The Official Name Explanations Thread

[ScottyFamalam]

Katakana: ウーブ
Hepburn: Ūbu
Shuiesha: Oob
Toei: Oob
BandaI: Oob
Funimation: Uub
Viz: Oob

Katakana is ウーブ (Ūbu). Officially romanized all over Japan as "Oob". Funimation went with "Uub". Viz kept it as "Oob".

It's just supposed to be "Boo" backwards.

Oo = ウー = Ū.
B = ブ = bu.

He's Oob.

tl;dr He's Oob.

 

[ScottyFamalam]

Oh, it seems that starting in 2019, pretty much all official Japanese products use the same spellings and romanizations as Funimation. "Krillin" is now used instead of "Klilyn", "Frieza" instead of "Freeza", "Buu" instead of "Boo", "Gokou" instead of "Goku", "Vegito" instead of "Vegetto" (ironically, Funimation now uses "Vegetto"), etc . This seems to be part of "brand unification" on Shuiesha, Toei, Bandai, etc's end.

They even changed "Gokou" to "Goku" on rereleases of old Carddass sets.

Original 1996 release:

2023 rerelease:

Of course, the nerds at Kanzenshuu were livid.

 

[ScottyFamalam]

Katakana: プンター
Hepburn: Puntā
Bandai: Punta
Funimation: Pintar
Viz: Punta

As I explained here, his name is most likely a pun on タプン (tapun), which is onomatopoeia for fat jiggling or swaying. プンター (Puntā) would best be translated as "Puntaa" or "Puntah" to preserve the pun.

tl;dr His name is Puntaa or Puntah.

 

[ScottyFamalam]

Katakana: ザーボン
Hepburn: Zābon
Bandai: Zarbon
Funimation: Zarbon
Viz: Zarbon

His name is universally romanized as "Zarbon" everywhere. It's a pun on "zamboa", which is what the fruit pomelo is called in Portuguese; Japan approximated it as ザボン (zabon). Elongate the ザ (za) and you get ザーボン (Zābon), the character's name. "Zarbon" is fine, but I'd prefer to call him "Zahbon".

tl;dr You may as well just call him Zarbon, but Zahbon is fine, too.

 

[ScottyFamalam]

Katakana: グラノラ
Hepburn: Guranora
Shuiesha: Granolah (?)
Viz: Granolah

The katakana is グラノラ (Guranora). Viz romanized it as "Granolah". It's not clear what Shuiesha romanizes it as, because I don't think we've ever seen the name officially romanized in Japan. The official Dragon Ball website's English translation went with "Granolah", but that website is machine-translated and full of errors. We don't know who came up with the "Granolah" spelling between Viz and Shuiesha.

The name is based on the food "granola", which is normally approximated to katakana as グラノーラ (guranōra), but it's sometimes also approximated as グラノラ (guranora) without any elongated syllables. Many food products use グラノラ (guranora). The only difference between the two katakana spellings is that one elongates the ノ (no) and the other doesn't. Not elongating the ノ (no) wouldn't result in a different word; it would just translate to "granola", only with the "no" said quicker.

The "Granolah" spelling doesn't work, because adding an "h" at the end only serves to elongate the last syllable; we can tell by the katakana that the ラ (ra) isn't elongated. I wouldn't go with "Granolla" (two "Ls") like Kanzenshuu does, either, because that just looks like a typo of "granola". If I was forced to spell it differently from the food, I might go with "Granora", "Guranora", or "Guranola", but there's no reason not to just use "Granola". Especially considering Japanese food products use グラノラ (guranora) for granola, anyway.

tl;dr His name is "Granola".

 

[ScottyFamalam]

Katakana: パイクーハン
Hepburn: Paikūhan
Bandai: Paikuhan
Funimation: Pikkon

His name is a pun on 排鼓, romanized as páigǔ in Pinyin and p'ai ku in Wade Giles, which is what the Chinese call spare ribs. The Japanese reading for 排鼓 would be "Haiko"; パイクー (Paikū) is merely the Japanese approximation approximation of "páigǔ". The last part of his name is ハン (han), which is the Japanese readng for 飯 (han), meaning "rice" or "meal".

So, a valid translation of his name would be "Paiguhan". Funimation localized it as "Pikkon"; that's almost a valid romanization of the katakana, but it doesn't account for the クー (kū).

tl;dr He's "Paiguhan" or "Paikuuhan".