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I've seen the anime spell Myne's name as Main in the credits and such, but the
light novels use Myne. Why is this? Where does this name even come from?


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ascendance-of-a-bookworm
Why is Myne's name spelled as both Myne and Main by different sources?


The author's reasoning for Myne's name is explained in the Q and A of the
official fanbook.

> **Q:** What was your inspiration for Urano Motosu's name? Also, I see [...]
> come up in a list of German names, but not "Myne". What was that based on?
>
> **A:** "Urano Motosu" is a Japanese pun that means "all books should belong
> to me." For the English localization, I chose the name "Myne" from a list of
> possible romanizations the translator sent me. It comes from the English
> "mine," meaning "belonging to me," and the German "main," as in "main
> character."

Myne's name is spelled like this in Japanese Katakana: マイン. The symbols
correlate to the English ma, i, and n, but would be pronounced more like the
word "mine" rather than "main", because English is weird. It seems the author
actually had both of these words in mind when choosing the name though.
Spelling it as Myne helps readers differentiate it from these English words.


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As per Shaymin Gratitude, the katakana マイン when transliterated directly would
be Main. This spelling can be seen in the cypher text used in the manga and
anime and was used in the English subtitles on Crunchyroll.

The translator of the light novel and manga (Quof), however, has
[stated](https://www.reddit.com/r/HonzukiNoGekokujou/comments/tq4v2v/main_vs_myne/i2gzopf)
that the author herself chose the spelling “ **Myne** ” which is why it is
used in the English books:

> Myne's name is a bit of a special case wherein I didn't ask for permission
> for a certain spelling; instead, I asked flat-out "How should I spell her
> name in English?" and listed some possibilities such as Maine, Maïne and
> Myne (since back then the fact the fan TL went with Maïne was actually a
> point of contention, and I was unsure of what was intended to begin with).
> The author responded to use Myne. She actually mentions this on her blog
> with her reasoning:
> <https://mypage.syosetu.com/mypageblog/view/userid/372556/blogkey/2269579/index.php?p=2>

Quof has further [expanded](https://forums.j-novel.club/topic/3225/the-great-
renaming-debate-spoilers-if-you-don-t-know-what-the-debate-is-
about/100?_=1654112667293) on the discrepancy (on the J-Novel club subscriber
forums):

> The documents with that name are purely the work of the anime / manga
> artists, with the letters themselves having been made up by the manga artist
> on her own. The name itself is just a 1:1 copy of the romaji (マイン -> main)
> with no more thought to it than that. It's not a reflection of Main being
> the proper or intended romanization of her name, it's just a reflection of
> the anime/manga staff working off the direct romanization since it's the
> easiest thing for them. Miya Kazuki herself asked for me to use Myne and
> makes sure it's spelled Myne in Japanese media where she can, after all. The
> spelling in the fantasy language is just something that slipped through the
> cracks.


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