PinkuBentoBox

I’ve noticed a lot of confusion surrounding the romanised spellings of characters’ names in Nanoha Strikers. Unfortunately, for both the first and second seasons we had no ‘official’ romanisations available at all, so subbers just went with what sounded right and made sense. And for the most part they got them right as far as we can see. For Strikers, the official website actually has romanisations of the characters’ names. A lot of people have been discounting this as a source of information, especially since there are some conflicting spellings present in text in the opening animation for the show, and some of them are wildly different to what we’re used to and/or look odd. It’s all very confusing. However, I personally think that the website’s spellings can be trusted. You see, a lot of these characters’ names aren’t original at all - someone in the creative team is a car freak, and has taken a whole pile of the characters’ names from the names of various car models.

It’s something they’ve been up to right from the beginning, though only originally with one character as far as I’ve been able to tell. Fate’s last name, Testarossa, is a pretty well known model of Ferrari, as most people are aware. Nanoha’s first season didn’t actually add that many characters - most of them were created for Triangle Heart and the original Lyrical Nanoha spinoff from that which would be the basis for the show as it stands now.

A’s added five major new characters. While Hayate and Shamal don’t appear to have been involved in this name-snatching affair, the other three are most definitely involved. Zafira, Vita and Signum are all models of car produced by GM-subsidary Opel. In many territories they’re released under the Vauxhall, Chevrolet or Holden brands, sometimes rebranded with different names.

As we all know, the cast in Strikers has undergone some major expansion. With it, we gain another pile of car-inspired names. Some of them are a little more obscure than others, and it is entirely possible that a few may even be stretching, but given the overall theme that seems to be going on here, even the stretches are probably right on the mark. Also it’s quite probable that I’ve missed a fair few in the list - drop a comment if you notice any more.

First off, the new members of Nanoha’s squad. I was unable to find anything related to Teana’s last name, Lanster (though for a while I wondered if it might be a corruption of Lancer, a Mitsubishi line) however her given name is taken from the Nissan Teana. Oddly, Teana’s name is romanised phonetically in the opening animation - Tiana - and this has caused a lot of confusion over the correct spelling.

Subaru’s name is pretty obvious. Subaru is a well-known Japanese car manufacturer. However the connection goes a lot deeper than that. Nakajima was the name of one of the Japanese Empire’s principal aircraft manufacturers prior to and during World War II. After Japan’s surrender, Nakajima rebranded themselves to Fuji Heavy Industries. They later started an automotive division, which they named Subaru.

On Fate’s team, we have another pair. A lot of people have been speculating that Caro is probably supposed to be Carol. Not so, Caro is quite correct. A while back, there was a polish company named FSO (eventually they were purchased by Daewoo, and subsequently aquired by GM). FSO released an incredibly horrible car, the FSO Polonez. In several countries - including Japan - the Stationwagon variant of the Polonez was rebranded FSO Caro. Caro’s last name, Ru Lushe, does not seem to be an automotive reference, though. Her boost device [thanks, selkirk] is named Kerykeion, which is not a car reference but instead is the name of Hermes staff, more commonly known as the Caduceus.

Erio has two references associated with him. What we know about his background is that he was an orphan that was adopted by Fate (well, by Lindy, but at Fate’s request). Fate has been teaching him her style, apparently, which makes it quite appropriate that Modial, like Testarossa, is actually a long-running model of Ferrari. There’s another connection here too - Mondial is also a luxury italian motorcycle manufacturer. Erio’s intelligent device, Strada, in italian literally means ’street’ and most italian bike companies (Mondial included) use the term for models of their sports bikes which are designed for use on normal roads. Additionally, there are two car models named Strada - the Mitsubishi Strada (Triton) and the Fiat Strada. Chances are that the reference is the Mitsubishi one, as it’s a Japanese car.

Amongst the supporting cast we find quite a few more car names in evidence. Verossa Acous, Chrono’s partner in crime and one of the two mages aside from Hayate to use the Ancient Velka magic style gets his name from the Toyota Verossa. I was unable to find any automotive references for Acous. The other of the Velka type mage is Carim Gracia. Her name is a little more of a stretch - in Japan, Toyota distribute the Stationwagon variant of the Camry as the Camry Gracia. While Camry and Carim are not the same name, I think the Gracia part is a reference, especially when the other Velka character also takes his name from a Toyota model.

Carim’s assistant-or-whatever-she-is, Schach Nouera, takes her last name from the Mitsuoka Nouera. Mitsuoka are a small Japanese manufacturer who build specialised cars that are designed to resemble British cars from the 1960s, usually by taking existing car models and replacing the body.

All five of the supporting characters in Hayate’s Long Arch group except Shario Finieno take their names from cars. Griffith Lowran is most likely a reference to the TVR Griffith, a sports car made in England that has quite a strong enthusiast following. Vice Granscenic most likely gets his name from the Renault Grand Scenic, which in some territories (Italy, mainly) is labeled Granscenic. Alto Krauetta is most likely a reference to the Suzuki Alto, and Lucino Liilie (I am wondering if this is a spelling mistake, Lillie makes more sense) is a reference to the Nissan Lucino.

Finally, I’ve heard unconfirmed reports that the little girl with the square magic circle in the OP is named Lutecia. If this is true, then it’s more than likely a reference to the Renault Clio, which in Japan is released as the Renault Lutecia.

So, based off this information, we can pretty much assume that every spelling on the website is official. Except for Zafila, which is clearly just an r/l mixup which Japan commits so often. One or two might have been a coincidence, but with this many… where there’s smoke there’s fire, as they say.