Character names: Lost in translation?

I'd like to know why characters have names like Quote, Curly Brace, Misery, Booster, etc. Are these the actual translations of what Pixel named the characters, or did the person who translated Cave Story take some creative liberties? Would it be possible to get the Japanese names for these characters in English characters?
I know the Korons got their name changed into a punctuation mark: so did Quote's name in Japanese sound like "quote", so that's what the translator made it? I'm pretty sure Japanese doesn't use braces or quotation marks.

 

Sue=Suu
Misery=Miza.. I think...

 

Google!!

From what I've seen the names are more like puns and such, Quote and Curly's coming from the Quotation Mark " and Curly Bracket { {Although, I call it the Curly Brace now..}, most likely because of their origins. {That I know from what I saw on the Wiki Article, which I can't find now..}
Booster's was most likely given because of his inventions {Not because they're called Boosters, but because they boosted}.
Misery's, I like to think, came from her behavior, which inflicted....misery...on people. ...And herself....
Not sure about Balrog. Though I also like to think it's making fun of a certain someone....
Doctor I've got no idea on, but the name on his statue might mean something...{I didn't get it..}
Anyways, back to the actual question, I'm pretty sure they're actual translations from Pixel, and not some mix-up.

Now that I think about it, where did Ballos' name come from...?

 

Now that I think about it, where did Ballos' name come from...?

Ballos, the WRITHING BALL OF INSANITY!!!

 

O.O

Ballos, the WRITHING BALL OF INSANITY!!!

Holy crap, that makes sense. O.o;

 

Holy crap, that makes sense. O.o;

Is it shocking because it's obvious or because it came from me, the writhing ball of insanity?

 

Sorry

Is it shocking because it's obvious or because it came from me, the writhing ball of insanity?

Sorry, I meant because it's so obvious. I would have never saw that o.o

 

Sorry, I meant because it's so obvious. I would have never saw that o.o

I'm curious about Itoh and Momorin.

 

Eh...

I'm curious about Itoh and Momorin.

Maybe those names, and the Doctor's real one, are from some people Pixel knows? o.o But then again, Pixel said he didn't base these characters on anyone...
Something tells me they'd make more sense if I knew some japanese o.o
Or maybe they're just something creative like Mimiga? {Or did I miss an allusion..?}
*shrugs*

 

Maybe those names, and the Doctor's real one, are from some people Pixel knows? o.o But then again, Pixel said he didn't base these characters on anyone...
Something tell me they'd make more sense if I knew some japanese o.o
Or maybe they're just something creative like Mimiga? {Or did I miss an allusion..?}
*shrugs*

Damn you Pixel, my God, for your Godly ways!

 

!

Damn you Pixel, my God, for your Godly ways!

Don't damn him! {Even sarcastic or jokingly}
I mean, he made such a freakin' awesome game, storyline, character cast, and soundtrack all by himself.....!
Although there's few holes or annoying little things {Like the names} left behind, there's only a few, and those few are pretty small.....

 

Don't damn him! {Even sarcastic or jokingly}
I mean, he made such a freakin' awesome game, storyline, character cast, and soundtrack all by himself.....!
Although there's few holes or annoying little things {Like the names} left behind, there's only a few, and those few are pretty small.....

I'm a slave to the details.

 

Thanks for the input, andwhyisit. Lowell, the names like Misery, Quote and maybe Curly are puns on the phonetics of the Japanese names. For example, Misery's Japanese name is Miza. See the resemblance? Misery would be called something else if her Japanese name was Iakota or something (I totally pulled that one out of my ass).
I still want to know the original names of Quote and Curly, though. And if Booster's Japanese name translates into "booster".
Also, I think Balrog is named after Tolkien's mythical character, which is supposed to be big and evil. Not really the best fitting name in my eyes, but I'm sure they had a good reason for it, i.e., his actual name started with "ba".

 

Wow! Where the hell did the rest of the cave story wikipedia article go?
As far as Quote and Curly go, I thought that their names were direct translations (wasn't that in the wikipedia article?). kuwoto = quote (written in katakana of course) and similarly for Curly and Booster I imagine. Can anyone using the japanese version confirm this?
Fuyohiko Date, Momorin, Itoh aren't implausible Japanese names at all, so Pixel probably just made them up. If I'm not mistaked Itoh is a pretty common surname.

 

4. Fully coloured posts are not allowed in order to improve readability in all skins.

...

 

Wow! Where the hell did the rest of the cave story wikipedia article go?

That's what I'd like to know... This wasn't the first time the CS Wiki has been trimmed down (Originally, the story details, with spoilers, were included, too.), but the name translations were not really something to be removed...

Anyway, while I was going through my Notepad files on my laptop, I did manage to find Curly's name, ripped straight from the Wiki itself before the "recent" change (I have no idea when it was altered, though...).

カーリーブレイス, Kārī Burēsu

Had I known the Wiki was going to be altered, I would've archived all the listed names... I guess that's my mistake for not thinking ahead.

 

...

Was your elipses directed at me?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cave_Story&oldid=273157457

That's an old version of the Wikipedia page with the names on.

Kwōto
Kārī Burēsu
Sakamoto Sū
Date Fuyuhiko (Dokutā)
Barurogu
Kingu
Jakku
Būsutā-hakase
Āsā

 

Good sir, I award you one internet. The mystery of Cave Story's odd names is finally solved.

 

Selected names:
クォート ,Kwōto - Quote
カーリーブレイス ,Kārī Burēsu - Curly Brace
バルログ ,Barurogu - Balrog
ミザリー ,Mizarī - Misery
ボロス ,Borosu - Ballos
キング ,Kingu - King
ジャック ,Jakku - Jack
アーサー ,Āsā - Arthur
ブースター博士 ,Būsutā-hakase - Prof. Booster

It should be noted that these names are all in Katakana (except for booster, professor is in kanji). Katakana is generally used for foreign words, typically words in english(but not restricted to english). From that we can conclude that the names we use for these characters were not "Lost in translation", as you say.

I'm sure most people guessed that, but just to verify.