Aerith or Aeris?

micknutson9

Pro Adventurer
Well... Her Romanji name was spelled Erisu and from what I gathered, it could be translated to either Aeris or Aerith in the English language. Neither iteration of the name is wrong. I guess it's just personal preference for what they like to go with.
 

Octo

KULT OF KERMITU
AKA
Octo, Octorawk, Clarky Cat, Kissmammal2000
What about Aerish? Everybody wins! :monster:
 

JBedford

Pro Adventurer
AKA
JBed
Well... Her Romanji name was spelled Erisu and from what I gathered, it could be translated to either Aeris or Aerith in the English language.
The romanisation/romaji for her name is Earisu.

You're not wrong, when transcribing a word into Japanese, "s" may represent either the "s" or "th" sounds.

But we know Aeris's name is meant to resemble "earth", we know the ス/su sound in her name comes from the English ending "th" sound in "earth".

It's not a case of "ス>s" v. "ス>th". It's a case of "th>ス>s" v. "th>ス>th". That sound was the English "th" sound to begin with, so transating it "Aeris" misses the point.

(I still sometimes call her Aeris, but I'm not going to claim it can be translated either way and is equally correct)
 

Channy

Bad Habit
AKA
Ruby Rose, Lucy
-Cutting out the excessive text from DB's non-image, don't mind me-


ITH AERITH? Ive been thaying it wrong the whole time!

Really? We're all just gonna let that slide?
 
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leadmyskeptic

Pro Adventurer
It IS a lispy muthatruckin' variation. I think that's what it is, that I can't think of a single person's name in English that ends in "th", but I can think of a million that end with S. It sets it apart from all the other members of the main cast of FFVII....well, except for Cait Sith (who I'm still just calling kate sith, cos fuck it)
 

ForceStealer

Double Growth
Square says it's Aerith, so it's Aerith. What does bug me is when people list "Aeris" as an example of FF7's shoddy translation. It is a completely valid romanization of エアリス.
And "Aeris" doesn't even really ruin the symbolism either, given it's homophone-ness to "heiress."
 

Ryushikaze

Deus Admiral Parsimonious, PHD, DDS, MD, JD, OBE
AKA
Tim, Ryu
It IS a lispy muthatruckin' variation. I think that's what it is, that I can't think of a single person's name in English that ends in "th", but I can think of a million that end with S. It sets it apart from all the other members of the main cast of FFVII....well, except for Cait Sith (who I'm still just calling kate sith, cos fuck it)

Ruth?

Heath?

It's not common, but it's not unheard of, and neither Aeris or Aerith are real names anyways.
 

Starling

Pro Adventurer
It IS a lispy muthatruckin' variation. I think that's what it is, that I can't think of a single person's name in English that ends in "th", but I can think of a million that end with S. It sets it apart from all the other members of the main cast of FFVII....well, except for Cait Sith (who I'm still just calling kate sith, cos fuck it)
Beth, Annabeth, Elizabeth, Keith, Ruth, Seth, Smith, Meredith, Marth, Garth, Janeth, Lilith, Gareth, Daveth, Emeth, Delith, Heath, Erith, Neith, Dorith, Harith, Faith, Braith, Hyacinth, Macbeth. There are likely far more than that.
 

leadmyskeptic

Pro Adventurer
Wow, y'all CRUSHED my statement. Good call. I legitimately did not think of any of those, even the common ones (like Ruth), I'm not sure why. And I have a close FRIEND named Keith! I thought I had put my finger on what bothers me about it, other than just the change from my nostalgic associations, cos there IS something...still not sure what it is, though. But yeah, I accept that she is most definitely, canonically, irretrievably Aerith now. I just don't like it : )

Edit: Wait, you're not telling me you've actually heard of people (not in fantasy worlds) named Daveth? Or Emeth?
 

Starling

Pro Adventurer
Aside from nostalgia, you may simply have a preference for the way the name sounds ending with s instead of th, the same way some words are pronounced differently in certain regions. Canada's spelling is somewhere in between British and American english so the different spellings of some words like grey/gray are often used interchangeably without much issue, so long as you stay consistent within a particular text. Specifically regarding the Aeris/Aerith issue, I never understood the argument that the latter one sounds lispy, nor why it became such a big deal when I don't really see it get that bad with other inconsistent name spellings.
 

Lex

Administrator
Wait, you're not telling me you've actually heard of people (not in fantasy worlds) named Daveth? Or Emeth?

Both common Welsh names.

Also can we stress the fact that "Aerith" isn't "lispy" at all, people only think it's "lispy" because they're thinking of "Aeris" when they say it. If it had never been localised as "Aeris" nobody would think twice about "Aerith", and nobody would be saying "wow that's a lispy name".

I might be biased given that my mother's name is Elizabeth. It's not like I spent my life going "I MEAN IT REALLY SHOULD BE ELIZABES BECAUSE IT SOUNDS LISPY".

:hugemonster:
 

Ite

Save your valediction (she/her)
AKA
Ite
I love this thread. It's kind of like having a "Is Pluto a Planet?" discussion. In both instances, I have the unique perspective of knowing I am on the wrong side, but being far too sentimental about the matter to care.
 

The Twilight Mexican

Ex-SeeD-ingly good
AKA
TresDias
And "Aeris" doesn't even really ruin the symbolism either, given it's homophone-ness to "heiress."

Erith: Resembling a flower, derived from Hebrew origins
http://www.babynamespedia.com/meaning/Erith
Aerith probably has the coolest -- and most abundant -- series of unrelated coincidence involving words that her name could believably have been derived from. You've got these two as well as Eris, the Greek goddess of strife, but her name is officially just the word "Earth" transliterated into Japanese katakana.
 

Tennyo

Higher Further Faster
b9e9aedb878b69b5512c94a8cf824aeba709f8813c4486a81f0c22f7e920c862.gif
 

Channy

Bad Habit
AKA
Ruby Rose, Lucy
I love this thread. It's kind of like having a "Is Pluto a Planet?" discussion. In both instances, I have the unique perspective of knowing I am on the wrong side, but being far too sentimental about the matter to care.

That is probably the most apt comparison for this thread; except Pluto is totally a planet.

I wonder if the early art of her with the name writter Earith was originally what they were going to go with, but changed it, or if it was just a mixup
http://thelifestream.net/lifestream...520-of-the-final-fantasy-vii-ultimania-omega/

I also dug this up and I'm trying to find some pictures because I know I read Earith on a card somewhere printed/merch.

Apparently there is even yet ANOTHER variation of the name 'Aeris' in FF7. The Japanese programmers behind the game originally called her 'Earith'. As I peeked into the files of Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation), I discovered the game internally refered to Aeris as Earith. However, it would be fair to assume Earith is the rough equivalent of Aerith.

http://www.ff7citadel.com/secrets/sa_names.shtml

And "Aeris" doesn't even really ruin the symbolism either, given it's homophone-ness to "heiress."

Erith: Resembling a flower, derived from Hebrew origins
http://www.babynamespedia.com/meaning/Erith
Aerith probably has the coolest -- and most abundant -- series of unrelated coincidence involving words that her name could believably have been derived from. You've got these two as well as Eris, the Greek goddess of strife, but her name is officially just the word "Earth" transliterated into Japanese katakana.

Whoa whoa whoa, do not disregard Cloud's name with its reference to his wandering/drifting and fluffy whiteness.
 

Ite

Save your valediction (she/her)
AKA
Ite
In addition to Eris being a complementary nod to Cloud's last name, there is also the Greek Eros, God of love and passion. And as it has already been mentioned, Aeris also evokes "heiress" as in she is the true inheritor of the Cetra's mission, not Sephiroth. I think these are all more interesting characternym implications, and going from that to the very heavy-handed "Earth" 'nym feels like a dumbing-down. In the context of the Compilation, where still more things were simplified or else made entirely incomprehensible, the nerd-rage is strong where Ertha is concerned.

I didn't know about the Hebrew name for flower, though! That's kind of a consolation prize, kind of like pictures of Pluto, even though it's only a planetoid now.
 
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