I was reading "City of Golden Roofs" recently, which has one of the best of Barks' 'latest craze' satires: Shoeless Pashly. Then looked up the Dutch version of the comic to see what he was called there, and it turned out to be Blotepotepeter. Literally "Bare Feet Pete", a translation that manages to be even better than the original Barks version (though not as nice as the Dutch one).
What other (translated) names do you really like?
I feel like Pete has a better name in pretty much other language than English. I like the old adjective they had for him, though "Black Pete" hasn't aged well. "Bootleg Pete" was cool in the Prohibition era, nowadays it sounds more like what you'd name your VHS tape dealer. In Dutch he's Boris Boef, which works. Boris is the kind of name you'd give a burly guy like Pete, and Boef is just Dutch for crook. His Italian name is one of my all-time favorites: Gambadilegno. I don't know what it means, it sounds like shrimp to me, but it has a wonderful cadence. The French Pat Hibulaire is also great. I don't know what an Hibulaire is, but it sounds ominous.
I don't speak italian, but I think Gambadilegno means something like "wooden leg". In Brazil, Pete is called Bafo, wich means "bad breath". His complete name is João Bafo de Onça. It can be literally translated as "John Jaguar's Breath".
I've said on another thread that I really like the name for Ratface in French translation (though it's not in origin a French word), "Algorab"--the name of the star otherwise known as Delta Corvi in the constellation Corvus. Corvi/Corvus meaning either "crow" or "raven" in Latin--reliable sources on the Internet have both translations, though they are Not the Same Bird. "Algorab" itself is said on Wikipedia to be from the Arabic for "the crow." Speaking of which, did Barks tell us whether Ratface is a crow or a raven? His name in German is Nimmermehr, Nevermore, clearly a reference to the Poe poem about a raven. Anyway, I like the "Algorab" name enough that I've adopted it as the bird's real name in my headcanon, with "Ratface" just being a nickname.
I like Goldie's name in Italian: Doretta Doremi. It's not better than Goldie O'Gilt, but it's as good. I assume that "Doremi" is from the first three notes of the scale? The Danish is pretty good, too: Gulda Glimmer. Her name in German, on the other hand, is pretty lame: Miss Nelly.
Huey, Dewey and Louie's names in French are Riri, Fifi and Loulou, which sounds pretty hilarious to an English-speaker, since Fifi is the default name for a rich lady's French poodle, while Loulou sounds like English Lulu, as in "Little Lulu."
April, May and June seem to get the month names only in Spanish--and it's not clear to me whether those month names sound believable as girls' names in Spanish. I like their names in Dutch: Lizzy, Juultje and Babetje. It's interesting that one of the girls in French is "Lulu"--the "u" being differently pronounced than the "ou" in the male triplet's name!
Again, to my English-trained ears, the German names are the lamest: Tick, Trick and Track for the boys; Dicky, Dacky and Ducky for the girls. Of course it doesn't help that the boys' names are all English common nouns, with the meanings of "tick" and "trick" being negative.
On the other hand, Webby is better named in virtually every language other than English, as far as I'm concerned. The German "Nicky" is fine; I like the French "Zaza," distinguishable from the female triplet Zizi!
Huey, Dewey and Louie's names in French are Riri, Fifi and Loulou, which sounds pretty hilarious to an English-speaker, since Fifi is the default name for a rich lady's French poodle, while Loulou sounds like English Lulu, as in "Little Lulu."
April, May and June seem to get the month names only in Spanish--and it's not clear to me whether those month names sound believable as girls' names in Spanish. I like their names in Dutch: Lizzy, Juultje and Babetje. It's interesting that one of the girls in French is "Lulu"--the "u" being differently pronounced than the "ou" in the male triplet's name!
Again, to my English-trained ears, the German names are the lamest: Tick, Trick and Track for the boys; Dicky, Dacky and Ducky for the girls. Of course it doesn't help that the boys' names are all English common nouns, with the meanings of "tick" and "trick" being negative.
On the other hand, Webby is better named in virtually every language other than English, as far as I'm concerned. The German "Nicky" is fine; I like the French "Zaza," distinguishable from the female triplet Zizi!
"Juultje"(pronounced "Yooltttyeh"), is my youngest sister's name - the diminutive of Julia (pronounced "Yooleeah"). "Lizzy" is my first cousin's name (who grew up in my house, and is like a sister to me). Unfortunately, we had no "Babette"s (so no Babetjes) in my family(despite several families of Aunts Uncles and cousins living in the French-speaking parts of Belgium). I have had no Hueys, Deweys, Louies, Donalds, Daisys, Scrooges, Gyros, Guses or Gustaves, nor Goofys (Goofies?), nor Dippys/Dippies, nor Ferdy/Ferdies among my family members. But, I DID have an Uncle Morty, a cousin Freddy, a Cousin Micki (female-diminutive of Michelle), an aunt Minnie, and an uncle who was so "careful" with his money that he could have been called "a Scrooge"! I also had a Grandma (but we called her "Oma").
Hey Rob, did you and Jan give names to the Umble kids in "The Great Toboggan Race"? I ordered the issue of Micky Maus with that story from German eBay, so it should be on its way to me, and if the kids have names in that printing I'll at least know the German names. But I'm wondering whether you gave them names in your original script.
I like Goofy's names in Scandinavian languages: he's called Langbein in Norwegian (and Långben in Swedish), which I assume means 'long legs'. In Danish it's Fedtmule, which is also quite something, even if I'm not sure what that something is.
Ratface is called Raafje in Dutch, which means little raven. I prefer Zwarte Magica over Magica DeSpell, but since magic doesn't have a C in it in Dutch, I'm never sure whether the Dutch name should be pronounced with a K sound or an S sound.
I also trip over Tick, Trick, and Track.
Zeke Wolf is called Midas Wolf in Dutch because of this little old Western story, where Li'l Wolf discovers his dad's middle name is Midas. Since the American idea of a middle name is a little alien to the Netherlands (it was more common to have multiple Christian names at this time), this story was published very early on (in the sixth weekly) and Zeke didn't have a name yet, Midas became his first name instead of his middle name.
I always have trouble with Scrooge's Italian butler. His original name is Battista, which is how he's known in most of (Romance) Europe. But in Germanic countries, Baptist isn't a common given name, and they've had to get creative. The Dutch name is Bertus, which is unusual enough to be memorable and retains that initial B. It was probably taken from the Danish Albert, which I find awfully generic. And there's the English Quackmore, which is just awful. It reminds me of Duckworth, another dogface butler with a ducky name. It's also overly formal -- I know he's supposed to be a butler, but he's not all that stuck-up! He's called Baptiste in my headcanon, which is from the French, and a name you might hear in an English context. Stephen Colbert's musical director is called Jon Batiste, but I always heard that as Jean-Baptiste, and that's stuck with me.
Beyond names, I've got to credit the Italians for their seemingly limitless capacity for cramming -Paper- into every duck-related name. It's hard to translate, that one.
Last Edit: Mar 23, 2020 18:45:59 GMT by That Duckfan
And also in Dutch, Flemish, Frisian, Plattdeutsch, Angelsk, Afrikaans, and Limburgs, as well! And there have been Disney Comics printed in all those "Languages"*, as well (except Afrikaans-which gets rather Dutch printings).
*It has been debated as to whether Limburgs and Angelsk are languages or dialects.
And there's the English Quackmore, which is just awful. It reminds me of Duckworth, another dogface butler with a ducky name. It's also overly formal -- I know he's supposed to be a butler, but he's not all that stuck-up! He's called Baptiste in my headcanon, which is from the French, and a name you might hear in an English context. Stephen Colbert's musical director is called Jon Batiste, but I always heard that as Jean-Baptiste, and that's stuck with me.
I've know I've said this before on multiple threads, but my major (and only real) objection to Quackmore being the English name of Scrooge's butler is that it's already in use as Donald's father's name. It's true that the latter character does not seem to be around in "the present" , but really, couldn't we have have come up with something unique? I don't care that dognoses have Duck-related names (I'm fine with Duckworth, which is a real-world name in any case), but let's not reuse them, please.
I always have trouble with Scrooge's Italian butler. His original name is Battista, which is how he's known in most of (Romance) Europe. But in Germanic countries, Baptist isn't a common given name, and they've had to get creative. The Dutch name is Bertus, which is unusual enough to be memorable and retains that initial B. It was probably taken from the Danish Albert, which I find awfully generic. And there's the English Quackmore, which is just awful. It reminds me of Duckworth, another dogface butler with a ducky name. It's also overly formal -- I know he's supposed to be a butler, but he's not all that stuck-up! He's called Baptiste in my headcanon, which is from the French, and a name you might hear in an English context. Stephen Colbert's musical director is called Jon Batiste, but I always heard that as Jean-Baptiste, and that's stuck with me.
Beyond names, I've got to credit the Italians for their seemingly limitless capacity for cramming -Paper- into every duck-related name. It's hard to translate, that one.
I totally agree that "Quackmore" is All Wrong. I also call him Baptiste in my headcanon.
"Bert" by itself is too informal, "Albert" is, I agree, too generic (like "James"--the character's name in Norwegian printings). If we wanted an English name related to "Bertus/Albert" we could go for "Bertram"--though that is Joe Torcivia's continuing in-joke!
One question, when thinking about an English name for this character, is whether we're thinking of it as a first name or a last name. By which name would a butler be called? By last name, I think. (But my friends don't have butlers!) Whoever unfortunately thought up the name "Quackmore" was thinking last name, clearly. The generic "James" for a male employee/servant in English is used for a chauffeur, not a butler. "Albert" is definitely a first name, while "Bertram" and "Baptiste" could be first or last names.
And also in Dutch, Flemish, Frisian, Plattdeutsch, Angelsk, Afrikaans, and Limburgs, as well! And there have been Disney Comics printed in all those "Languages"*, as well (except Afrikaans-which gets rather Dutch printings).
*It has been debated as to whether Limburgs and Angelsk are languages or dialects.
Yup--I just thought of German first because that's what *we* called my German-American Grandma!
Are you going to tell us whether you named the Umble kids?
Hey Rob, did you and Jan give names to the Umble kids in "The Great Toboggan Race"? I ordered the issue of Micky Maus with that story from German eBay, so it should be on its way to me, and if the kids have names in that printing I'll at least know the German names. But I'm wondering whether you gave them names in your original script.
No, we didn't give them individual names. We just called them "Widow Umble's kids". So our naming would have been printed as "Enke Beskedens børn (boern) in Danish, and translated to "die Kinder von Witwe Bescheiden" in German. But, usually translators don't translate literally. They usually take the spirit of the original effort, and replace it with an equivalent-level joke/cultural reference with something more pertinent to their own language and culture.