Well, this carries on from my blog last Tuesday “Norway, Sweden you rock!!” regarding the immensely exciting event of my book “Amy’s Secret” being published in Sweden and also Norway (but in Norway it’s called “Susan’s Secret”). I was moved to wonder why they changed the name in Norway and the lovely Kaia made the following comment.(Which you can read if you go back to aforementioned blog…)



 She says-”Oh man. I’m Swedish, and I’m glad they didn’t change the name here! They do that sometimes, though there is no reason to do so, for example it took me until I was a teenager and then some to figure out why everyone abroad called Kitty Drew NANCY Drew. Yes, her name is Kitty here. No idea why. In the Harry Potter books they translate some of the last names into hilarity. Needless to say, it’s a long time since I stopped reading translated works… Most still read them, but I just can’t stomach it. “

Which also ties in with my experience with google translator- it was very funny. Thanks Kaia!

But my point for this blog is- (you knew I’d get here eventually, didn’t you?) Can you imagine- KITTY Drew? I mean,I read all those books as a kid and blow me down, it’s quite odd to think of  Nancy as Kitty. So I started thinking- along the same lines as the immortal bard- would a rose called by any other name still be as sweet?

For example- would” Bradley Potter” have cut the mustard?Would “Geoffrey Cullen” still be an immortal hero?What about “Ratso Baggins?” “Betty in Wonderland?” “Agnes and the Seven Dwarfs?”

You could argue that the name doesn’t make the story- as our friend from Sweden points out- she thought that “Nancy” was an odd name, having grown up with ‘Kitty’ and in my own case I believe ‘Susan’ fits the character- but it’s just an odd experience to have a real live fictional charcter that I invented and know quite well suddenly named something else.It's quite intriguing- no?
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