Aleste'' became ''Robo Aleste'', keeping the series title for once; and ''[[Super Aleste]]'' became ''Space Megaforce'' with a [[Blind Idiot Translation|translation as corrupted as the title]].
* ''[[Puyo Puyo]]'', after [[Compile]]'s demise and [[Sega]]'s complete takeover of the series, has been distributed internationally under the name ''Puyo Pop''. The only previous releases outside Japan had been some quite strangely [[Dolled
* A few of [[Compile]]'s [[Casual Video Game
* Outside of Europe, ''[[Rayman|Rayman M]]'' was known as ''Rayman Arena'' due to the fact that it was thought that people would think that the 'M' stood for 'mature'.
* The arcade version of ''[[Video Game/Star Force|Star Force]]'' was released outside of Japan as ''Mega Force''(no relation to the Atari game or ''[[Space Megaforce]]'').
* With the exception of the [[Professor Layton and
* [[
* Various [[Compilation Rerelease
* ''[[Resonance of Fate]]'' is known as ''End of Eternity'' in Japan.
* Despite being named ''[[Thunder Force]]'' everywhere for the [[Sequel First|second and third]] games, ''Thunder Force IV'' was inexplicably renamed ''Lightening Force'' in North America. Yes, that's a force that lightens things, not a Lightning Force. They would later go back to using Thunder Force for number 5.
* The U.S. release of [[Data East]]'s [[Beat
* The title of [[Toaplan]]'s [[Platform Game]] ''Wardner no Mori'' was usually reduced simply to ''Wardner'' outside of Japan. Some arcade releases, however, went under the name ''Pyros'', and the scrapped NES localization was to have been titled ''Pyross''.
* ''Sol-Feace'' was retitled ''[[Sol Deace]]'' in the West, probably due to the latter half [[In My Language, That Sounds Like...|sounding similar]] to "feces."
* The survival horror game ''Demento'' was released as ''[[Haunting Ground]]'' in North America.
* ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' game are usually published with an untranslated title in France. But ''[[
* The [[Puzzle Game]] known in Europe as ''Solomon's Key 2'' (which is a literal translation of the Japanese title) same was renamed ''Fire 'n Ice'' in the U.S.
* The ''[http://www.mobygames.com/game-group/barbarian-legacy Barbarian]'' beat 'em ups by Palace Software, ''Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior'' and ''Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax'' were released as ''Death Sword'' and ''Axe of Rage'' in United States.
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* ''[[Castlequest]]'' for the NES was originally released as ''Castle Excellent'' in Japan. This raises the question of what the international title of ''Castle Quest'', an unrelated [[Strategy RPG]] for the Famicom, would have been. Answer: a translated version of ''Castle Quest'' for the NES was previewed under the title ''Triumph'', but only the [[Game Boy]] version was released overseas in Europe, under the ''Castle Quest'' title.
* ''[[Rocky Rodent]]'' was released in Japan under the title ''Nitro Punks: Might Heads''.
* For a while, ''[[
* ''Speed Freaks'' was known as ''Speed Punks'' outside of Europe.
* The [[Nintendo Entertainment System]] version of ''[[
* [[Irem]]'s [[Arcade Game]] ''Mr. Heli no Daibouken'' was released outside Japan as ''Battle Chopper'', but the Western computer ports dropped only the Japanese words and were titled ''Mr. Heli''.
* ''Turok 2: Seeds of Evil'' was titled ''Violence Killer: Turok New Generation'' in Japan.
* ''[[
* ''[[PowerSlave]]'' was released as ''Exhumed'' in Europe and ''1999 AD: Resurrection of the Pharaoh'' in Japan. The 2022 port, which ported the far superior [[Sega Saturn]] release to PC, would be released as ''PowerSlave Exhumed'', combining the two western titles.
* The ''[[Ryu ga Gotoku]]'' series was known as ''Yakuza'' in the west till 2019's release of ''Yakuza: Like a Dragon'' started what [[Sega]] confirmed in 2022 as an effort to shift towards using literal translation ''Like a Dragon'' for future western releases.
* Because British policy [[Political Correctness Gone Mad|forbade the mention of ninja]] in children's programming, the 1987 series of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' was renamed ''Teenage Mutant '''Hero''' Turtles'' there (although the "Ninja" part was retained for all three live-action films, even when screened on [[The BBC]] - the same channel that screened the cartoon!). The policy was lifted by the time the 2003 series came around, and that one was not changed.▼
▲== Western Animation ==
▲* Because British policy forbade the mention of ninja in children's programming, the 1987 series of ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' was renamed ''Teenage Mutant '''Hero''' Turtles'' there (although the "Ninja" part was retained for all three live-action films, even when screened on [[The BBC]] - the same channel that screened the cartoon!). The policy was lifted by the time the 2003 series came around, and that one was not changed.
** [[Lampshade Hanging]] when the Turtles made an appearance in the charity [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover]] comic book ''The [[Comic Relief]] Comic''. The presenters of the Comic Relief telethon, [[Lenny Henry]] and (comic book geek) Jonathan Ross, got into an argument as to what they were called while introducing them. They were finally billed as Teenage Mutant Turtles.
* Similarly, ''[[Transformers]]: [[
** The first series of ''[[
** Also, ''[[Transformers Generation 1]]'' for some reason became ''Fight! Super Robot Life Form Transformer'' when it was released in Japan. Later, ''Transformers: Car Robots'' would become ''[[Transformers: Robots in Disguise]]'' when it was released in America.
** This happened to the Japanese-made Unicron Trilogy as well. ''Transformers Micron Legend'' became ''[[Transformers Armada]]'' (despite the impressive lack of any armadas at all) ''Transformers Superlink'' became ''[[Transformers Energon]]'', and ''Transformers Galaxy Force'' became ''[[Transformers Cybertron]]''.
*** Other way around, really, since all three lines were created by Hasbro and renamed for the Japanese market. Also, the 'Armada' was the huge armada of ships that faced off against Unicron.
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**** We do have Tidal Wave, who can split into three parts. Maybe ''he's'' the armada.
* Similarly, Mainframe's (the same studio behind Beast Wars) ''Shadow Raiders'' was named such because it was loosely based on a US-based toy line named ''War Planets'', and they couldn't include War in the name of a children's cartoon in Canada. Initial US runs restored the series name to ''War Planets'' to match the toys... but later runs kept the name ''Shadow Raiders'' which was the original for the series, but a Market Based Title compared to the toys it was based on. Confused yet?
** In fact, after the release of the cartoon (which was a huge hit) the toys where renamed to Shadow Raiders for the Canadian market.
* ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' was renamed ''Batman of the Future'' in Europe, Latin America and Japan.
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' became ''Avatar: The Legend of Aang'' in the UK, most likely because "bender" is a derogatory British term for homosexual.
** However the cover of the box set of season 3 released in the UK has the ''The Last Airbender'' subtitle on the cover rather than ''The Legend of Aang'' which was on the boxsets of the first two seasons.
** The ''Legend of Aang'' title was also sometimes used in Australia, despite the fact that "bender" is unheard of in Australia. Since Australian and British DVDs are both PAL, however, [[They Just Didn't Care|they probably just switched the region on the DVDs]]. On the TV show, however, it uses The Last Airbender.
** The American version of ''[[Nicktoons Unite!|Nicktoons: Attack of the Toybots]]'' managed to slip the "Legend of Aang" subtitle through. Then again, the game's developpers (Blue Tongue; you may know them for ''[[
* Remember ''[[Garfield and Friends]]''? Remember those sketches with Orson the Pig? In the US, they were known as "U.S. Acres", while in Canada and elsewhere outside the US (except for Australia) they were known as "Orson's Farm". The DVD set was made using the international masters, so they use the "Orson's Farm" title even in the US.
* In Britain there was once a Top Cat brand of cat food. This led to [[The BBC]] changing ''[[Top Cat]]'' to ''Boss Cat'' up to the late '80s. Seeing as they only changed the show's title, and not its theme song, or the lead character's name, it was rather a token gesture.
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* ''[[Space Goofs]]'' became known as ''Home To Rent'' in the UK.
* ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'' is known as ''Jimmy Cool'' in some areas.
* In Israel, both [[Batman Beyond]] and [[X
* Unsurprisingly, [[G.I. Joe|"G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero"]] was released outside the U.S. as either "G.I. Joe: An International Hero" or "Action Force: An International Hero." This could be considered a same-language example of [[Cultural Translation]]. However, there's more to it: [[Continuity Snarl|Action Force was actually its own continuity before being merged with G.I. Joe.]]
* ''[[The Pirates!
* ''[[The Land Before Time]]'' is known as ''Littlefoot'' in Japan.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* Subversion: a popular urban legend says Chevrolet had to call the car Americans know as "Nova" something else in Spanish-speaking locales, because no va in Spanish means, "[It] doesn't go." The phrase actually does mean "it doesn't go" but there was no effect on the car's sales due to the fact that the word nova means the same thing in Spanish as in English. [http://www.snopes.com/business/misxlate/nova.asp Snopes.com link]
** Unlike the [https://web.archive.org/web/20050830103535/http://chameleon-translations.com/Index-Companies-pajero.shtml Mitsubishi Pajero], which is known as Montero in most Spanish-speaking countries and Shogun in the UK. "Pajero," you see, roughly means "wanker" in [[Separated
** See [[Bite the Wax Tadpole]].
* GM currently markets the Astra with the same ''model'' name and several different ''marques''; Saturn Astra in North America and Japan, Holden Astra in Australia, Vauxhall Astra in the UK, Opel Astra in the rest of Europe....same car.
** In the case of Vauxhall and Opel, Vauxhall is nowadays basically (barring the odd Australian V8) just the British equivelant to the rest of Europe's Opel, and all their model names match. The Astra name was originally from the Vauxhall Astra, in the case of Opel it replaces the Kadett name (in most other cases the Opel name replaces the Vauxhall one, like the Cavalier being replaced by a Vectra).
** Same
** In [[The Twenties]], Ford expanded overseas by opening branch plants. GM expanded by buying smaller companies, which kept their names.
** Australian GM subsidiary Holden has recently struck the really rather good Astra from it's model range, and replaced it with the Cruze... which is a rebadged Daewoo. Yay?
* Camera company Minolta marketed its SLR cameras as Alpha in Japan, Maxxum in North America and Dynax in Europe. Now that
* Toyota's (discontinued) [[MR 2]] (1985-1998) was known simply as the Toyota ''MR'' in France. "[[MR 2]]" in French can sound like "est merdeux", which roughly translates to "is shitty".
** Their 3rd Generation MR-S (1999-2007) was called the ''[[MR 2]] Spyder'' in North America, and the ''MR Roadster'' in Europe.
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** The initial change may have been due to the fact that there's a brand of peanut butter here in the States that goes by the same name.
** It's always been "Jif" in Australia.
*** [https://web.archive.org/web/20111109061317/http://www.hulu.com/watch/61320/saturday-night-live-shimmer-floor-wax Maybe they're the same product!]
**** The name Cif wasn't considered useable in the UK because it apparently made people think of syphillis. Not the best way of selling a cleaning product.
* Diet Coke is marketed in some countries as Coca-Cola Light. In fact, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n37sIsDEoo&feature=related this '90s Elton John spot] (in which [[The Dead Rise to Advertise]]) was simply re-edited for [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfOepK2CgLc&feature=related overseas markets].
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** To make the matter even more confusing, there now exists a "Snickers Marathon" bar, billed as an energy bar.
* Oil of Olay was originally marketed to UK women as Oil of Ulay (pron. YEW-lay). Even Brits with no knowledge of the world beyond their shores would have recognised Olay (Olé!) as a festive cry beloved of stereotypical Spaniards, and marketers were clearly worried that nobody would be able to buy or sell it with a straight face. It was also sold as Oil of Ulan in Australia and New Zealand, and Oil of Olaz in France; Italy; Germany; the Netherlands; Belgium; and Germany. In 1999, Procter & Gamble would rename it '''Olay''' across all countries except for Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium, where it simply became '''Olaz'''.
** Maybe that's a
* Honda was going to release a car called "Fitta". Which caused great controversy in Sweden, where fitta is basically our answer to Britain's "cunt". So instead they called it "Fit" and "Jazz".
* Kellogg's ''Frosted Flakes'' are called ''Frosties'' in the UK and France. And ''Corn Frosty'' in Japan.
* Kellogg's ''Cocoa Krispies'' are known as ''Coco Pops'' in the UK. They became known as ''Choco Krispies'' in the UK at one point, but the title bombed and it was changed back. Meanwhile on the continent of Europe, countries such as France and Poland continued to use the title ''Choco Krispies''.
** France at one point used ''Choco Pops'' before switching to ''Choco Krispies''. They eventually switched to using ''Coco Pops''.
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** Similarly, Dreyer's Ice Cream became Edy's Ice Cream (named after a different company founder) when it started releasing east of the Rocky Mountains. In this case, it was to prevent confusion with already-established ice cream maker Breyers. On the other hand, people west of the Rockies can get both Dreyer's and Breyers and there doesn't seem to be any problem telling them apart.
* In Asia, Panasonic's line of long-life alkaline batteries is called [http://www.techgadgets.in/storage/2008/25/panasonic-evolta-battery-introduced/ Evolta]. In Europe it's called [http://www.letsgomobile.org/en/4636/panasonic-evoia-batteries/ Evoia].
* Radio has an example of this trope. Global Radio calls all its radio stations (with the sole exception of XFM, Choice and LBC) either Heart or Capital - Heart being the "hot AC" or adult-contemporary station, reminiscent of [http://www.mystar98.com/ MyStar 98 in Tallahassee, Florida, USA] or Capital (named after London station Capital 95.8), which has a playlist reminiscent of
* The Renault 5 was sold in the US as the Renault Le Car. ("Le car" means "the motor coach", or maybe even "the because"…)
* In the latter half of the 1980s, Ford used the brand name "Merkur" in North America for two car models, the Merkur XR4Ti and the Merkur Scorpio. These were localized versions of the European-originated Ford Sierra XR4i and Ford Scorpio (which itself was called "Ford Granada Scorpio" in the UK). (Incidentally, in ''[[Gunsmith Cats]]'', Roy's car is a Sierra XR4i, and it's called by that name and visibly has a "Ford" badge on the front, despite the story being set in the US.)
* The petrol brand ''Esso'' is phonetically "S.O." as in Standard Oil. In Canada the Esso mark clearly belongs to Imperial Oil, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil. In the US? As Rockefeller had originally created multiple companies with names in the "Standard Oil of (whatever federated state)" pattern, the "Esso" moniker might belong to "Standard Oil of New Jersey" in one state and some other "Standard Oil" successor in some other US state. Exxon is the same company in all fifty states, as it's a made-up word that doesn't already represent anything else.
* N.V. Philips Company marketed the ''Philishave'' razor as ''Norelco'' in the US for years, because ''Philips'' was too close in name to ''Philco'' (which appeared as a car radio brand in Ford vehicles for ages).
* ''Hardee's'', if it turns up north of the border, has to operate as ''Carl's Jr.'' due to the former mark's similarity to ''Harvey's''. Likewise, ''Boston's'' can't use its original Canadian brand ''Boston Pizza'' south of the border due to its similarity in name to US chain ''Boston Market''. And the ''Little Caesar'' slogan "pizza! pizza!"? Not in [[Toronto]] or anywhere else the Pizza Pizza chain operates, you don't.
* At one time, the British children's shoe maker Start-Rite sold shoes in the United States under the "Sonnet" brand, perhaps to avoid any confusion with the similarly-named Stride Rite brand of children's shoes.
* The Samsung Galaxy Z series of foldable smartphones was rebranded as the Galaxy Foldable line in Baltic states to [[No Swastikas|avoid any association]] with the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(military_symbol) "Z" symbol] used by Russia to glorify their war with Ukraine.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Localization Tropes]]▼
[[Category:Script Speak]]
[[Category:Title Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Localization Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Sega Saturn]]
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