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Serenity or Selenity? A question that is often brought up among Sailor Moon fans is whether Usagi's name is Princess Serenity or Princess Selenity. In the North American version it is Serenity. However, the name for the Queen of the moon and her daughter can be translated as either Serenity or Selenity. There are some arguments for Serenity. Some say that the Moon Kingdom's main palace is next to the body of Mare Sarenitas on the moon. This is a place called the Sea of Serenity. Therefore, it makes sense that it would be Princess Serenity. But there are also some arguments for Selenity. Selene is the Goddess of the Moon. And Queen Serenity is sometimes referred to as Selene. So she could be named Selenity because of this fact. The fact is, it could be either. There is no Japanese character for an L. So it's always pronounced as an R. So, tecknically it could be either. Since there is no L in Japanese, they could be trying to write Selenity, but write Serenity because there is no L in Japanese. The Serenity/Selenity conflict is similar to other Sailor Moon name conflicts. For example, Haruka's last name. Some people think it is Tenoh, while others will argue that it is Tenou. Because of the way the Japanese language is translated to English, it really can be either. ^.^
Other names that have more than one spelling are: I hope this article has helped you to understand why you've seen some of the names spelled so differently. When you are discussing Sailor Moon on the internet, remember to pick one spelling and stick to it. It is always best if you pick one. For example, I prefer to use "Selenity," "Tenoh," and "Meiou" for some of the names mentioned above. Try not to interchange the names if you have a web site, so that your site looks more consistant. |