THAT'S the reason for Akku Anka and Anders And. Akku and Anders are a LOT more common than Donald in Finland and Danmark. And Kalle is a lot more common in Sweden, and they didn't care about using alliteration in their titles, and also needed a different title for their book, because The Danish, Swedish and Norwegian books were all produced by the same company. Norway uses "Donald Duck". In Scandinavia, the family name is NOT put before the given name. That system is used in China, and some other Far-Eastern countries. The Dutch and Germans use "Donald Duck"
Hello! I'm a new member here, and as a swede I can say that we have our given names first and then surnames, like the rest of Europe and also English-speaking areas. The names in swedish are:
Donald Fauntleroy Duck: Karl Magnus (Kalle) Anka (Kalle is a common nickname of Karl, Magnus actually comes from a very early name of him and Anka is just Duck in swedish)
Huey, Dewey and Louie: Knatte, Fnatte och Tjatte (Knatte is a word/nickname for youngster/kid. Together they are often called Knattarna)
Daisy Duck: Kajsa Anka (made to sound similar to Donald's name)
Scrooge McDuck: Joakim von Anka (Joachim von Duck, he is also called paternal uncle Joachim by his nephews)
Gladstone Gander: Alexander Lukas (Lukas sounds similar to lyckosam, lucky)
Flintheart Glomgold: Guld-Ivar Flinthjärta (Flinthjärta=Flintheart is his surname)
Magica de Spell: Magica de Hex (like häxa, the swedish word for witch)
The Beagle Boys: Björnligan (literally "The bear league/gang", retroactively fixed by having Blackheart Beagle be named Björn Bandhund, Bear Watchdog)
Grandma Duck: Farmor Anka (paternal grandma Duck)
Gyro Gearloose: Oppfinnar-Jocke Johansson ("Inventor-Joe Johnsson", his surname is almost never used)
Gus Goose: Mårten Gås (named after S:t Martin's Day, on which you eat goose for dinner in southern Sweden)
John D. Rockerduck: (Pontus) von Pluring (von Cash, his first name is almost never used)
Okay, let's give you the French names of all those people:
Donald Fauntleroy Duck: Donald Fauntleroy Duck, though in older translations, it was just 'Donald' and he was sometimes called 'Mr Donald' as if it was his last name.
Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck: Riri, Fifi and Loulou Duck; their "real names" (equivalents to Huet, Deutoronomy and Louie) are Richard, Félicien and Louis. Amusingly, in (much) older translations, their were always called by their pompous real names: Oscar, Désiré and Nestor Duck, rather than by any kind of nickname.
Daisy Duck: Daisy Duck, or, usually, just 'Daisy'.
Scrooge McDuck: Balthazar (Mc)Picsou, usually called 'Uncle Picsou'. 'Picsou' is a literal equivalent of 'Penny-pincher'. In older translations, he could also be called Jeremy McDuck or Uncle Harpagon, but that was long ago.
Gladstone Gander: Gontran Bonheur; Bonheur is the word for 'Happiness'.
Flintheart Glomgold: Archibald Gripsou (Grippe-sou is a word for a miser; it sounds like Picsou). In older translations, he was also called Fiacre Cousudor (Hackney-cab Dressed-in-gold… Don't ask.) or McFrictish (McCash-tish)
Magica De Spell: Miss Tick (an obvious pun on 'mystic'). In more recent translations, her full name has been given as Miss Tick De Sortilège (De Sortilège is a literal translation of De Spell), which is unfathomably weird given that 'Miss' is usually used with the person's last name, but what can I say, translators.
The Beagle Boys: The Rapetou. This douns like 'Rape tout', which means 'steals-everything' in slang.
Grandma Duck: Grand-mère Donald (literally Grandma Donald). Her real name is Elvire Écoutum; Écoutum being Cornelius Coot's last name, since Cornélius Écoutum, on top of sounding remarkably like the original, provides a pun on "us et coutumes", a fancy phrase for "customs".
Gyro Gearloose: Géo Trouvetou (Geo Finds-it-all), almost always called by his full name; "un Géo Trouvetou" has become a common phrase in French for someone with a good practical sense who is good at DIY. In older translations, his name was Gyro Gyroscope.
Gus Goose: Gus Glouton (Gus Greedy).
John D. Rockerduck: Crésus Flairsou (Cresus Smells-penny; Flairsou also sounds like Gripsou and Picsou). Oddly, all our translations of the Life and Times retain 'John' as his first name instead of Crésus, and this has led to the Picsou Wiki discarding Crésus as a "former name" even though it's still used in more recent translations. Old translations of Rockerduck's name include "Anatole Pictou" ("Anatole Steals-penny"; 'Pictou' obviously sounds like 'Picsou') and "John Gagnesou" (John Earns-penny; Gagnesou also sounds like Picsou and Gripsou).
With "Karl Magnus Anka", we don't know if "Karl Magnus" are his 2 given names, or "Magnus Anka" are his two family names.
Maybe dailiagent can tell us.
Magnus is a very, very unusual family name, while it is a pretty common given name for 50-60 year olds. so it's most likely a given name. If they implied a double family name it would probably be Magnus-Anka. A very early name for him was Onkel Magnus (Uncle Magnus).
I always want to ask: why would they localize these names at all?
Well, it started because back in the day, the stories didn't even acknowledge that Duckburg was in America. For all intents and purposes, the translation retconned the character to be French — perhaps because the editor thought 1950's readers wouldn't identify with American people, who'd be seen as "foreigners". And it wouldn't make any sense for a French character to have an English name. The other reason is the puns. The average Frenchman won't see what's funny about the name Glomgold, so you've got to find a French equivalent.
I always want to ask: why would they localize these names at all?
Well, all the Disney comics and animations always came in Europe and the rest of the world in real time (with some delay for what was produced in the period 1939-1945, you can guess why). Now, until the end of the 70's (if not beyond), all over Europe we did not use to keep English titles, English names and other English elements when translation English narrative stuff. In the case of children-oriented material that extended to the name of the characters, too. Nowadays it is different, of course.
I always want to ask: why would they localize these names at all?
Well, it started because back in the day, the stories didn't even acknowledge that Duckburg was in America. For all intents and purposes, the translation retconned the character to be French — perhaps because the editor thought 1950's readers wouldn't identify with American people, who'd be seen as "foreigners". And it wouldn't make any sense for a French character to have an English name. The other reason is the puns. The average Frenchman won't see what's funny about the name Glomgold, so you've got to find a French equivalent.
That could be true for France, but not for all the other countries. In Italy Duckburg and Mouseton were always considered to be in America.
Scrooge McDuck: Joakim von Anka (Joachim von Duck, he is also called paternal uncle Joachim by his nephews)
I don't know what is stranger: the fact that some languages have different words for "maternal uncle" and "paternal uncle", or the fact that some translator thought Scrooge was Donald's paternal uncle despite the fact that they have different surnames. Also, I remember reading on TV Tropes that they tried to fix it in the last chapter of "The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck", by having Scrooge say something like "I'm your [maternal uncle] Scrooge McDuck, but just call me [paternal uncle]". However, I can't find that page now.
Donald Fauntleroy Duck: Donald Fauntleroy Duck, though in older translations, it was just 'Donald' and he was sometimes called 'Mr Donald' as if it was his last name.
You say Fauntleroy is his middle name in France, but are there actual French comics (or comics from any country, for that matter) that actually use that middle name? As far as I know, the middle name was only used in the animated short "Donald Gets Drafted" (1942).
Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck: Riri, Fifi and Loulou Duck; their "real names" (equivalents to Huet, Deutoronomy and Louie) are Richard, Félicien and Louis.
You say that their real names are Huet, Deutoronomy and Louie, but according to Wikipedia their full names are given (in Quack Pack) as Huebert, Deuteronomy and Louis. Which ones are the correct ones, and which episode of the series gives their full names?
Grandma Duck: Grand-mère Donald (literally Grandma Donald). Her real name is Elvire Écoutum; Écoutum being Cornelius Coot's last name, since Cornélius Écoutum, on top of sounding remarkably like the original, provides a pun on "us et coutumes", a fancy phrase for "customs".
I remember seeing an image from a French comic where she was called Grand-mère Cane ("Grandma Duck"). Is that name more common than Grand-mère Donald, or is the other way round?
Donald Fauntleroy Duck: Donald Fauntleroy Duck, though in older translations, it was just 'Donald' and he was sometimes called 'Mr Donald' as if it was his last name.
You say Fauntleroy is his middle name in France, but are there actual French comics (or comics from any country, for that matter) that actually use that middle name? As far as I know, the middle name was only used in the animated short "Donald Gets Drafted" (1942).
There is at least one Dutch comic that gives "Fauntleroy" as Donald's second name, but it hasn't been published in France (yet): coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=H+2013-056 There's also a Quack Pack episode called "All Hands on Duck", where "Fauntleroy" is used as Donald's second name. Both instances are clearly referencing the classic short that you mentioned.
You say Fauntleroy is his middle name in France, but are there actual French comics (or comics from any country, for that matter) that actually use that middle name? As far as I know, the middle name was only used in the animated short "Donald Gets Drafted" (1942).
There is at least one Dutch comic that gives "Fauntleroy" as Donald's second name, but it hasn't been published in France (yet): coa.inducks.org/story.php?c=H+2013-056 There's also a Quack Pack episode called "All Hands on Duck", where "Fauntleroy" is used as Donald's second name. Both instances are clearly referencing the classic short that you mentioned.
Thanks for the info. You know many things about Quack Pack, do you also know which episode gave HDL their full names?
Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck: Riri, Fifi and Loulou Duck; their "real names" (equivalents to Huet, Deutoronomy and Louie) are Richard, Félicien and Louis.
You say that their real names are Huet, Deutoronomy and Louie, but according to Wikipedia their full names are given (in Quack Pack) as Huebert, Deuteronomy and Louis. Which ones are the correct ones, and which episode of the series gives their full names?
Grandma Duck: Grand-mère Donald (literally Grandma Donald). Her real name is Elvire Écoutum; Écoutum being Cornelius Coot's last name, since Cornélius Écoutum, on top of sounding remarkably like the original, provides a pun on "us et coutumes", a fancy phrase for "customs".
I remember seeing an image from a French comic where she was called Grand-mère Cane ("Grandma Duck"). Is that name more common than Grand-mère Donald, or is the other way round?
It's Hubert and Louis, I just had a random memory glitch. And Grand-mère Cane is an old Belgian name that hasn't been used in decades, "Grand-mère Donald" is really the main one. (To clarify, 'cane' here doesn't mean 'cane' as in English, but 'female duck').
Grandma Duck: Oma Duck (Oma=grandma) or Dorette Duck
Grandma's German name ("Dorette") is similar to her Dutch name ("Dora"). Was her German name inspired by her Dutch name, or vice versa? Or is the similarity just a coincidence? All I know is that the name Dora probably made its debut in the Dutch translation of Rota's "From Egg to Duck" (1984 for both the original Italian version and the Dutch translation).
Also, I have read here that in the past she was given other names:
*Annette or Anette (unknown story or stories);
*Lisette (unknown story or stories);
*Henriette (in "[MV 4/81, S.30]", whatever that means):
*Nelly (in "[MM 47/59, S.8]", which I guess is the German translation of "Money Muddle" by Lockman/Strobl; 1959 for both the original American version and the German translation).