So, in order to allow more people to express their opinion on this subject and so we can avoid a disjointed off-topic conversation on other blogs, I made this one =)
Rundown: With the release of Hetalia in both printed and animated format in North America (which can be imported into other countries as well, mind you), this Wiki will probably be receiving more traffic. We should all strive to look out for vandalism and improve current articles to the best of our ability! (/encouragement speech) And so, we should probably make some fixes to keep with the current times. Human names are no longer in use—they haven’t been since 2008. The anime, manga, merchandise, licensors, and Himaruya only use country names, and all new characters have not been given any human name. Even characters that were given them are never called by them.
So, first question: Should we change the articles to reflect the anime/manga?
Reasons/Pros:
- Names no longer in use (only 2 years prior)
- Newers fans might be confused
- Lack of any reliable sources still using them
- Names could be contradictory to begin with, misspellings/unknown spellings still occur often
- Human names outdated
- In line with everything official nowadays
- Conformity; no new characters have them, sometimes sounds awkward
Cons:
- Change-resistant people might fight...hard
- Might confuse older fans (though they should probably know by now...)
- Some (unofficial) places still use them (Pixiv, fanfiction, etc.)
Now, to address how names would be included:
My original plan was including names like this: “America (アメリカ) is a main character in the series Hetalia: Axis Powers and acts as the representation of the United States of America. He’s also known by Alfred F. Jones, a name Himaruya assigned to him during a time period where characters were given human names."
Basically, something like that, which would also help expand the lede (or lead if you prefer). This provides a bit of an explanation for why some have names and others don’t, which even older fans might be confused with. The infobox would have a new parameter for “Human name”, where said name and kana would be included. For characters like Switzerland, it would be written as “[…] Basch Zingli (alternatively spelled Vash)….” (note: might be a good opportunity to correct that spelling. Vash would be pronounced like “Fah-sch” in German when the kana clearly uses a “Bah” sound. Also, the character Basch from Final Fantasy XII using the exact same kana. So, comment on that as well!)
Other ideas to consider for incorporating human names (suggest any I’m missing, too!):
- Keep infoboxes as-is (only a problem with consistency/comformity)
- Keep article names, use country names throughout (only a real problem with consistency again, but it's probably easier to navigate and make links with country names)
- Keep name throughout lede, country name throughout (won't really affect much considering how short the ledes are)
- And, of course, don't change anything (well, there're plenty of reasons for a change, but if people hate it that much...)