Name!

Bura vs Bra, Eschalot, and...Bulla?

The skinny on Bura's names. Why are they spelled the way they are? Which is right? Why Bulla, of all things? And what's an Eschalot?!

Firstly, let's have a look at her original name. The spelling of Bura's name in katakana, the Japanese alphabet used to spell out non-native words (and occasionally used to add emphasis to words), is ブ (bu) ラ (ra). This spelling is confirmed by multiple sources, and straight from the mouth of Toriyama Akira-sensei himself in the Dragon Ball Forever guidebook. ブラ in Japanese translates to bra, as in brassiere, the women's underwear, and thus continuing the underclothing pun theme of Buruma's family. Technically, both Bura and Bra are correct names for her -- 'Bura' is simply the Japanese pronunciation of 'Bra'. The word ブラ is a 外来語 - a gairai-go, or loan word, which refers to a word in the Japanese vocabulary of foreign origin that was not originally borrowed from the Chinese language. There is no particular stress on either of the syllables in Bura's name.

On the subject of Bura's surname...it's highly likely that it isn't "Briefs-Vegeta", as many a fan has dubbed her (and as cool as that would sound), if only for the fact that neither she nor her family's surnames are ever mentioned in any of the source material. Secondly, as Videl states in Dragon Ball manga chapter 425, it's rare for people to have surnames in the Dragon World during the timeframe of Z and S (and the side-canon of GT) -- the Son gentlemen are the exceptions, not the rule! -- so it's probable that she and her family simply do not have a surname, like most of the population. The name "Briefs" is likely to be her grandfather Dr. Briefs' given name, once again continuing the underwear pun names of Buruma's family. (It sounds weird, but think of it this way: if Bura went to university and gained a doctorate, she would be "Doctor Bura".) The evidence for this is overwhelming; we are given very little indication that Briefs is anything but a given name.

If Briefs or some variation thereof was indeed their surname, it would have been apellated to Buruma's name, or somehow included in Buruma's mother's name. As it is, she's only ever known as "Buruma no mama", "Buruma's mom", even on official merchandise such as trading cards! Though on the upside, Toriyama-sensei has stated that if he was to give her a name, it would have been "Panchy" (think "panties"...), again continuing with the under-puns.

While the addition of "Vegeta" as a surname sounds rather fitting, considering she's the daughter of the Saiyajin prince in question, we don't canonically known if the Saiyajin even used surnames -- all we know for sure is that their names are all vegetable puns. Toriyama-sensei hasn't given us any further information on Saiyajin naming traditions, except that sons are sometimes given their father's names (as seen with Vegeta and his father). Also, we have to take Vegeta's ego into account here -- would he ever let his name be hyphenated? His name is directly linked to his heritage, which he has always been viciously proud of, and he became even more so when he ended up as one of the very last full-blooded Saiyajin left in the universe. If anything, should he have insisted on a surname for his children, his name would definitely have come first!

Onto a fitting name for a Saiyajin princess -- Eschalot. What Vegeta wanted to name his daughter before Buruma got in the first shot and continued the undergarments theme. What on earth, Vegeta?! This is surprisingly complex, believe it or not.

An eschalot could be a few different things, depending on where you are in the world -- but first things first, an eschalot is a type of onion. What type? That depends. In Australia (where your webmiss resides), 'eschalot' refers exclusively to Allium cepa var. aggregatum -- also known as the French shallot. In the US, it's simply known as a 'shallot'. (And what Australians call a shallot is a 'scallion' to USians and a 'spring onion' in the UK). But what is an eschalot (エシャロット -- esharotto) to Japanese speakers? It's an Allium cepa L. var. aggregatum, a hybrid version of Allium cepa var. aggregatum. It's taken from the French échalot, referring to Allium cepa var. aggregatum, which has long been a very important part of French cuisine.

(Did I just write an entire paragraph on onion etymology? Yes, yes, I did. The things you do for a Saiyajin princess...)

There's more to Vegeta's choice of Bura's Saiyajin name than just a pretty-sounding vegetable pun -- interestingly, eschalots are related very closely to the garlic family...and Vegeta's first signature attack is the Galick Gun, punning on garlic. And when you consider that in the Dragon Ball Fusions video game, Bura is also able to perform the Galick Gun...this could suggest that the name Eschalot, in Saiyajin society, denotes an undercurrent of power or skill. It may be a reach, but it's an interesting thought, all the same.

I for one adore the name Eschalot purely on a sound basis. It's a gorgeous name, and imagine what it sounds like to Saiyajin ears: definitively feminine, pretty, but regal. I love thinking that when speaking of something serious or important to Bura, Vegeta would use his daughter's Saiyajin name, and he is the only person she will let call her such.

Now onto the stickier subject...the dreaded dub name. Why was Bura saddled with "Bulla" when she came to the English-speaking world? Primarily, I think it's because of the way Buruma is romanised (when you haven't developed the arguably annoying habit of using the literal romanisation like yours truly, of course): Bulma. It makes sense to have Bulma's daughter have a name that sounds similar to hers...or so we're lead to believe. Secondly, I don't think there's any possible way that Bura's name could have been kept intact when introduced to an English-speaking audience because of its meaning. Dragon Ball is marketed as primarily a children's anime, and there is no way "bra" in any form is going to get past the censors. (Apparently English-speaking children are far more delicate than Japanese ones. You could have fooled me.)

However, Bura's name escaped the changes that were given to Paresu/Valese -- Bula, at least, is one possible pronounciation of ブラ, given that in Japanese the 'r' sound is sometimes also an 'l' sound. In actuality, all the 'r'-sounds in Japanese are pronounced somewhere between the English 'l' and 'r', so at a pinch (and just like her okaasan's name!), Bulla could be considered right, or at least somewhere in the vicinity of right! Usually doubled letters indicate a glottal stop in romaji of Japanese words, though (represented by a っ in Japanese script -- think まって "matte", だった "datta", and so forth), and there is no stop in Bura's name.

Above, I referred to Bulla as the "dreaded dub name". I jest about the dreaded part, but in all honestly, I dislike Bulla as a name -- I don't like the way it sounds, the way it looks...it doesn't have the delicateness of "Bura", in my highly irrelevant opinion. Also, in my country? Bulla is a brand of dairy food. I'm not kidding. Every time I heard the name Bulla while watching the GT dub, all I could think of was delicious, delicious creaming-soda ice pops. (There again, I suppose that's not an altogether bad thing...)

"Bulla" also sounds a bit too close to "blah" for my liking, which, incidentally, is how I feel about the name. Love those coincidences, baby. ;P

These days in fandom, Bura is mostly referred to by her dub name, which is understandable, since the dub has brought awareness of Dragon Ball GT to far more people than the fansubs ever did. When referred to by her original name, it is far more common amongst the fans to spell her name "Bra" in English for sure; at the beginning of Bura fandom it was split more evenly. So why do I use the spelling "Bura"? For a couple of reasons, some of them more legitimate than others, and both of them for the same reason I use "Paresu" instead of "Valese": firstly, aesthetics. I'm rather fond of the way her name looks when spelled phonetically. Secondly...simple habit! When I first became a Bura fan, it was a few years before any dub was released, and I knew her only as "Bura". From the very beginning of this shrine's existence, I referred to Bura as just that, and it stuck!