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Dorcas' Name


JJ48
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Prior to playing Fire Emblem, the only Dorcas I had heard of was the one in the Bible (Acts 9), who was female.  I was just curious if anyone knew whether the name was gender-neutral, or whether it should be chalked up to just differences between Fire Emblem culture and Greek culture (just like Yuri is a girl's name in Japan but a guy's name in Russia).

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Considering the closest I'd know is dorcha, the Irish for darkness (Apparently dorchas is incorrect in any use. I never was good at Irish to be fair), I don't really associate it with names. 

Of course, it also doesn't fit too much for him, does it?

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13 hours ago, Soul~! said:

Sounds masculine as fuck to me.

yeah, it always sounded like a guy's name to me. Then again, the first time I ever heard of the the name was from FE7, so maybe that's half the reason as to why.

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Yeah, looking around on the first page of Google for her, I happened across an Urban Dictionary definition that draws a lot from the Bible, a baby name site that lists Dorcas as more popular a female name than a male name, and a reminder that there was a Dorcas in Harry Potter- an Order of the Phoenix member killed by Voldemort personally. That's all we know about her, but she is mentioned to be female. There is also another Dorcas who appears in the video game's Chocolate Frog Cards- also female.

The name 'Dorcas' is also mentioned as being based on a Greek word for 'gazelle'.

...At the very least, there's also the case of the Tabitha in Pokemon Ruby. It's not the only case of a widely used female name being given to a male... and Tabitha is apparently an alternate name for the biblical Dorcas. (Maybe the Japanese translation of the Bible calls Tabitha/Dorcas male?)

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3 hours ago, phineas81707 said:

Yeah, looking around on the first page of Google for her, I happened across an Urban Dictionary definition that draws a lot from the Bible, a baby name site that lists Dorcas as more popular a female name than a male name, and a reminder that there was a Dorcas in Harry Potter- an Order of the Phoenix member killed by Voldemort personally. That's all we know about her, but she is mentioned to be female. There is also another Dorcas who appears in the video game's Chocolate Frog Cards- also female.

The name 'Dorcas' is also mentioned as being based on a Greek word for 'gazelle'.

...At the very least, there's also the case of the Tabitha in Pokemon Ruby. It's not the only case of a widely used female name being given to a male... and Tabitha is apparently an alternate name for the biblical Dorcas. (Maybe the Japanese translation of the Bible calls Tabitha/Dorcas male?)

In the Japanese Colloquial translation, at least, it definitely uses female kanji for her, so I doubt it was simply a translation error.  However, the point about it meaning "gazelle" may be sufficient.  I could see the Japanese focusing less on the beauty and grace of a gazelle and more on its power and speed, though that may be kind of ironic in light of Dorcas' poor speed growths.

Concerning Tabitha from Pokémon, it was interesting to read that his Japanese name is Homura (fire), and the name "Tabitha" is completely an English localization as an anagram of "habitat" (and possibly relating to the Scythian goddess of fire Tabiti).  I don't know...Fire Emblem may have convinced me that "Dorcas" could be a gender-neutral name, but I don't think Pokémon has accomplished the same with "Tabitha"...

14 hours ago, Dayni said:

Considering the closest I'd know is dorcha, the Irish for darkness (Apparently dorchas is incorrect in any use. I never was good at Irish to be fair), I don't really associate it with names. 

Of course, it also doesn't fit too much for him, does it?

I guess I hadn't considered the possibility that the Japanese could have chosen the name based on some other language, with the official Romanization just using the Greek name due to similarities in sound.  I agree "darkness" doesn't necessarily fit too well, but that sort of thinking does leave room for more potential explanations.

Thank you.  This will require a bit more thinking.

Edited by JJ48
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