Talk:Erwin Smith

Erwin or Irvin
Most fantranslations in both anime and manga use Erwin. According to MAL, even Kodansha USA uses Erwin. Compared to that are there any indications that Irvin is correct?

NeoSuperior (talk) 15:34, August 25, 2013 (UTC)

Well, Irvin is the original fan translation. Plus, the latest Mangastream translation uses Irvin as well, though it's possible they have gotten it from here or whatever was our source back then, because their other translations strangely match ours, such as Scouting Legion. Either way, I personally wouldn't mind using Erwin though it's not for me to decide as my knowledge of Japanese romanization is very vague. We could also vote, I guess. 16:57, August 25, 2013 (UTC)


 * We're waiting for the official Blu-Ray/DVD release


 * Just wanna throw this in: link It's an interesting point of reference and while they're obviously not confirmed official names (barring Eren, Mikasa, Armin and Levi), it helps in giving us an idea on where Isayama may have gotten the names from in the first place and how they compare to the Kodansha translations. In that regard, the name Erwin is becoming even more likely to be the actual spelling given how the name literally means "army friend" in German (in which case, Isayama is already known to have borrowed German names and SNK itself is laden with German language in its OPs and promotional material). DementedP (talk) 19:25, September 10, 2013 (UTC)
 * I mostly got used to write "Irvin" because of this wiki, but for his name to be Irvin, the Katakana would have to be イルヴィン rather than エルヴィン. It's safe to assume that "Irvin" is incorrect, but I'm not taking the pain of renaming every link and/or mention of him, though. EDIT: A bot would do it in an instant, but admins don't seem to like coding.  h fc 2 X  20:47, September 10, 2013 (UTC)
 * So do we have consensus on this? I wouldn't mind going through the lengths to edit all of it as long as people are fine with it (I've already done the same for Levi anyway)--DementedP (talk) 05:34, September 11, 2013 (UTC)

Erm... It would've been nice if you had waited for an approval, as we have decided to wait till officially subbed Blu-Rays are out, but I guess since it's apparent that Irvin is completely wrong given the kanji, it's fine.

However, I'm not really trusting these tumblr blogs anymore. We've had the chance to see another 3 ones or so, and each of them had information that contradicted each other. For instance, this is the first time I see 'Hansi'. (And how the hell you can pronounce that the way it's pronounced in the anime is beyond me). We don't know where these tumblr people get their info from, we don't know of their level of Japanese. It will really help us if we stop throwing various sources claiming this and that without apparent proof at us, otherwise it will become way too complicated.

Not only that, translating itself is subjective, especially when it comes to Japanese. We may have multiple romanization and all of them may be correct in regards to kanji, but that doesn't mean we'll be changing them around, unless there's a further proof, i.e. Levi.

I'm slowly starting to think we should just follow Kodansha USA's translations. For the sake of consistency. And peace. /rant over 09:14, September 11, 2013 (UTC)


 * Oh no, I totally agree with you regarding Tumblr blogs/translations (I only pick ones that actually seem plausible and if they match certain details that I researched separately on my own), rather I think in this regard it made the most sense for Erwin/Irvin's case. The "Hansi" translation is a bit jarring but to be fair, I think the person is making a case of matching real-world names with the character names as opposed to saying that they're the actual names (which makes sense when you consider weird vocal translations like "Rivaille" back then which can only sound like the intended romaji if you account for French pronunciation). That said, I definitely agree that it's more than likely far off from Isayama's intended English translation and that's why I even said that it's more of an interesting point of reference (instead of saying "THESE ARE THE OFFICIAL TRANSLATIONS" or something like that). I do apologize for the abrupt change (sorry I couldn't help it as I had nothing else to do -__-') --DementedP (talk) 12:11, September 11, 2013 (UTC)


 * Why has it been changed from Irvin to Erwin nothing definite came out yet. Bythepowerofgreyskull (talk) 23:13, September 19, 2013‎ (UTC)
 * Why has it been changed from Irvin to Erwin nothing definite came out yet. Bythepowerofgreyskull (talk) 23:13, September 19, 2013‎ (UTC)


 * "Irvin" does not match the Japanease pronunciation well. "Erwin" fits the pronunciation much better. Actually something like "Elvin" would be possible as well, but I have not yet seen that name being used for him anywhere. NeoSuperior (talk) 22:54, September 19, 2013 (UTC)


 * Yes, even "Elvin" and "Ervin" are more likely correct translations than "Irvin", though given that "Erwin" has been the more widely-used translation (and not an incorrect one at that), we're sticking with that name for now until we get something more official.--DementedP (talk) 23:10, September 19, 2013 (UTC)