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The Mystery of the Name
Granchester
by Nuria Marquez
Teryūsu G guranchesutā is what Nagita called Terry in the Candy Candy manga.
テ リ ュ ー ス · G · グ ラ ン チ ェ ス タ
Writing a western surname using Japanese is very complicated, because in that language you cannot join several consonants in the same syllable. Therefore, when we try to translate the surname from Japanese it leads to many confusions, since グ ラ ン チ ェ ス タ can be translated as:
– Grand Chester
– Grandchester
– Grantchester
– Granchester
But which one is correct?
Many fans use “Grandchester” and from in the first fanfics ever written it’s used that spelling. Apparently during the first communications of western fans with people close to Nagita they spelled the surname that way when they translated to the western alphabet.
But actually, the surname Grandchester does not exist.
The only time you we find this name is in place in Queensland, Australia, called Grandchester. The name was given in 1865 by Governor Bowen, and it was originally called Bigge’s Camp (which sounds like “Big Scamp”). When the Governor inaugurated the train tracks in the town he suggested the name to be Latinized to Grand (big) Chester (field).
“Grantchester” with a “t” is most popular form used in England. It is the name of a town outside of Cambridge and the name comes from the Saxon “chester” which means “fort”. This place is mentioned in a Pink Floyd song and in recent years it has also given name to a television series. Grantchester is also known as the place with the highest concentration of Nobel prizes.
Grantchester also gives name to title, but it is quite recent: Baron of Grantchester, which was first granted to Alfred Jesse Suenson-Taylor in 1953.
Throughout history, Grantchester however is written numerous times without the t, and written as Granchester.
Historically there are very few records of “Granchester” as a surname, because most of them refer to the town on Cambridgeshire.
However, we can find an “Anthony Granchester” in 1350, that was an ecclesiastical mandatory at Cambridge University, and also a family tree of the early twentieth century family with that surname.
And how do you spell Terry's last name in the anime in the different translations?
Well, Toei wrote Terruce Granchester.
When the manga was translated into different languages this is what we find:
In Italy it was Granchester
In France Granchester
In Spain Granchester
In Greece Τέρρυ or Τέρενς Γκράντζεστερ, which would sound like Grandchester
In China there were two versions, in Cantonese it is Gé (Gé lán táo sī), in Mandarin 格蘭 陶 斯 (Gé lán dí lǐsī). Both very far from the western versions.
Curiosities:
Terry changes his surname to “Graham” in CCFS. Currently in the USA there are 50 Terence Graham.
