[Devean]

Hoi, Chummers!

Was lurking a bit, figured I'll create an account to post this little bit of info .

While browsing the preview on DriveThruRPG, I noticed some Slavic names being misspelled. These are:

Mikal Marszalik - should be Michał (Mikal is not a correct Polish name).

Justzin - it's not a correct Russian name... but it's hard to tell what it was supposed to be.

Cheers!

[Bull]

Keep in mind that names and spellings change.

"Tya" was not a correct spelling of the name "Tia", for example, 30+ years ago when my sister was named that. I have since, however, seen that spelling twice in the years since.  Mykal instead of Michael. Steffani instead of Stephanie, Tyffani instead of Tiffany. 

And that's not to mention the completely whacky-ass non-names (Almost anything.  State names, food names. Adjectives. Moods. Animals) and names that are seemingly pulled out of a scrabble bag at random (Twalisha or Kuwanda).  Then there's attempts that New Zealand refused, such as Number 16 Bus Stop or Sex Fruit.

It could be an error. Don't get me wrong.  I have no clue, I had no hand in the product.  But this is something we've discussed behind the scenes a couple times, about how names and naming conventions change over time. ANd with globalization in Shadowrun, it grows more and more likely that regional names become much less regional.

[Devean]

Please note that in Poland, spelling is not as liberal as in the US. Name spelling is strictly regulated, and 'wacky' names are not allowed. Parents can't name a child as they please, they have to pick a name from a list of pre-approved names. The cases you mentioned, Mykal instead of Michael, Steffani instead of Stephanie, Tyffani instead of Tiffany, are not allowed in our country. For instance, the spelling of the name Michał didn't change for several hundred years! So it's impossible for it to change that much over a few dozen years. If that was a nickname of a runner, that's a whole different story, in nicknames anything goes. But this is the name of a general of the army, so IMO it definitely should follow Polish spelling rules .

I understand that this is partially a culture thing (Anglo-Saxon vs Slavic), that's why I'm offering to help with spelling. All Polish speaking people will consider Mikel a bad typo. By some people it is perceived simply as bad editing. I, being a translator and proofreader/editor myself, know very well that it is sometimes very hard to get the spelling of names from a culture so different from your own right. But many people just see the mistake and don't give anyone the benefit of doubt (yeah, I hate such people too, but what can you do? ).

Cheers,
Jakub

[Bull]

RIght.  But in 30 or 50 years, will this be the case?

*shrug*  Just sayin'.

Bull

[Devean]

RIght.  But in 30 or 50 years, will this be the case?

I'm quite certain it will be so. As I said, it's a culture thing .

Edit: Let me approach this from a yet another angle.

If this was for a shadowrunner, there wouldn't be a problem, basically. It still would've been a wrong name, BUT runners, as SINless people, don't exactly need to bow to government administration, and some could use 'fancy' spelling for their kids or themselves (when you have no ID, you're called what you call yourself, right? ).

But in this case, we have a high ranking general, so definitely a SINner, probably with SINner parents, so he definitely would have to be named according to government imposed rules.

Hope that clears up a bit .

The current tendency in naming kids in Poland shows two predominant trends: some go back to more traditional names, always with the traditional spelling. Some go for 'foreign sounding' names. But noone tries to use traditional names with non-traditional spelling. I guess it's just the way we are .

[Nath]

RIght.  But in 30 or 50 years, will this be the case?

Someone who reached the rank of general by 2031 would be more likely born before 1983.