Most gags are a lot less funny if you explain it, but you guys should know that Morgane doesn't know when to shut up.

Tl;dr: there's like a bajillion ways to pronounce Louisville. Some people feel very strongly about the "right" way. Enough to write me about it. :)

When I was first working on Pacific, Zeroblaze was like, "how do you want to translate?"

I went, "Louisville, like the French King. I know we tend to use PRC official translations, so it's fine if you want to pronounce the hard "S".

(Note: Chinese names like Helena is really not phonetically correct, but because of certain key names or phrases becoming ingrained in the Chinese language, it would seem out of place if I translated them "correctly." An example. Yorktown is most commonly known as Yue Ke Cheng even though Yue Ke Zhen would be the technically correct translation. In the same way, nobody would translate Enterprise as anything other than Qi Ye, even though the technical meaning of the ship is something very different.

Disclosure: I speak French. I researched Louisville's history, and initially translated it as "Lu Yi Si Wei Er" (per official Mandarin translations). Didn't think twice, really. And then...)

Yeah. When Pacific came out, I received a very, very, very, very long e-mail from a Louisville-native commander. I learned that it's supposed to be Looavul. This particular individual included fourteen voice clips of him reading the name in different contexts because he wanted to make sure I get it right.

You know when someone goes to this much trouble to correct you on something, it's either right or it's someone crazy. I did some more googling and found that eeh... It's kinda right. So I went to the guys and went, maybe we can give Lulu (her internal code-name/pet name) that Looavul as a nickname.

The guys were like "okay, you're our foreign expert. Sure."

Just to be safe, I called up a friend (also from Kentucky, but NOT Louisville). My mistake was that said friend majored in linguistics. Instead of a long e-mail I received an hour long lecture. Turns out Looavul is a "hillbilly" corruption of the pronunciation originating from the 30s/40s when radio/news anchors first came on air. And I never figured out the proper pronunciation either. To be honest, I don't think Louisville natives really know either (though most seem pretty chill about it. ;).

Anyways, the team found it hilarious, and with a concerted effort, it's now a running gag. Seriously, everyone from her equipment fairies to sisters to the commander to the mailman to the random barista at the coffee shop they go to calls her something different every time.

My guess is that she'll probably answer to anything that kinda sounds like her name if you aren't teasing her too much.