Before Attack on Titan's global fandom was blessed with the series' official translations, keeping up to date with the series meant resorting to unofficially translated scans. These translations were not always the most accurate, and initially, Attack on Titan's global lexicon would sometimes contain incorrect information and names that got lost in the fray.

The most famous of these was Levi Ackerman's first name, which was, for a period of time, widely spelled as "Rivaille." Here's what caused the initial confusion over the correct spelling and pronunciation of the Survey Corps squad captain's name.

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Different Alphabets: Levi vs Rivaille

Levi secures a victory during an aerial fight in Attack on Titan

The question of whether or not it's pronounced Levi or Rivaille (or any other variation) is no longer up for debate, as every official translation to date and the creator himself have confirmed that it is indeed pronounced Levi. The only question remaining is: How could such a simple name be so easily lost in translation? Well, the answer is simply that the alphabet works differently in Japan.

In Japan, words like sea have their own Japanese equivalent (Sea = 海 or umi) and are composed using hiragana or kanji. These writing systems are used for terms, objects and/or namesakes of Japanese origin and universal phrases. For instance, greetings, geographical locations and objects such as "good morning" or "mountain" exist and are used everywhere around the world, with each respective language having its own way of expressing these phrases, places or things both written and verbally.

Words of foreign origin, such as "McDonald's," use the katakana writing system. The usage of this system generally implies the word is of foreign origin and, as such, is interpreted phonetically due to the difference in alphabets. For example, despite there being no Japanese equivalent for the "Mc" (Mick) or "L" in the word "McDonald's," the spelling in katakana, "マクドナルド" (Ma-Ku-Do-Na-Ru-Do phonetically), when read together phonetically sounds like "McDonald's," and can be interpreted as such -- again, due to the understanding that words written in katakana are generally of foreign origin.

In katakana, Levi is spelled "リヴァイ." The "リ" is pronounced "ri," "ヴ" is pronounced "vu," and combined "ァイ" is pronounced "ai" (or "eye").  If read literally, "Rivuai" is spelled, but how does this become "Levi?" As katakana is involved, phonetic interpretation is required when reading, and unlike an iconic name such as McDonald's, the names of characters are highly subjective and variable. Keep in mind these fan translations coincided with the Japanese releases of Attack on Titan and Levi's series debut. As such, even those fluent in Japanese could have easily misconstrued what creator Hajime Isayama's intentions were in terms of Levi's name when translated. As such, "Rivuai" and other variations of "Levi" are most likely a product of unofficial translators playing it safe, electing to translate Levi's name literally rather than taking a shot in the dark.

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What about "Ribaille?"

Hange Zoe and Levi Ackkerman staring at one another in Attack on Titan pre-timeskip

The equivalent to "V" in hiragana is "B." (katakana has a "V" equivalent, "ヴ," or "Vu," because it is the Japanese writing system literally designated for foreign words, many of which use the letter "V.") The "L" equivalent is to "R." Thus, in hiragana, "Levi" can be spelled  "リばいる" (リ= ri, ばい = bai, る=ru) or Ribairu, which is one of a few hiragana compositions of Levi based on its pronunciation. This composition also works in katakana, and as a lot of copying, pasting, translating, retranslating and interpreting goes into fan translations, it's not far fetched that somewhere along the line "Levi" in katakana got translated into hiragana and again into English.

As "R" is equivalent to "L" and "B" is equivalent to "V," "Ribairu" (which is already wrong) got interpreted as "Rivaille." Maybe they interpreted that the "R" in "Ri" should stay as such, but that the "Bairu" at the end sounded better as "Vaille," which combined gives us "Rivaille."

Despite the numerous erroneous translations and interpretations, Levi is and always will be the character's actual, official name in Attack on Titan.

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