About the main char's (Henry's) name

Story & Setting
#1

So, I was watching this Digital Worlds video here and that guy commenting about the hero’s name reminded me about a thing I wanted to open up some time ago…

So far, the main character has been referred to as Henry, a name which was probably chosen for sounding appropriate for a medieval setting, at least in English language. There it’s a fairly traditional historical name with England even having a line of famous sovereigns by the name of Henry. Although…

The game is taking place in Czech lands, by that time known as The Kingdom of Bohemia. In the local Czech language, the exact name “Henry” actually never existed and was never used by native Czechs (probably unless for a person with English relatives, still a thing very-rare-to-non-existent among medieval Bohemia’s common folk).
A Czech name which we usually associate locally with the English “Henry” is actually “Jindřich”. Why this one in particular, I don’t know.
That doesn’t really sound very similar though, right? By general experience, most English speaking people even have a lot of trouble pronouncing the name properly, (partly for not being used to the letter “ř” - a kinda sharper “r”, similar to “dream”).

The issue coming out from this is obvious. The game is set in Czech environment, but due to development costs the main language localization is English. It probably may not be an issue for the respective localizations alone (Czech texts and voiceovers might simply use their “Jindřich”). But if the main char’s name bears this sort of difference between the two (or more) languages, it might (and probably would) lead to some very unnecessary inconsistency in the reference to that character.

What about the name of that character being placed somewhere within the game world, outside from the sphere of language-localization’s texts and voiceovers? Of course, a piece of texture can be changed as well, but the point is- isn’t there a more practical option?

It may sound like a silly detail, but considering what a great deal the general authenticity is for this game, this should probably be re-thought a bit, because so far it seems as a rather impractical (and questionably authentic) choice of a name. It wouldn’t be a great deal with some secondary side-character, but for the very main one?

So, a question mostly for the Warhorse Studios: Would it actually be a problem to yet rename Henry with some much more translation-friendly and practical, more language-universal name like Martin, David, Tomas, Petr, Michal, Pavel, etc… which do not differ very much among most languages?

4 Likes
#2

I totally agree with you @PhanTom_CZ !
Warhorse should think about an other Name. I am from Germany so if the world would be in Germany I would prefer a common German name too.
So in the name of authenticity I would like to see another Name instead of Henry.

Greetings from Germany keep up the great work.

#3

Jindřich je mužské křestní jméno německého původu vzniklé z Heinrich, Heimerich (heim - domov, rihhi - vládce) nebo Haganrich - „vládce domu“

…

Henry is an English male given name and a surname, from the Old French Henri, Henry (modern Henri), derived itself from the Germanic name Haimric (German: Heinrich), which is a compound of the word elements haim, meaning “home” and ric, meaning “power, ruler”

1 Like
#4

Thanks for the explanation!

But this effectively means that the main character would have at least three different language-specific versions of his name (Henry, Heinrich, Jindřich)… which doesn’t really sound like a very practical or economical choice in a work which is being created with several different language versions already in mind from the start. Just saying…

#5

yeah, because when translating tens of thousands of lines of text, they’re going to have a real hard time with one name.

#6

I like Jindřich better than Henry, (Old)Czech names and Loanwords could be great for the games language if done in moderation and used consistently.

#7

I’d expect that English sounding name would fit more naturally into the English localization. Your translation-friendly language-universal suggestions are ok as well… but since only a very few people is going to play the game in more than one language, I think this does not really matter.

#8

Actually whenever is someone named “Jindřich” here everyone just calls him “Jindra” which is much easier to pronounce for non native speakers.

#9

BTW: Jindřich could have also been Hynek, they both come from Heinrich.

I would keep “Henry”, and occasionally call him “Heinrich” or “Henrik” for effect, whenever the speaker addressing him is foreign-born, or German/Hungarian native. (I would prefer to stay clear of using a heavily accented english (etc.) - denoting that the speaker is foreign-born - so a gentle variation of how Henry’s name gets pronounced could be useful for the purpose)

2 Likes
#10

If only name was a problem, but there are villages and castles renamed. And if they want to do voiceovers, they need to teach actors how to pronounce Czech letters. It would sound funny if they struggled and each actor learned the pronunciation differently. Better leave it simple as it is.

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