Anime and manga are known for the characters with names that have something coded in them, and Spy X Family is no exception.
Forger's surname holds a double meaning, but Yor's name had a pun in it by accident.
Puns can work both in English and Japanese, and the tennis tournament episode explains it well.
Authors do think a lot about the naming aspects of their works and the characters in them. Sure, some of the puns are pretty straightforward, and the Japanese language using kanji that have multiple meanings helps a lot with conveying the message, and maybe the character's destiny, right in the name. But we're here to talk about Spy x Family, a series that stars characters with European names. And you probably didn't think about it, but the names of the characters hold a lot of meaning.
Forging the bonds and identities
Take the surname Forger, for example. This word has two meanings: a con artist who, say, forges fake documents, or someone who creates something, forges it, like a smith. And thinking about the premise of this story — a spy, a person who forges his identity daily due to his job, has to become a part of a fake family and forge a relationship with them — you realize that this surname perfectly utilizes both meanings of this word.
Another pun, although accidental, is Yor's name. In Japanese, it's written as "yoru", which means "night". Tatsuya Endo said in one of the interviews that it was completely unintentional — at first, he wanted to name her Yolanda, but it was too long, so he shortened it to Yor. But this accident helped tie her with Loid a little bit stronger, as his codename is Twilight. Loid's name is based on the old term: back in the day, "loiding" was used to describe lockpicking.
Multi-language puns
Loid's codename is that it's also a pun: in Japanese "twilight" is written as tasogare, and the most significant quality for a spy is to be as insignificant as possible, which can be written as dare no kare — "who's that guy". So Loid's ability is hidden in a phonetic pun in his title. Yor's surname, Briar, also correlates with her title — The Thorn Princess, as briar patches have lots of thorns.
Another more on-the-nose pun happened in the finale of Season 1 at the tennis tournament: Loid and Fiona used the surname Foney, which is a parody of the word "phony", a liar, and used names Twain and Nafalia, which are the jumbled up versions of their codenames. In the Japanese version, they were named Garesso (an anagram of tasogare with a bit of extra flair) and Tobary (based on the word tobari, "curtain", as she hides her feelings).
This probably escaped everyone whose native language is not English, and we're happy to educate.
Anime and manga are known for the characters with names that have something coded in them, and Spy X Family is no exception.
Forger's surname holds a double meaning, but Yor's name had a pun in it by accident.
Puns can work both in English and Japanese, and the tennis tournament episode explains it well.
Authors do think a lot about the naming aspects of their works and the characters in them. Sure, some of the puns are pretty straightforward, and the Japanese language using kanji that have multiple meanings helps a lot with conveying the message, and maybe the character's destiny, right in the name. But we're here to talk about Spy x Family, a series that stars characters with European names. And you probably didn't think about it, but the names of the characters hold a lot of meaning.
Forging the bonds and identities
Take the surname Forger, for example. This word has two meanings: a con artist who, say, forges fake documents, or someone who creates something, forges it, like a smith. And thinking about the premise of this story — a spy, a person who forges his identity daily due to his job, has to become a part of a fake family and forge a relationship with them — you realize that this surname perfectly utilizes both meanings of this word.
Another pun, although accidental, is Yor's name. In Japanese, it's written as "yoru", which means "night". Tatsuya Endo said in one of the interviews that it was completely unintentional — at first, he wanted to name her Yolanda, but it was too long, so he shortened it to Yor. But this accident helped tie her with Loid a little bit stronger, as his codename is Twilight. Loid's name is based on the old term: back in the day, "loiding" was used to describe lockpicking.
Multi-language puns
Loid's codename is that it's also a pun: in Japanese "twilight" is written as tasogare, and the most significant quality for a spy is to be as insignificant as possible, which can be written as dare no kare — "who's that guy". So Loid's ability is hidden in a phonetic pun in his title. Yor's surname, Briar, also correlates with her title — The Thorn Princess, as briar patches have lots of thorns.
Another more on-the-nose pun happened in the finale of Season 1 at the tennis tournament: Loid and Fiona used the surname Foney, which is a parody of the word "phony", a liar, and used names Twain and Nafalia, which are the jumbled up versions of their codenames. In the Japanese version, they were named Garesso (an anagram of tasogare with a bit of extra flair) and Tobary (based on the word tobari, "curtain", as she hides her feelings).
This probably escaped everyone whose native language is not English, and we're happy to educate.
