THE
NAME *this section was written while I was retarded and needs revised
as well.
Ramza
Beoluve, main character of Final Fantasy Tactics, has a name unlike many
other names in the more recent Final Fantasy Series because it has nothing
to do with the weather (Woo, Go Zidane and Ramza! Neither Cloud nor Squall
shall hinder them ^_-). In the game he is refered to as 'brother' 'half-brother'
'best friend' and quite a few other not very nice names. In the FFT fan
circle he is refered to as "Rammie-poo" "Ramza-Chan"
"Rammy" and various other 'cutsie' nicknames (all of which I've
used ;D). This section will focus on the meaning of Ramza's name and the
relevance it holds to his personality.
In Japanese Ramza Beoulve is written as
which is 'lamuza beorubu' (or ramuza beorube). The first thing I saw when
I looked at 'Ramuza' was "the lamb" (ramu - lamb; za - the).
I did a bit of searching and found a word muzai which means 'innocence'.
Both translations (the lamb and innocence) describe Ramza fairly well.
Lamb is perhaps in reference to the Lamb of God, maybe to the sacrificial
lamb or what it symbolises (gentileness and tranquility among other things).
Innocence is the fact that Ramza was very naive and didn't realize what
his eldest brother was plotting until well into chapter two and didn't
realize Delita was using him at all. The only real translation I could
find of Beorubu was 'oru' which means 'to exist' or 'to be'. It's a little
far fetched but maybe the creators of the game wanted his name to mean
'to be the lamb' or 'to be the sacrifice'. (Highlight for spoiler ($):
Many people say Ramza died in the end of the game
in that massive airship explosion. Personally, I think he survived but
'to be the sacrifice' would be hinting at the fact that he saved Ivalice
by sacrificing his life to destroy Ultima Angel.)
Ramza is also a Muslim name meaning "symbol"
or "sign". I'll let your imaginagtion soar on that one, because
if you think about it for a bit... there's some vague 'symbolism' to it
(heheh). After truckloads of research, I have also found Ramza as a word
commonly used in a language that I can't identify, I think it might be
a German or Norweigan or Russian-ish language. Ramza's name is shared
by an Egyptian woman in an old story though I can't really seem to find
much information on it anymore.
There have been one or two sites on the internet (which is a lot by FFT
standards) that trace the last name "Beoulve" to "Beowulf";
and while it seems quite absurd to have to "Beowulf" in the
game it's sort of reasonable. Ramza is a great hero; Beowulf is a great
hero... yes :D
In Chapter 2, Ramza takes the surname Ruglia. It wasn't mentioned in the American translation but Ramza's mother's last name was Ruglia. Ramza is referred to as a Child of a Mistress in the Japanese version instead of the not very nice word used to describe him in the English version.*
*Special thanks to "The Durai Papers" for information on 'Ruglia'.