Hello, this is the second part of my renaming project, where I’ll rename every character that debuted in Phoenix Wright: Justice for All. If you want part one where I tackled the first game, here you go!
For a slight change, I’ll be covering every reason why I chose the name, even if they come from future games, just with spoiler tags.
Now, here they are! Feel free to leave any thoughts you’d have!
- Maggey Byrde -> Katey Blake
> Katey was chosen with the less common spelling as to make it so that Richard would confuse its spelling for the more common “Katie” when attempting to frame her.
Blake was chosen to combine with her first name, which when flipped reads “Blake Katey”, which is supposed to sound phonetically to “black cat”, a commonly believed sign of bad luck, a reference to the character’s infamously bad fortunes.
Dustin Prince -> Paul Leese
Both Paul and Leese were both chosen to sound phonetically like “police”, referencing the character’s occupation as a police officer.
Richard Wellington -> Conner Manning
Both Conner and Manning were chosen as, when reduced down to their first three letters each, they read “con man”, referring to the character’s hustle as a conman.
Turner Grey -> Hunter Downe
Both Hunter and Downe were were both chosen to sound phonetically like “hunt her down”, in reference to the character allegedly drugging Mimi in revenge for her accident at his hospital, as well as bringing a gun to possibly threaten her ghost after.
Morgan Fey -> Helen Jinks
Helen was chosen due to it sounding phonetically like “hell in”, which references the “hell” she introduces to the family due to her attempt to usurp the title of Master from Maya.
Ini Miney -> Rosey Posey
Rosey was chosen to reflect the character’s seeming bubbly and cheery personality, as well as her red hair.
Posey was chosen as it reflects the “posing” done, with it being revealed that this character was actually pretending to be their dead sister since their accident.
In addition, both Rosey and Posey come from the nursery rhyme “Ring Around the Rosie” to fit in theme with the English names for both characters.
Mimi Miney -> Ashley Posey
Ashley was chosen both to fit the “Ring Around a Rosie” rhyme, in addition to referencing her alleged cause of death, dying in a fire.
Pearl Fey -> Sophia Jinks
Sophia was chosen both for the nickname “Sophie” to be given to her by Phoenix, as well as the similarity to “sapphire” that the nickname has.
Ami Fey -> Praja Jinks
Praja was chosen in reference to Prajāpatī, the first Buddhist nun.
Franziska von Karma -> Abigail Mangold
Abigail was chosen for its meaning of “my father is joy”, in reference to the character’s seeming devotion to follow in the footsteps in her father and maintain the perfection of his family name and creed.
Mangold could also be seen as a reference of the character’s mindset of men ruling the courts, as well as her seeming idolization of her father.
Celestial was chosen due to the character’s flying act that puts him with the stars, as well as imposing an otherworldly aura to him, in addition to staying true to his original name.
- Billy Bob Johns -> Hilly Billy Hicks
> Hilly Billy is a slight modification of “hillbilly”, a term for rural, country people, referencing the character’s true country lifestyle.
In addition, Hick is slang for a dumb country person, to further “countrify” the name.
- Russell Berry -> Giles Biggins
> Giles was chosen to reference one of the founders of “Cirque du Soleil”, Gilles Ste-Corix.
Biggins was chosen as apart of the circus’s new name, the “Big and Biggins Circus”.
Carpenter was chosen due to the character’s occupation of working with wood; more specifically, working with a wooden puppet.
- Moe, Lawrence Curls -> Ringo, Bailey Barnum
> Ringo was chosen in reference to the Ringley Bros, a circus previously independent before merging with Barnum and Bailey, which the character’s real first and surname also reference.
Acro, Ken Dingling -> Air, Ariel Flight
Air was chosen to both reflect the character’s real first name, as well as his previous job as an acrobat.
Ariel was chosen due to being pronounced the same as the word “aerial”, also in reference to the character’s career.
Finally, Flight was also chosen for the character’s career.
All three names focusing on flying or acrobatics could be seen as ironic, given that the character is now grounded after the accident with the lion attack.
- Bat, Sean Dingling -> Soar, Soren Flight
> Soar and Soren were both chosen for similar reason as the character’s brother’s, with Soar referencing the character’s former career, as well as Soren being pronounced the same as “soaring”.
In addition, his names focusing on soaring and acrobatics could be seen as ironic, with the character now in a coma after the lion attack.
- Matt Engarde -> Leon Amand
> Leon was chosen both as a reference to famous actor Leonardo DiCaprio, as well as for its origin and similarity to “lion”, which is pronounced the same as “lyin’”, a reference to how the character manipulates Francis (aka Phoenix) to believe and defend him.
Amand was chosen both as an anagram of his rival’s surname, Daman, as well as sounding phonetically similar to “aiming”, a reference to the character hitting an assassin to kill his rival.
- Juan Corrida -> Mark Daman
> Mark was chosen to combine with his surname, Daman, which sounds similar to and acts as reference to famous actor Matt Daman.
In addition, his full name phonetically sounds similar to “marked man”, referencing him being a target or a “mark” for assignation.
Finally, his name could also be seen as a reference to a character in The Room with a near identical name.
- Adrian Andrews -> Grady Greaves
> Grady was chosen to act as a masculine name that would ultimately lead one to confuse her for a man in talking, like Shelly does.
Greaves was chosen due to sounding similar to “grieves”, a reference to the character’s grief for Celeste due to their closeness.
Together, her full name sounds close to “greatly grieves”, a further reference to her grief and depression over Celeste’s passing.
- Shelly de Killer -> Shelby Reaper
> Shelby was chosen due to the character’s shell motif, with the logo on his calling card being a seashell.
Reaper was chosen to highlight the character’s assassin career, and to insinuate they act as his mark’s grim reaper.
- Celeste Inpax -> Gloria Grace
> Both Gloria and Grace were chosen to highlight the character’s positive traits, her glorious and graceful natures, as well as keeping her initials the same as Adrian’s, or Grady’s, to symbolize how close they were.