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The NES was known as the "Famicom" in Japan, short for "Family Computer".

But why was it given an English name in Japan, given (I assume) most people wouldn't know what the words "Family Computer" meant? Why did they not give it a name in Japanese?

Elias Zamaria
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komodosp
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    Don't be so eager to assume they wouldn't know the meaning. Foreign words, English in particular, are relatively common in their language (they even have a syllabary for that, which is Katakana). In particular, "computer" in Japanese is read (in romaji) KONPYUUTA, approximately as the English word. – Piovezan Jan 12 '22 at 00:49
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    English-language branding is quite common in Japan, as the language has some cachet here. One relevant example would be Family Mart, a chain convenience store, which sells "Famichiki," a boneless fried chicken. – Jim Nelson Jan 12 '22 at 01:29
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    @JimNelson Oh yes, prepare for a culture shock when visiting a Japanese 7eleven :) – Raffzahn Jan 12 '22 at 02:55
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    @Piovezan Strictly speaking, katakana has nothing to do with foreign language, it just happens to be used for it (kana in general are used all over the place in Japanese language for all kinds of other things). The bigger factor here is that English language is a mandatory part of Japanese secondary education (though I’m not sure if this would have been the case back when the Famicom came out). – Austin Hemmelgarn Jan 12 '22 at 13:13
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    In Japan, naming things in English signifies premium mediocre. Here’s a more recent example of this type of branding… – user3840170 Jan 12 '22 at 13:16
  • The Silver Linings Playbook was named Happiness Therapy in the French version: still English words, so it still feels "English", but much more widely known to the general French public than the "Silver Linings" idiom. It's not unique to Japan ;) – Matthieu M. Jan 12 '22 at 13:49
  • @MatthieuM. You see the same thing with the names of English-language films in German-speaking countries. Though the films are typically dubbed the titles are frequently in English albeit with simpler/more common words chosen. – Alex Hajnal Jan 12 '22 at 14:04
  • It's not just the system, the games also frequently used English words. – eps Jan 12 '22 at 16:40
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    @JimNelson: Many Japanese toys have names which are formed from combinations of English words, such as "Pocket Monster" or "Micro Machines". That's a general cultural phenomenon, and the Nintendo Famicom ("Family Computer") is a very typical example. – supercat Jan 12 '22 at 17:33
  • "Pocari Sweat" is the brand name of a popular Japanese sports drink. Go figure... – John Doty Jan 13 '22 at 20:52
  • The Sega SG-1000 was launched at the same time, with a name made entirely of western characters, and "COMPUTER VIDEO GAME" plastered on the front. – hobbs Jan 14 '22 at 00:20
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    It's like in England there is an English store called ''Pret a Manger'' which sounds exotic in English but obviously far from it in French. – Tom Jan 14 '22 at 21:47

3 Answers3

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But why was it given an English name in Japan

Foreign Branding is a common marketing strategy to give a product a more distinguished name. Think 'Häagen-Dazs', a fantasy name with some Nordic 'flair' created in the US by a Polish Immigrant), or like French named 'Au Bon Pain' can be found in many US malls, but not anywhere in Europe.

Oh, and then there is that US company called '当たり', although, spelled in latin :))

given (I assume) most people wouldn't know what the words "Family Computer" meant?

Well, no need to do so, as it was repeated in all marketing material:

Famicom Logo

The sub title 'ファミリーコンピュータ' reads literally 'Family Computer'(*1), so people would be able to pronounce it when using the name even without any knowledge in English.

A name is just a name, there is no need to 'understand' the name. Or do you understand the word 'horse' beyond it naming for a kind of equid?

*1 - Well, transcription is more like 'Fu-a-mi-ri-ko-n-pi-yu-ta', pronounced like 'Famirikonpyuta'

Raffzahn
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    Minor nitpick for the transcription. Japanese doesn't have a fa sound, so the fu is followed by a small ya which transforms the two characters to fa (or technically fya), the same is true for pi + (small) yu = pyu. ri and pyu are followed by a "long sound symbol" which elongates the vowels, so the transcription is a little off and should be something like fya-mi-rii-ko-n-pyuu-ta :) – QBrute Jan 12 '22 at 09:21
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    @QBrute ァ is a small ア (a) rather than ヤ (ya), so it's fa and not fya. (But otherwise I agree.) – N. Virgo Jan 12 '22 at 10:14
  • @N.Virgo Ah didn't notice that, thanks for the clarification – QBrute Jan 12 '22 at 10:33
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    off topic, but delighted (though not surprised) to spot yet another use of the famous Avant Garde font in the wild! Wish I knew more about the pecularities of latin/japanese font pairings... – kubi Jan 12 '22 at 12:31
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    @kubi There's a nice (German) site about typesetting for Japanese with a Section about mixing fonts. Of course, above is rather dictated by logo design than typesetting guidelines, avoiding many pitfalls. – Raffzahn Jan 12 '22 at 12:48
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    Like an American company naming itself Atari? – Davislor Jan 12 '22 at 15:41
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    @Davislor Good point :)) I think I'll steal it :)) – Raffzahn Jan 12 '22 at 19:14
  • @QBrute Note to get too off topic, but there is a trope in movies of Asians saying words like "family" as "famiry" and I've heard it myself personally - is there no "L" for them to have transliterated? – corsiKa Jan 12 '22 at 23:10
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    One other minor nitpick: when followed by an "m", "b", or "p" sound, ん/ン is pronounced as "m". – Tim Jan 13 '22 at 00:31
  • The name is not some exotic foreign-sounding name that's gibberish to native speakers, like "Häagen-Dazs" or "Atari" in English. Japanese has a lot of borrowed words from English - something like 8% of common words in Japanese are English loanwords. Both 「ファミリー」 ("famirii" = family) and 「コンピュータ」("konpyuuta" = computer) are common words that everyone would know, even if they don't know English. – BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft Jan 13 '22 at 02:19
  • @BlueRaja-DannyPflughoeft Not sure what your point is. Every language adopts foreign words. But that's not the point here. It's about usage of those words to spin a certain image. – Raffzahn Jan 13 '22 at 02:25
  • @corsiKa no, there's only "ra", "ri", "ru", "re" and "ro", but the "r" sound is much much softer and borders on sounding like an "L". But I think that depends on the person and region they're from. Just like how in western countries things are pronounced differently in different regions. But in general, there are no "L" sounds per se. – QBrute Jan 13 '22 at 08:49
  • Japanese has a list of special characters in katakana (these Japanese letters) that aren't in hiragana (the more common letters). – user2617804 Jan 13 '22 at 08:49
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    @user2617804 No. Hirogana and Katakana sets are exact copies of each other. Think of them as small and CAPS letters. Anything written in one script can be 1:1 converted to another and back. In practice there is a small difference about long vowels with katakana generally written with ー, but it is not exactly forbidden to use same style in hiragana. – Oleg V. Volkov Jan 13 '22 at 11:48
  • I remember 20 years ago doing my first internationalization task. After getting the Japanese translation and running it, trying to pronounce the katakana translation for "Main Menu"...and I was surprised to find it sounded just like the English like "Main Menu". – rtaft Jan 13 '22 at 15:14
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There are several interviews with Masayuki Uemura (the creator of the familiy computer) online that contain a section about the name “family computer”. Many publications seem to be copied from each other, making it hard to find a definitive source. The following is taken from soranews24 dated April 2013:

The name “Family Computer” was chosen by Uemura himself. At that time Nintendo had its developers choose the name of its products rather than the marketing department. He often would hear the terms “personal computer” or “home computer” but liked the idea of a “family computer” and could envision a family gathered in the living room playing his machine together. Although the shortened “Famicom” came about organically in Japan, Uemura had been ahead of the trend thanks to some sage-like advice from his wife.

“When I told my wife about the name Family Computer she said ‘Why not just call it Famicom? Everyone’s just going to shorten it to Famicom anyway.’ I thought she had a good idea so I took it to my boss. He rejected it saying ‘Famicom? That makes no sense.’ (laughs)”

WimC
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Japanese, as with most other human languages, has a lot of loanwords from foreign languages, such as パン (pan) from the Portugese pão, (in turn from Latin panum) meaning bread, and コンテスト (contesuto) from the English word "contest."

Both ファミリー (famirii) and コンピューター (compyuutaa) were words well known to Japanese people in the '80s, the former from at least 1973 when ファミリーマート (famirii maato, FamilyMart), a ubiquitous chain of convenience stores, was established, and the latter for obvious reasons. These words are no less familiar to Japanese people than "futon" or "sushi" are to you.

So just as you would not consider a shop named "Futon Bazaar" to be named in a foreign language, the Japanese see ファミリーコンピューター (famirii compyuutaa) as a Japanese phrase.

The shortening to ファミコン (famicom) is not something Nintendo did (due to a trademark issue), but it is a natural and organic shortening of the phrase to four mora that is extremely common in Japan, particularly (but far from exclusively) for phrases consisting of two loanwords. (The resulting words are called 短縮形 (tanshukukei, "contracted form") or 略称 (ryakushou, "abbreviation").) So:

  • パーソナルコンピュータ (paasonaru conpyuuta, "personal computer") → パソコン (pasocon)
  • コンビニエンスストア (conbiniensu stoa, "convenience store") → コンビニ (conbini)
  • ワンレングス (wan rengusu, hair cut to a single length) → ワンレン (wanren)
  • Dreams Come True (a Japanese band) → ドリカム (durikamu)
  • 東京大学 (toukyou daigaku, Tokyo University) → 東大 (toudai)

and many, many others.

Oh, and let's not forget my favourite my favourite user group and Telegram channel here in Japan:

  • 東京Retrocomputing (toukyou returoconpyutingu) → 東レ (tourei)
cjs
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  • What transliteration renders ‘コ’ as 'co', but ‘カ’ as 'ka'? – user3840170 May 14 '23 at 14:33
  • パン (pan) comes from the Portuguese pão: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/50252/is-the-japanese-word-pan-%E3%83%91%E3%83%B3-related-in-its-origins-to-the-spanish-word-pan – ninjalj May 14 '23 at 15:20
  • @user3840170 "Japanese" transliteration. Though Hepburn always uses 'k', in common usage in Japan whether 'c' or 'k' is used as the initial for any of かきくけこ is context-dependent. This is also true for other kana, such as 'm' or 'n' for ん. As an example covering both, the Japanese write "Famicom" in romaji—https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/Famicom; note that /Famikon does not even redirect to the page—but the same こん uses 'k' and 'n' in "gokon"—https://gokon-jpn.org/. (Another example is my VPS provider: ConoHa. Initial C instead of K is very common.) – cjs May 15 '23 at 07:35
  • @ninjalj Thanks for the correction! I'd never actually looked up パン in a dictionary, I was just going by what I recall a Japanese friend telling me. Turns out that the Japanese are as subject to folk etymology as us English-speakers! – cjs May 15 '23 at 07:43
  • I would assume ‘Famicom’ is a calque of the Japanese abbreviation back into English, not a transliteration. ‘Pasocon’ does not redirect to ‘パーソナルコンピュータ’ either, so I wouldn’t read too much into it. – user3840170 May 15 '23 at 09:49
  • @user3840170 "Famicom," as used in Japan in Japanese, is a transliteration by the Japanese as far as I can tell. I very much doubt that it was transliterated in English and then brought back to Japanese. Regardless, there are many other words that are certainly not in English that the Japanese transliterate in non-Hepburn ways; I gave you examples in my previous comment. I live here in Japan; I see it all the time. – cjs May 16 '23 at 12:35