How do I credit an unknown name as it is listed?

I am adding credits to an online project from about 7 years ago. There is a credit listed as "akiko sakuraba". I have no idea if this is a real name or not. IMDb wants to submit it as "sakuraba, akiko" (preferably with the first letters in caps unless I override it), but again I have no idea if that is the person's real name. Is there a way to force it as "akiko sakuraba" instead? Thanks.

Responses

Oldest First

Selected Oldest First

gromit82

Champion

•

7.9K Messages

•

281K Points

3 years ago

Drew: First the surname/first name issue, then the capitalization issue:

1. Surname/first name

I assume that you are unfamiliar with this person except for seeing her name in the credits of this title. Hence, with no other information, you can assume that Sakuraba is her family name and Akiko is her given name. Akiko is a common given name for Japanese women, and Sakuraba is a Japanese surname, so you can assume that her name is being shown in the Western name order rather than the Japanese name order. Thus, listing her as "Sakuraba, Akiko" seems to be the standard way she should be entered into IMDb, surname first like most people in the database, the same as "Streep, Meryl" or "DiCaprio, Leonardo".

Whether that is her real name or not does not make a difference. IMDb doesn't enter Ginger Rogers as "McMath, Virginia" or Cary Grant as "Leach, Archibald".

2. Capitalization

If everyone else in the credits of this title has their name with standard capitalization, and only "akiko sakuraba" has her name in lowercase, then yes, I recommend overriding the capitalization and submitting her name in lowercase ("sakuraba, akiko" if the software will allow that).

But if everyone in the credits has their name in lowercase, then that is just a stylization by the person who prepared the credits and should be ignored. In that case, you would submit her name with standard capitalization as "Sakuraba, Akiko".

If I have misunderstood you, please provide further details.

(edited)

4

D

drewmaru

45 Messages

•

674 Points

@gromit82 Well, it's an online release on YouTube (here) with a bunch of usernames. For example, here are the first few credits...

Princess Toadstool - akiko sakuraba

Bowser - ConVito

Mario - TheChio

Terrapin - Pokejedservo

Toad - TheChio

Sword Smithy - Pokejedservo

Hammer Bro 1 - Rupert Scarr

Hammer Bro 2 - Zeix

In fact, in a later episode (here), the person is credited as "akiko_sakuraba" with an underscore. Either one of the episodes has the person credited incorrectly, or both are correct if the first one is their name.

I'm wondering if I should use the one with the underscore and say the person is credited as the one without an underscore for the first episode to play it safe.

(edited)

3 years ago

jeorj_euler

10.7K Messages

•

226.1K Points

Such an interesting case this is. IMDb's policy is to reproduce the on-screen credits as closely as possible. Sometimes technical limitations of the submission interface or the way data is internally stored in the database make it impossible, though: e.g. trying to reproduce "w/" the abbreviation of the preposition "with", or double quotes for that matter. So, regardless of the proper way to spell Akiko Sakuraba, we're probably expected to go with the lowercase presentation, which can be varied by the episode, so as to account for the one with the underscore and the one without the underscore.

On a side note, many folks posting on this forum are often referred to in a way that they may not really prefer, on account of the way our screen names have become mangled in the migration from the Get Satisfaction platform to the Sprinklr platform. For instance, I would prefer that mine show up as "Jeorj Euler" not "jeorj_euler" or even "Jeorj_Euler", but I've not bothered to recapitalize it. The underscore variant (and in lowercase) was part of the URL of my forum participant profile on Get Satisfaction. The migration created a new screen name for every participant as adopted from the one found in the old URL so corresponding to him/her. Well, I can only imagine the same question arises on almost all websites, apps, databases and computer services.

— Jeorj Euler, an IMDb regular registrant

3 years ago

0

D

drewmaru

45 Messages

•

674 Points

@jeorj_euler This brings up a good question. What if a credit is a nickname or a username such as "The Man"? Would IMDb try to make it "Man, The"? Is there a way to override this?

3 years ago

Michelle

Employee

•

18.3K Messages

•

321.9K Points

Hi @drewmaru -

We do make certain name formatting overrides, so for example if a band (e.g. "The Flowerpots") is credited on-screen, they would be listed on the site as "The Flowerpots", not "Flowerpots, The".

3 years ago

drewmaru

How do I credit an unknown name as it is listed?

gromit82

drewmaru

jeorj_euler

drewmaru

Michelle

Related Conversations

Helpful Widget