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Names can pay a crucial role in how we perceive an individual. This is better demonstrated in the Final Fantasy games that reached US shores. Although I am usually against changing features from the original Japanese version, I feel it may be necessary for some character name changes. Don't get me wrong on this because I think the original names are fine, but could be better for certain situations.

One of these situations is the leading heroine, Terra Bradford from Final Fantasy 6(FF3 US). Originally, her name in the Japanese version was "Tina Bradford." Even though Tina is a nice female name, it doesn't seem to enhance Terra's character of "Being the only one who could save the world."

"Terra", in Latin means Earth, or world. Since her role in the game was to be the only "ray of hope" for the world, Terra seems to be a better choice as far as her character's name is concerned. We can make a connection between the root word of "Terra" to her character's role in the game, rather than "Tina." Thus this evokes more of a "only hope" atmosphere for Terra's name to be changed to Terra instead of keeping "Tina".

Many people complain about changes made during the game's shipment to the US, including me, but I must say I'd like to give a few good props for those who thought of these name changes. Sometimes the names in original version sound silly, and sometimes take away from the character. Another example of this would be Sabin, from FF6 (FF3 US). His original name is "Mash." Now, I know his character likes to break things but his name sounds to silly to be the twin brother of a king.

Although most of the name changes have benefitted the character's role, and personality, sometimes even those who change names mess up. Like all things there has be a positive and negative side. In this case it would be the mistakes of the translators who decide to change a character's name when it is not necessary. They've done a great job so far, but just recently they changed an important FF character's name when it was not necessary.

Originally, Aeris' (FF7) name in the Japanese version was "Aerith." Now, for her character in the game it seems ironic, and almost a oxymoron for Aeris' name to be sounding like the "God of War." Her character is far too kind, peaceful, and delicate for her to have such a closely reminiscent name to the Greek "God of War". In this situation, Aeris' name was not necessarily changed for her character's benefit. At this point, I'm not really sure why the translators changed her name.

I know it's hard to make everyone satisfied, but what I'm trying to say to those who are in charge of changing names, or are thinking of character names for their own characters, make sure it contributes to the character's role in the plot. Not only will it further enhance the character's personality, but it will also show the time and character you put into the character. Squaresoft has done an excellent job with names so far. There are just a few that could be better. I never said they were bad choices, but I just thought that they could be vastly improved with a name change. But even then, name changes can also take away from the character, hence Aeris' name in the US version.