Melting Pot Nomenclature: Difference between revisions

[['''Melting Pot Nomenclature]]''' occurs when these names come from different, disparate cultures, countries, and languages.

{{examples|Examples:}}

* The cosmopolitan, international [[Cyberpunk]] feel of MegaTokyo in ''[[Bubblegum Crisis (Anime)|Bubblegum Crisis]]'' is underlined by the wide variety of character names from a dozen or more languages. They are often mixed-and-matched, as in the case of Nene Romanova (Japanese first name, Russian surname).

* In ''[[Havemercy]]'', the main characters' [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|Fantasy Counterpart Russia]] seems to contain a mix of French and British names with a handful of names from other languages thrown in for good measure, with no explanation for the mix or why nobody's name sounds as though it comes from the same language as the name of the country itself. The neighboring pseudo-China country, meanwhile, mixes Chinese, Japanese, and Korean-sounding names -- thoughnames—though it ''is'' an empire which has conquered a lot of territory.

* [[Bionicle]]: In its first year (2001), the brand drew its character names, place names, and other terminology from a wide range of Polynesian languages. This led to some controversy over the use of Maori names, and in 2003 some of these original names were changed to [[My Nayme Is]] variants. But 2003 also introduced [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] in the Mata Nui Online Game II, who had [[Meaningful Name|Meaningful Names]]s coming from even more diverse global languages. Examples include Nixie (English), Pelagia (Latin), Taiki (Japanese), Tehuti (Egyptian), Kalama (Hawaiian), and Pakastaa (Finnish).

* [[Dub Name Change|The English translation]] of ''[[Pokémon]]'' has this because the translators have an obsession with giving ''everyone'' [[Meaningful Name|Meaningful]]/[[Punny Name|Punny Names]]s, so they'll go with whatever makes the best pun rather than the most consistency. (e.g. Bianca (Italian), Cheren (Bulgarian), Volkner (German), Cyrus (Persian), Amanita (Spanish), [[Overly Long Gag|Rood (Dutch), Bronius (Latin), Giallo (Italian again), Ryoku (Japanese), Gorm (Gaelic), Zinzolin (French), etc.]])

* In ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'', the Water Tribes generally have vaguely Eskimo-sounding names, but there's also a couple like Yue (Chinese). Earth Kingdom has names like Bumi (Indonesian), Jet, Long Feng (Chinese), Haru, Suki (Japanese), Song (Korean), Toph (Hebrew), and Koko (French), though this is probably more justified than the rest, what with the Earth Kingdom being much bigger than any of the other nations. Fire Nation gives us names like Roku, Iroh, Mai (Japanese), Lu Ten, Ty Lee, Li, Luo (Chinese), and even a couple of Latin-derived names (Ursa, Azula).

* ''[[The Legend of Korra (Animation)|The Legend of Korra]]'' follows on from this. Korra is a [[My Nayme Is]] variant of Cora. The "fabulous bending brothers" are [[Mako]] (firebender, Japanese) and Bolin (earthbender, Chinese). Hiroshi Sato and his daughter Asami have Japanese names and are descended from Fire Nation colonists, which may also be the case for Shiro Shinobi. Korra's parents Tonraq and Senna have Eskimo names, as does Narook the noodle-shop owner. Tenzin is Tibetan (a [[Shout -Out]] to the Dalai Lama), as is Pema. Jinora comes from Sanskrit "Jinorasa." Ikki is Uzbek for "two." Butakha is Indonesian for "bald." Lin Bei Fong is Chinese. Saikhan is Mongol. Hasook is Korean. Tarrlok is Irish made to look Eskimo. And "Lightning Bolt" Zolt is odd--theodd—the only name close to Zolt in the real world is the Hungarian name "Zoltan." This is the result of people from all over the world coming together in Republic City.

* [[Trope Namer|Naturally]], this is the case in [[Useful Notes/The United States|The United States]], where it is quite common for a person to have a first name deriving from a completely different language than their last name.