Why are ponies so commonly renamed in other countries?

[BlushingBlue]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primula_vulgaris

^^ Primroses in the UK.

It mentions a pink variant at the bottom of the page too...but...it doesn't make a lot of sense to name the pony after the variant so I'm sure that's not the explanation.

I tried to get it to show me pink primroses on google but it kept directing me to Amaryllis instead, which are obviously different (sigh).

My Dad is a bit obsessed with primroses so the moment I saw the US Ruby name I was like...huh? But they're yellow!

And of course we also have this:
https://www.dulux.com.sg/en/colour-palettes/primrose-yellow

Which just adds to my confusion. I mean, we're basically taught that primrose = yellow like blue = sky xD.

It must be a cultural local name or something I guess? But even so would it not have been better to use just...well...rose? o.O

But it does explain why no pink Princess Primrose in the UK

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oenothera_speciosa

^ These are pinkladies, the typical American primrose that can grow wild just about anywhere out here. Looks like it's technically an "evening primrose" which is not even the same genus as your Primula primrose!

Funnily enough, Wikipedia says they're sometimes called buttercups, which gave me the same instinctual "but those are yellow" reaction that primroses evoke in you. Poor Oenothera speciosa, second guessed at every turn! I guess I can kinda see why someone would think they're pink buttercups though, since they have roughly the same flower shape and opportunistic growing habits. Not real sure why a European would decide to name Oenothera after primroses... Just because some species are yellow? Maybe he was homesick for the wildflowers of his youth.

As an American, I was never explicitly taught that primroses are any particular color. I guess they aren't especially important here, culturally-speaking? If pressed, I would say they're pink, but if someone said "hand me that primrose yellow paint", I wouldn't think too hard about it. Doing a google image search for "primrose color" returns about a 50/50 split between yellows and pinks, so Hasbro probably should have given Ruby/Primrose yellow hair just to cover all their bases. Is there a German variant like that? If so, she clearly is the One True Primrose that can unite our warring factions.

To me the weird thing about Primrose is that she is called that instead of Princess Sparkle, the pony with the flower symbol.  But I guess butterflies do like flowers so it's not too out there.

Tiffany = Tiffany's makes so much sense!   It was also a really popular 80s name for some reason.  Like in 4th grade a bunch of girls at my school started a "Tiffany Club" where they added 'Tiffany' to the front of their actual names.    To get initiated you had to ask for a bathroom pass, then stay in the bathroom so long the teacher had to come get you.  Kids are so weird!

Moths love pinkladies because their flowers stay open at night, so maybe Primrose's symbol is secretly a moth?

That Tiffany Club is a great story. Kids, man... "Tiffany" and "Brittany" were the two names at my school that marked you (often unfairly, but kids are dumb) as a snotty social-climber. Although back in the greed-is-good 80s, this was not seen as a completely terrible thing! Ironically, the three Heathers in my class were all sweet, slightly nerdy girls.

It seems like there was so little variation in girls' names back then. If you weren't one of the bazillion Jennifers, you were a Tiffany or Brittany or Jessica or Ashley or Heather or Amber or Kimberly. I resigned myself to constantly being called "Allison" because "Al-sye-o-nee" was just too out there. I'm glad Hasbro had more naming creativity than a lot of 80s parents, even if their choices don't always make immediate sense to us.

[Taffeta]

The sad story of the little flower that just wanted its own name!

To be really annoying now, those flowers are not pink on my screen My eyes are pretty pedantic on colour shades, though...but to me they look lilacy not pink.

Interesting though how these things differ. Also interesting is that when I did an image search I got mostly yellow stuff, so I wonder how regionally these things search.

There is a German version with yellow hair I rather disrespectfully called her Blondie when I got her, but I think her real name is Rubin or something like that? But that's the name of a scholar that I cited in my work, so yeah. Blondie it is.

Buttercups are definitely yellow! xD.

I'm not sure we're explicitly taught it (my bad use of vocabulary there) so much as it's kind of common sense because of all the paint samples etc. I dunno. I never thought about it much till now but it's turned super interesting

I can also relate on the name level. Nobody has pronounced my full name properly since I was about eleven, and hardly anyone spells it right either. I've given up...I just accept the closest pronunciation substitute now to avoid awkward situations.

[Zapper]

I wish renaming happened again. I really can't stand the English names being used in a dubbed context. Especially because the meaning of the names is getting lost and it destroys a bit of the MLP universe. I mean, why would a Russian or German speaking magical pony decide to name herself in a different language? Plus, kids don't get it.

I know they keep the names because they are brands and it's all about selling the brand. But I liked it that up until shortly after G3 we had German pony names. Twilight Sparkle is a horrid name when said with a German accent, sorry. It loses its meaning and sounds forced. Tweileit Spakl, Flattaschei, Reriti, Rehnbo Däsch, Pinki Pei, Äpplcheck... Jesus Christ

[nessa16]

I wish renaming happened again. I really can't stand the English names being used in a dubbed context. Especially because the meaning of the names is getting lost and it destroys a bit of the MLP universe. I mean, why would a Russian or German speaking magical pony decide to name herself in a different language? Plus, kids don't get it.

I know they keep the names because they are brands and it's all about selling the brand. But I liked it that up until shortly after G3 we had German pony names. Twilight Sparkle is a horrid name when said with a German accent, sorry. It loses its meaning and sounds forced. Tweileit Spakl, Flattaschei, Reriti, Rehnbo Däsch, Pinki Pei, Äpplcheck... Jesus Christ

[Carrehz]

In order not to be grossed out, I had to train myself to see Sticky as a tiny Vlad-the-Impaler and Sniffles as his suffering sibling who can't bring any friends to the house lest they get "the stick." (This was an improvement somehow? )

I love this.

[Taffeta]

I wish renaming happened again. I really can't stand the English names being used in a dubbed context. Especially because the meaning of the names is getting lost and it destroys a bit of the MLP universe. I mean, why would a Russian or German speaking magical pony decide to name herself in a different language? Plus, kids don't get it.

I know they keep the names because they are brands and it's all about selling the brand. But I liked it that up until shortly after G3 we had German pony names. Twilight Sparkle is a horrid name when said with a German accent, sorry. It loses its meaning and sounds forced. Tweileit Spakl, Flattaschei, Reriti, Rehnbo Däsch, Pinki Pei, Äpplcheck... Jesus Christ

It's kind of rude to other countries and cultures not to give ponies their own names that mean something in the domestic language. Why should kids be expected to learn English names that mean nothing? :/

Also, I just thought you'd like to know that when I first read this post, for a minute I read "Jesus Christ" as part of the list and kind of blinked...then realised it was a comment For a moment I though FIM in Germany had been channelling South Park...

[CinnamonOnions]

Back in the day, in dubs and translations changing characters or even places names to local languages words was very, very common in non-english speaking countries. I don't know certainly why, either, but it simply was very usual back in the day and happened to almost everything. Probably pronounciation issues and lazy small budget dubs / translations are a big part of it. And with nirvanas, many of them are probably renamed because I assume they weren't intended to be their US counterparts and simply had recycled symbols.
(And talking of horrible names, I have found a shady Wikipedia list of ponies local names here. I haven't gotten my hands on the UK comics local translated releases to confirm these, though, but the names are so farfetched that they can't be made up. Here's a few favorites of that list: Boot = Rainfeather, Truckpony = 4-Speed, Indian= Wigwam, Bat = Slugger, Scyscraper = Skyflier, Fan = Flutterbye...)

[Zapper]

Some of the German MLP names were supersweet! Like Firefly became Feuerfunke (fire ember). Sundance = Sauseschnell (something like speedy fast). Applejack = Apfelbäckchen (this means rosy cheeks but Germans compare them to cute little apples, so you don't even have that alcohol joke). And so on. I really enjoyed them!

Ponies have "talking names". That means the names are supposed to describe them. That's why a lot of countries did this. It's just easier for the kids to say and serves as a part of world building.

And yeah, nowadays kids just think they have regular English names. That's ok. It's just not very imaginative to me. Btw, I never cared that the Transformers retained their original English names because English is seen as "cool" and they were extreme radical machines, it would have been silly to call some of them "Hummelchen" (bumblebee, that name went to a pony) or like, Auspuff (exhaust port) Because little boys would have thought those are lame-o names, yo.

[LadyMoondancer]

Interestingly, I just bought some G1 magazine advertisements that are in, I believe, Dutch . . . but the names of all the sets and ponies are in English.  So it's like "dutch dutch dutch BIG BROTHER PONIES dutch dutch SATIN SLIPPER SWEET SHOPPE."

[Taffeta]

Interestingly, I just bought some G1 magazine advertisements that are in, I believe, Dutch . . . but the names of all the sets and ponies are in English.  So it's like "dutch dutch dutch BIG BROTHER PONIES dutch dutch SATIN SLIPPER SWEET SHOPPE."

It's not that surprising actually. Someone in Holland can probably confirm the details more effectively than me, but I have noticed that there are some ponies which are packaged in French/Dutch packaging but also a lot in nominally English language packaging but with labels stuck on indicating they were available in Holland and Belgium. So probably, like Scandinavia, a lot of the English terms probably carried.

@Zapper, I never knew that was what Applejack's name meant in German. That's really cute

I also think it nicer when each country has its own pony names. Not everything needs to be in English. It should make sense to the kids, rather than just being 'names'.

Mind you, I am not sure the names mean that much in English either. Especially Pinkie Pie.