The purpose of this task was to determine what types of names the respondents would assign to the characters independently. It aimed to emphasize whether children picked up on the external cues of the characters and if they were inclined to name the characters using descriptive names. My original hypothesis was that the children who were shown the NA Finnish language version of the episode would be more inclined to use descriptive names or names consisting of nouns. Furthermore it proceeded to categorize the kinds of names that emerged.
I originally divided the results to two categories and further on to two subcategories; Descriptive and conventional names, female or male. It emerged during analysis that these categories were insufficient, and a third category for non-descriptive names (chapter 2.1) was added to the matrix. It should be noted that non-descriptive and descriptive names might not be placed in either subcategory as they are not explicitly gendered.
62 Figure 13. Ace, My Little Pony Tales.
I used the character Ace for this task. In the series, Ace is a male pony with a soccer ball cutie mark, his name refers to him being a stereotypical archetype high school jock; accomplished in sports (the ace) and popular among his peers, but with an arrogant attitude. The Finnish counterpart Ässä also refers to him being the best at something (Kielitoimiston sanakirja), in this case presumably soccer as alluded to by his cutie mark. Because ponies generally do not exhibit sexual dimorphism, it is not explicitly apparent this character is a male pony.
I will first look at responses from NA and GV dubs individually to determine what types of names each group assigned to the character in their respective language context (Finnish versus English names). I will then look at these groups comparatively to see how these trends align in respect to each other, as well as my hypothesis.
7.3.1 Name creation in a Finnish language context
Altogether 9 respondents took part in this part of the survey. Children were not prompted in any way during this task besides the initial instruction of naming the character with a name they think befits the character. This wording was used to avoid steering the respondents astray with more subjective instructions such as “a name you like” or “a good name” which could have resulted in associations with conventional names that the respondents find pleasing.
In this group names fell in two categories; conventional names, and descriptive names. I will first look at the conventional names, which were further divided into subcategories based on gender. Spelling errors
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are not taken into consideration in this task and names are categorized based on the interpretation of the name regardless of spelling.
Figure 14. Personal names by category in NA group, names translated in Finnish.
Conventional Finnish names constituted a majority with 7/9 respondents choosing to name the pony character with either a conventional female name (4) or a conventional male name (3) as presented in table x below. Two respondents used descriptive names consisting of nouns and compounded nouns.
Altogether 5 respondents identified the character as a female and 3 as a male, whereas one respondent chose a name that does not explicitly allude to any gender.
Table 4a. All names by category in NA group.
Conventional male name Pekka, Pekka, Perttu
Conventional female name Hanna, Jenni, Maijja, Miina Non-gendered descriptive name
Jalkapallo
Gendered descriptive name Jalkapallotyttö
The two names that fall within the parameters of descriptive name (allude to the character) consist of nouns jalkapallo (‘soccer ball’) and jalkapallo + tyttö (‘girl’), which directly refer to the character’s soccer
Non-gendered descriptive , 1
Conventional - Male, 3 Conventional -
Female, 4 Gendered Descriptive, 1
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ball cutie mark. One respondent affixed the gender noun for girl as a suffix for soccer ball, further denoting the character to be a female rather than male. Jalkapallo by itself is not directly gendered.
It can be argued that the respondent who chose the name Jalkapallotyttö used external cues as a basis for name creation, having determined the character to be a female possibly based on his long flowy mane and gender neutral color pattern. The character is not marked with gender specific traits externally, and could easily be either gender. Only possible giveaway would be the color blue in his exercise equipment, but since a female character is also seen wearing blue sweatbands earlier in the survey (see appendix Å) it is not a certain male denominator.
It is interesting how the respondent chose a noun compound as a name for the character, as names with compound nouns are not used in this episode. I had expected descriptive names to be more common than 2/9 respondents, and it might have been the case had the children been exposed to more characters with descriptive names.
7.3.2 Name creation in an English language context
Figure 15. Personal names by category in GV group, names retained in English.
Conventional - Male, 5
Conventional - Female, 3 Non-gendered
Descriptive, 2
Non-Descriptive, 2
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The GV group consisted of 11 respondents who participated. Like with the NA group, they were advised to name the character in a fitting way but not prompted in any other way. This group had more variety in their naming conventions with non-descriptive names (Cem and Beba, latter to be discussed further) as well as descriptive names. In this group descriptive names and non-descriptive names could not be divided further into male and female subcategories.
Table 4b. All names by category in GV group.
Conventional male name differently. In my interpretation Stela is equivalent of the conventional female name Stella, but could also be categorized as a made up non-descriptive name. Rouski was categorized as a descriptive name due to an onomatopoetic allusion to the sound or act of crunching (fin. verb rouskua, verb rouskaista, onomatopoetic rouskis similar to English bling bling or Japanese kira kira which both stem from verbs), but could also be re-categorized as a non-descriptive name. Similarly the name Beba could be a cheeky descriptive name derived from colloquial slang for the derriere more commonly spelled peba (eg. Finnish tabloid Seiska, however spelled beba on internet discussion forum Demi.fi). However because of this ambiguity in spelling I have decided to place this name in the non-descriptive category.
One instance of uncontested descriptive name was recorded, consisting of two nouns, vaalea (‘light’) and suklaa (‘chocolate’). This name seems to have originated from external cues, namely the character’s light beige and brown coloration reminiscent of light milk chocolate. The name cannot be assigned to either gender. It is in keeping with Ponyverse naming conventions as discussed in chapter 5.1.
Possible reasons for more variation among this group could be the English language context with the non-translated names the group watched before taking part in the survey. As descriptive names are not perceived as names which carry meaning, the use of descriptive names might not occur as a potential naming convention. Furthermore, as names sound foreign it might have inspired the non-descriptive
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made up names and use of less common letters such as C and B as well as the English conventional male name Bart (possibly intertextually referring to the animated series The Simpsons).