View Message

This is a reply within a larger thread: view the whole thread

[Opinions] Re: Chara
cha-ra because of Shugo Chara. From what I understand, Chara in this context is an abbreviation of "Characters" and the full title of "Shugo Chara" means "Guardian Characters". Edit: I should mention that because its Japanese, I'm almost positive its pronounced cha-ra like the ch- sound in "cheat" and not ka-ra like the k- sound in "cable". I mean, its been a good looooong while since I've seen the anime, but I'm positive I'd have read it another way if that's how they said it in the series.This is what I think of when I see it. Never engaged with Undertale and I didn't know there was a character with this name. The only one I know of was Sans because he was very popular on Tumblr back in the day. I prefer Charissa by a lot, Kara, Cara by a good amount, Carys and Charis only by a little. Which pronunciation is more typical for this name?---"one particular boogie will move mirror massaging with stirring crepe mixture, positioning loaves while in the furnace then toting items in containers" ~ best Russian daing sites (guest, 198.144.149.xxx) (2020)Formally PrincessZ and Princess Magpie

This message was edited 9/3/2023, 4:20 PM

Archived Thread - replies disabled
vote up2

Replies

Oh no it's a manga / anime
sigh ... I should have googled it.
Feels like when I see a lovely red strawberry growing in my garden, and I go to pick it, it but the entire backside of it has been eaten by a slug ... and the slug is still there, munching, and I touched it, ew ew ew. Or like stepping in cold kitten vomit. I was kind of interested to see it linked in blue on btn (to a Greek name meaning joy, pronounced kha- apparently, could be ka- to an English speaker) and thought Undertale was the only usurpation. (I sometimes feel like mass/pop culture hoovers up all of the most simple, obvious names that people could revive, borrow, or invent in English and use for children, and contaminates them by associating them with some dumb character nobody would want to be named after and nobody will remember after 20 years.)Well, this is what the opinions board is for! I'm glad you commented about it.
vote up1
It's not even a character name, it literally just means "character" in Japanese. So I think you're fine there.
That's a rather dramatic take though, that even an obscure foreign association can ruin a name for you. Fiction reflects humanity, so of course that includes the names. And as we've seen on this board, people will develop all sorts of positive or negative associations towards a name regardless of pop culture references. It's rather unavoidable either way.
vote up1
No, it's not the foreign association. It's the "pop culture" association. Not because anime isn't American, but because they're so popular. It's sorta like, back in the 1990s, I would have been reluctant to use the name Ren. Ren could be a perfectly legit name, like Chara is... but it was "ruined" by pop culture, at that time. I actually agree with you that it probably doesn't matter. Even someone named Ren in 1995 would not be suffering for it today! I'm just reacting according to how I feel about it right now, as a hypothetical appealing name I could add to a list, if I were hoping to name babies.

This message was edited 9/6/2023, 6:41 AM

vote up1
I think I get what you mean. I like both Ariana and Selena, but I know next to nothing about Ariana Grande and Selena Gomez. If I used them, people'd think I'm a fan, but I have no idea if that's a good thing or a bad thing.I like the name Justin, but it's associated too much with Justin Beiber to use right now, so I won't even as a middle
vote up2
Actually in Japanese ‘chara’ as in character is pronounced like ‘kya-ra’ (written キャラ ). But it does feel natural to pronounce it the other way.
vote up1
You're probably right. I'll need to re-watch the series, I'm now unsure of me memories regarding the pronunciation
vote up1