Topic: Do you use "Ralph" or "Trevor"?

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Ralph/Trevor Belmont has a bit of a naming conundrum in that depending on the translation, his name is entirely different. I'm not gonna lie and say that makes things easy, but it does eventually boil down to your personal preference. Stickler for historic accuracy, genealogy, and etymology that I am, I prefer "Ralph", for reasons I explained in a prior thread:

Trevor is a Welsh name that derives from "trefmawr" which means "Big Village". With so many Germanic and Slavic names in the Castlevania canon, the presence of a Welsh name seems rather out of place. However, his name in the Japanese script, Ralph, is more appropriate. Ralph derives from the Nordic "Ráðúlfr" and its later Norman simplification, Radulf. Ráðúlfr means "The Wolf's Counsel". Fittingly, Trevor's incarnation in Lords of Shadow is associated with wolves and later serves as a counselor to Gabriel, befitting his original name.

So, I tend to side with the Japanese and refer to him as Ralph as (given his point in history) being given a Welsh name just doesn't make historical sense to me, whereas a name of Norse/Norman derivation makes more sense for a character descended from a French family (the Normans being the French descendants of Viking conquerors under the command of the warrior-king Rollo, the best-known ancestor of William the Conqueror, probably the most famous Norman of all time. You can catch Rollo at his best and worst on the hit show "Vikings" on History Channel.).

Whoops my inner historian is taking over again. I'll get back on track here.

That being said, I always thought "Ralph" sounded silly when spoken out loud, and so in casual conversation, I usually use "Trevor" -- it sounds cooler, and American fans generally understand who I am referring to more quickly.

As far as I know, Ralph/Trevor (Tralph lol) is the only Belmont to suffer this abysmal treatment at the hands of the translators.

What's your preference?

[chainsawmidget]

I was introduced to him as Trevor so to me, he'll always be Trevor.  I think the translation team made a good choice here.  Ralph really isn't that cool a name for a hero, historically accurate or not. 

[Jeepy]

Personally, I prefer Ralph Belmondo simply because I hate how localization teams used to butcher or completely change the original names/story/etc and make their own shit up (most of the localized Contra games is a prime example of this).

Same with Fernandez (Belnades), Ricardo (Lecarde), Orlean (Aulin), etc.

[Crying Freeman]

I call him Trevor because that's who I knew him as from the beginning. Plus Trevor, like you said, sounds cool but also sounds stronger. When I think of a hero of the Belmont stature being named simply Ralph, it seems a little giggle inducing (no offence to anyone named Ralph). But for authenticity with the original Japanese name, plus the fact that Ralph fits with the game's cannon better as you mentioned above, Ralph it is officially.

[Lumi Kløvstad]

Personally, I prefer Ralph Belmondo simply because I hate how localization teams used to butcher or completely change the original names/story/etc and make their own shit up (most of the localized Contra games is a prime example of this).

Same with Fernandez (Belnades), Ricardo (Lecarde), Orlean (Aulin), etc.

Fun fact: Fernandez is IN ITSELF a mistranslation, though much closer to the mark than "Belnades". The Japanese script for "Belnades" reads "Verunandesu", which is much closer to the real life Romanian-Hungarian surname of "Vernandes". "Fernandes" is a Spanish/Portugese name deriving from the given name "Fernando". While I don't discount the Church tapping a Spanish or Portugese Witch for the task of going to Wallachia to deal with Dracula's uprising, especially a specialist, it seems more logical to tap someone closer to home with potential for reasons of a swift response, so I'm gonna go with Vernandes on this one.

That being said, there's virtually no reason a later Vernandes couldn't start a branch family in Spain/Portugal and adapt the name to Fernandes to better fit in. It is, in fact, a very common practice among immigrants when arriving in a new country. So, I think Sypha is DEFINITELY a Vernandes, but there's no reason Yoko couldn't be a Fernandez.

Lecarde is a French surname, and Ricardo a Spanish. We really don't know enough about the family to make a truly qualified judgement either way.

Orlean is similarly French, and Aulin has Latin elements instead. Again, either one could easily be correct.

Belmont, a French surname, easily adapts to Belmondo in (yet again) Spain and Portugal. I don't think the Belmonts ever properly went by that name, but they may have referred to themselves by that variation when travelling.

[theplottwist]

Lecarde is a French surname, and Ricardo a Spanish. We really don't know enough about the family to make a truly qualified judgement either way.

In fact we do. Eric Lecarde is the first character with this surname, and he was born in Spain according to the manual and in-game description. It's clear his name was intended to be "Ricardo."

Also, on the Sypha topic, her family was a victim of the "witch trials" started by Carmilla, and she was drafted by the Church as an young orphan. The main "witch trials" going on in the mid 1400s were in Europe. Initially I thought Sypha came from Spain thanks to the Spanish Inquisition, but it only started in 1478, two years after Dracula's Curse. So, if you can track down where the witch hunt was happening by the 1450s I believe you can point what Sypha's ancestry is!

[Lumi Kløvstad]

In fact we do. Eric Lecarde is the first character with this surname, and he was born in Spain according to the manual and in-game description. It's clear his name was intended to be "Ricardo."

I stand corrected.

Also, on the Sypha topic, her family was a victim of the "witch trials" started by Carmilla, and she was drafted by the Church as an young orphan. The main "witch trials" going on in the mid 1400s were in Europe.

That is hardly helpful data. Aside from the Hungarians and Slavs systematically genociding anyone with red hair because they thought they were vampires (local folklore about the "Strigoii" vampires held that you would know them by their ginger hair -- yes Walter's design is a reference to this), red heads were also massacred elsewhere in Europe as Witches and "Devil Spawn" (my fellow gingers have gotten a bad rap through history) and furthermore many non-ginger but educated and free thinking women (like Lisa Farenheit) were burned as witches. Witch Hunts were popular all over the Continent and in Britain, so that data doesn't help us nail down where her family hails from.

Interesting to note though, that Sypha's hair in her Pachislot design has Strawberry Blonde hair (and her Mirror of Fate counterpart was upgraded to full-on ginger after that), so at least in the Castlevania universe(s), maybe the red-head thing about Witches wasn't totally off the mark.

Today, red hair is only really found in descendants of Vikings as it had been pretty thoroughly exterminated everywhere else; so much so that if you look at a map of where there are concentrations of red headed people in Europe and the British Isles and compare it to a map of areas where Vikings settled or stayed long enough/visited regularly enough to interbreed, it's an uncanny match.

[zangetsu468]

So, I think Sypha is DEFINITELY a Vernandes, but there's no reason Yoko couldn't be a Fernandez.

I recall reading some forum a long time ago (over a decade) that Actrisse in the N64 CV was actually Sypha in the Japanese version. Apparently in the Japanese version she makes reference to being related to Carrie or them sharing a common ancestry or something.

Orlean is similarly French, and Aulin has Latin elements instead. Again, either one could easily be correct.

Didn't the original trailers for POR show it as "Orlean"? I was surprised when it was Aulin.

....

Also Ralph Belmont? No thank you. More like Ralph Wiggum.

"Trevor Belmont" sounds majestic and worthy of an enchanted bloodline.
This is one localisation of a name that I'm glad happened, along with the switch between Vega/Bison/Balrog in SFII.

[theplottwist]

I recall reading some forum a long time ago (over a decade) that Actrisse in the N64 CV was actually Sypha in the Japanese version. Apparently in the Japanese version she makes reference to being related to Carrie or them sharing a common ancestry or something.

It was not Actrice. It was the vampire girl Carrie fights on her campaign, "Camilla Fernandez" ("Fernandez Warrior" in japanese). She was supposed to be Sypha herself, but was changed for some reason. The track of the battle is still called "Sypha" however.

[KaZudra]

Everyone love magical Trevor because the tricks that he does are ever so clever.

[zangetsu468]

Everyone love magical Trevor because the tricks that he does are ever so clever.

I wrote a verse for the Star Wars "Empire Strikes Back" theme once, don't make me do it for Castlevania. 

[X]

Didn't the original trailers for POR show it as "Orlean"? I was surprised when it was Aulin.

They did. I wasn't sure what was going on when Orlean was changed to Aulin either. I'm not fond of Ralph Belmont myself. I grew up with hearing Trevor Belmont so that's how I know him as.

[sadae]

I definitely use Trevor. I like the sound of it, besides I knew him as such. Also... I kind of dislike the name Ralph (I thoroughly apologize if we've got a Ralph here).

[Lumi Kløvstad]

(I thoroughly apologize if we've got a Ralph here).

You probably should, seeing as we do and he's a bloody mod. XD

[Ratty]

I always use "Trevor" because "Ralph" never fails to make me think of the delightful if slow son of Chief Wiggum on The Simpsons. Also when John Goodman made a comedy about an American slob who becomes King of England, it was called King Ralph, which says a lot. It's a fine working-class sounding name but it doesn't have the commanding ring of, say, Victor for example. Very interesting that it actually has a badass origin though, interesting history all around in this thread.