Where do the personality names come from?

[McRibbie]

I'd love to know why, when the original game came out on GameCube 14 years ago, we started calling the villager types:

• normal
• peppy
• snooty
• cranky
• jock
• lazy

Is it from the guidebook? Is it from an online piece of media?

I'm also wondering why we never came up with proper names for the smug and uchi villager types, as I'm not the biggest fan of calling them that. I prefer to call them "hipster" and "big sister".

Any thoughts?

 

[LinkToTheWorld]

I don't mind the name smug, although I don't think it really fits with what I understand of that word. They're much more like a geek or nerd to me. Smug kind of makes me think of somebody who is a bit rude and full of themselves, which I suppose some smugs are like that, but it just doesn't fit for me.
And I never liked the uchi personality, I do have siblings and still can't relate with what they did with that personality.
As for where the names come from though I have no idea. Couldn't even guess. It's like normal types are such nice and inoffensive villagers, when I don't consider that to be 'normal' at all. Snooty and jock are about the only names that I feel really fit.

 

[McRibbie]

I don't mind the name smug, although I don't think it really fits with what I understand of that word. They're much more like a geek or nerd to me. Smug kind of makes me think of somebody who is a bit rude and full of themselves, which I suppose some smugs are like that, but it just doesn't fit for me.
And I never liked the uchi personality, I do have siblings and still can't relate with what they did with that personality.
As for where the names come from though I have no idea. Couldn't even guess. It's like normal types are such nice and inoffensive villagers, when I don't consider that to be 'normal' at all. Snooty and jock are about the only names that I feel really fit.

Smugs just come across as quite hipster? I don't know. There is something of the geek/nerd in them, though.

I was also toying with "tomboy" for uchis. It's punchier.

 

[Sheando]

I agree that some of the names don't quite seem to fit. "Normal" is the least apt to me. I think I might call them:

Snooty
Cranky
Peppy
Jock
Sweet
Laid-back
Posh (the Smugs have always seemed fancy to me)
No-nonsense

Not sure I love hyphenation, but those are the traits that come to mind.

 

[McRibbie]

Reviving this thread after two years of inactivity to show something interesting that I bought from Amazon the other week:

Which, apart from Prima guides being generally awful as usual, are different personality names!
Also bought the ACWW guide, which... yeah, that's where the official names came from (as it was published by Nintendo Power and therefore Nintendo themselves)
(apparently so was this guide in the US, but that requires double-checking)

 

[honeyaura]

Whoooaaaa, had no idea of this! You learn something every day, eh?
Thanks for the info x

 

[smonikkims]

Wow had no idea these names were official. I'm still very curious about uchi and smug though, if there's no official evidence of that ever being called that, how did the entire community and beyond start using the same names? Especially uchi, that seems very specific and out-there to be something to come to mind for absolutely everyone to use. xD

 

[CaramelCookie]

As far as I know, the original names in japanese come from which form of "I" each character uses. For example, using "watashi" to refer to oneself connotes that said person is sweet and polite, while using "atai" signalizes they're energetic and a bit childish. So what was translated as "normal" (by whomever) is "watashi" in the original, and it's literally in-game text. I believe in the theory of "meaning lost in translation" in this case, since english has only one form of "I" and anything else wouldn't make sense.

- - - Post Merge - - -

By the way, with Uchi they didn't even care to translate at all, it's just the form of "I" said characters use. Which makes me think the "translation" was fan-made, because it's just lazy not to even try.

 

[Tri]

LOL at jock once being called "scary".
I can corroborate that Normal/Peppy/etc were in the Prima WW guide.

 

[McRibbie]

As far as I know, the original names in japanese come from which form of "I" each character uses. For example, using "watashi" to refer to oneself connotes that said person is sweet and polite, while using "atai" signalizes they're energetic and a bit childish. So what was translated as "normal" (by whomever) is "watashi" in the original, and it's literally in-game text. I believe in the theory of "meaning lost in translation" in this case, since english has only one form of "I" and anything else wouldn't make sense.

- - - Post Merge - - -

By the way, with Uchi they didn't even care to translate at all, it's just the form of "I" said characters use. Which makes me think the "translation" was fan-made, because it's just lazy not to even try.

When the prerelease info for ACNL came out, the personalities were revealed with some half-translated names, and that's what we've been using to refer to them for years.

- - - Post Merge - - -

When the prerelease info for ACNL came out, the personalities were revealed with some half-translated names, and that's what we've been using to refer to them for years.

http://animalcrossingworld.com/2012...ils-from-the-latest-scans-over-the-past-week/