Which version of Rudo's full name should I use?

I'm running into a problem while writing PSII stories, and that is I don't like Rudo's full name. My issues:

1) Rudolf Steiner, historically, is a well-known philosopher, and it's such a character clash for PSII's Rudo.

2) His alternate name, Rudger, doesn't nickname to Rudo, and I also don't care for the spelling. I would have preferred Rüdiger, Rutger or Rudgar, which have more history as given names.

3)Rudolf as a given name is par ridiculous in the USA, since Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is by far the most prevalent association with the name.

4)I've seen Rudoga as a variant of his Japanese name (I think), but I'm not sure how I feel about using it in my stories. Is it too obscure?

I'm leaning towards using Rudoga, but maybe I should just leave his name as Rudolf and learn to deal with its ridiculousness.

Important information for consideration: I use Rudo most of the time when referring to him in my stories, but eventually his full name will come up.

Personally I like the sound of Rudoga as well. I’ve never heard his name being spelt that way before either so it sounds kinda cool.

I'd go with Rudolf, as it is the most familiar version of the name to me. Rudoga is a variant I've never seen before, but it seems even more silly to me than Rudolf.

Thoul wrote:

I'd go with Rudolf, as it is the most familiar version of the name to me. Rudoga is a variant I've never seen before, but it seems even more silly to me than Rudolf.

This confirms what I thought: Leave his name alone. *sigh* Whoever chose the "westernized" names for PSII didn't really put a lot of effort into it, it seems. I'm not even going to touch the silliness of having Rolf and Rudolf be two of the primary characters. Argh.

There's always Rudy, but that sounds too close to Rolf... =(

Snorb wrote:

There's always Rudy, but that sounds too close to Rolf... =(

Yeah, it's just an unfortunate naming situation. Really, Rolf and Rudo? Are we naming dogs or people? Oh well, at least the characters are still interesting. I just need to get over my name nerdiness here!

The problem with Rolf is that he sounds like another short for Rudolf. Unlike Rudolf, whose original name was Rudger, Rolf has nothing to do with the original Eusis. Why they did choose Rolf if beyond my understanding...

By the way, Rudolf is not a bad name for him. If you associate him with Dolph Lundgren, then you get a guy that matches Rudo appearance

tilinelson2 wrote:

By the way, Rudolf is not a bad name for him. If you associate him with Dolph Lundgren, then you get a guy that matches Rudo appearance

You're not too far off with that comparison, actually. I think Rudo is supposed to be based on Rutger Hauer. I'm assuming that's where they came up with Rudger as one of his names. Anyway, I think Rudo looks more like Dolph Lundgren than Rutger Hauer, so I wonder if that's something Sega took into consideration when renaming Rudo for the western market.

You're right about Rolf, too. Rolf is a contracted form of the name Rudolf, so basically two of the main characters have the same name. I like the name Rudolf in a vacuum, but here in North America the overwhelming association is that stupid reindeer. It kind of ruins it as a good name for a macho guy, though I still like the nickname Rudo.

I don't know why they went with Rolf, either. They could have used Eustace, although it doesn't really strike me as a "hero" name.

They say Rudo was based on Rutger Hauter, from Blade Runner and Anna was based on Nastassja Kinski. But I think Rudo may be because of Dolph Lundgren, mostly because he was fresher from movies like Rocky IV and Masters of the Universe.

Haha, it happens sometimes with some names. There was a worse case here in Brazil, where they used the name Braulio to name "you know what" in a campaign about prevention of STDs. It is better to be named Rudolf