Names of animal-crossing characters around the world – Some of our favorite variants – Feature

KK Slider

Name in Japanese: Totakeke

Celebrity, musician, DJ, philosopher – KK is a dog of the people. If you’ve been a fan of the franchise since the beginning, you probably already know the genesis of the name ‘resident hound dog’ of the series, so let’s start with the best.

KK takes its name from Nintendo composer Kazumi Totaka, the man responsible for the famous Totaka’s Easter Egg theme hidden in many Nintendo games.

Although we know him as KK Slider, this title is being hailed as a stage name – he tells players that his real name is ‘Totakeke’ when introducing himself at the beginning of the very first game back on GameCube (like Nintendo 64 in Japan).

That, while his name is very similar all over the world, KK does not belong nicely in that small group of Animal Crossing characters – which includes raccoon entrepreneur Tom Nook – who are known worldwide by the same name.

Luna

Name in Spanish: Alakama

Luna is a dreamy tapir who first appeared in New sheet and guide players through the Dream Suite to visit other people’s islands while slipping.

She recently arrived in New Horizons via an update, and it’s a pleasure to deliver her to our islands from other players in our dreams.

While her English name relates to the moon and its nocturnal mystery, her Spanish name, ‘Alakama’, operates on two levels.

First, it evokes the ‘magic’ word (and, of course, the Pokémon) ‘alakazam’.

Second, ‘a la cama‘in Spanish’ means ‘to (the) bed’ (Voy a la cama = I’m going to bed), which fits Luna’s position as a dream monitor even better than her English moniker.

You will also notice that Luna’s birthday falls on that rarest day, February 29 – a birth date she only shares with the most dreamy of people.

Wolfgang

Name in Japanese: Lobo

The Japanese name of wolf dweller Wolfgang is ‘Lobo’ (or ‘Robo’ due to the ‘L’ / ‘R’ issue arising from transliteration into Japanese), which is Spanish / Portuguese for ‘wolf’.

Confidentially, Lobo is the English name of a completely different wolf inhabitant (known in Japanese as ‘Bunjirou’).

In fact, the whole wolf pack is a nightmare when it comes to interregional renaming.

For example, the character that English players know as Kyle is called ‘Wolfgang’ in Germany, where Wolfgang goes by ‘Weber’.

The Latin ‘lupus’ appears depending on the region: in different forms for different wolves: Audie is ‘Lupilia’ in Italy; Freya is ‘Lupita’ in Spain and ‘Luppa’ in France; Lobo is ‘Lupo’ in Spanish and German, but ‘Lupen’ in Italy; Skye is known in Italy as ‘Lupilla’.

We could go on, but we’re going a little lup-y here. There’s another wolf further down the list, but let’s take some chicken …

Goes

Name in Japanese: Kenta

Goose, everyone’s favorite jockkip, has been in the series since the beginning. He is known in Japan as ‘Kenta’, probably a reference to the good variety of fatty lickin of the fried chicken that comes from Kentucky – a food that has become incredibly popular in Japan around Christmastime.

We would probably have gone with ‘Colonel’ as ‘Sanders’, but Kenta is good too.

The French call him ‘Pouli’.

The Germans call him ‘Konrad’.

Nobody calls him ‘Chicken’, something he shares with Marty McFly.

While we are on the subject, it is noteworthy that fast food joints such as KFC and McDonald’s have recently been participating in the delicious Animal Crossing campaign. You might say … they love it.

Cally

German name: Hörnchen

Cally is one of several villagers whose name was changed to her English GameCube debut – she was originally known as ‘Sally’.

The squirrel then disappeared on the DS and Wii until she returned to New Leaf on 3DS with her new one-letter-other identity.

It seems that Witness Protection is apparently not too worried about Cally’s past.

Cally is otherwise known as ‘Almendra’ (Spain, literally ‘Almond’), ‘Rosa’ (Italy) and ‘Celia’ (France), although our favorite must be her German name, ‘Hörnchen’, which apparently translates as ‘Croissant’.

Twiggy

Name in Japanese: Pichiku

One of our favorites, spicy Twiggy is known as ‘Pichiku’ in Japanese, which we think reflects her fun character nicely.

Twiggy was part of our Wild World village, which we recently visited after a decade away. We had not seen her for years, but she still came bordering us full of beans. Ah Twiggy! She will forever hold a special place in our hearts.

Elsewhere in the world, she is known as ‘Tití’ or ‘Titti’.

Hold on to the back.

Klaus

Name in Italian: Gruñerto

Klaus, derived from the Greek ‘Nikolaos’ according to Nookipedia, is a bear who rocks a classic Greek style.

He can often be found wearing a gown as a glossy breastplate and generally looks curmudgeonly, despite being classified as a ‘sneaky’ villager. He just looks grumpy in front of us.

In Italy and Spain it is known as ‘Gruñerto’ – the ‘gruño’ part for bordering (‘gruñon’ in Spanish) and grom (‘gruñido’).

Yep, that name suits him better, we think.

Whitney

Name in French: Blanche

Returning back to the group of lupine villagers, English speakers know this white wolf as Whitney. We think the link to the color of her fur was right there in her English name, but it never happened to us. Maybe lockdown has slowed us down.

In French she is ‘Blanche’ (literally ‘white’), although that is the name of an ostrich door in the English game.

In Japan she is known as ‘Bianka’ from the Italian word for white (presumably Italians call her ‘Bianca’). In English, Bianca is too other villager – a white tiger.

However, the Spanish and Germans could not get enough of the Latin root when it came to wolf inhabitants; in those countries, Whitney is ‘Lupe’ and ‘Lupa’ respectively.

Simon

Name practically everywhere: Simon

Simon is the proof that the best villagers have multiple aliases when they travel abroad.

Simon is a lazy monkey and probably one of the least interesting characters in the game. Of course, the Simon Fan Club should have members (who are most welcome to race to his defense in the comments), but for our money, he’s a bit boring.

In China they call him ‘Yuǎnrén’, and he is ‘Etekichi’ in Japan; otherwise he is simply old Simon.

No offense to Simons reading this – you guys are all really fun and fascinating! – but this monkey needs more business. Animal Crossing’s Simon is as faint as they come and he does not even have exotic foreign names to make him more interesting.

He visited our campsite the next day; he did not stay long. Simon says … nothing interesting. On your bike, son.

And lastly, the beautiful Isabelle

Name around the world: various

First introduced in Animal Crossing: New Leaf, Isabelle became a rapid favorite of fans and is known by various names all over the world.

Italians call her ‘Fuffi’, while her French name, ‘Marie’, is a play about ‘mairie’ (meaning ‘City Hall’, which is pretty neat).

She is ‘Melinda’ in Germany, and ‘Canela’ in Spain, which means ‘cinnamon’ and is also a dot on ‘can’, another word for dog (her brother Digby is ‘Candrés’ in Spanish).

Back in Japan, she’s called ‘Shizue’ – a play about that famous dog breed, Shih Tzu.

Wherever she is, however, this efficient manager is loved by all. We probably won’t have to hear about their TV habits anymore at this point, but we let that slide. We love you… whatever your name is!