Splintersson Query
 

In which episode was the first reference to the Turtles' patronymic of "Splintersson"? I want to say it was in one of the Battle Nexus episodes, but I'm not entirely certain (it could have also been a Lost Episodes one too).

I know it was later used on-screen (and possibly spoken, too) in Timing is Everything, but I'm pretty sure it was used at least once prior to this.

Thanks!

EDIT: Never mind, I found it. It was "More Worlds Than One")

And yet, Splinter was called Hamato Splinter in the Battle Nexus eps. Which really doesn't make sense, if you think about it- shouldn't they (the turtles) have been called by the same name, too? They are the Hamato Clan, after all. Or at least they are the closest thing to one that there is.

Laird actually brought that up in one of his notes to the 4Kids team:

Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking- it's good to know that at least one of the creators feels the same way! And incidentally, most fan-fics seem to call them by the Hamato name, too. It seems to be the general consensus that that is their actual surname. And it makes sense, regardless of whether splinter IS Yoshi, or is simply his pet. Yoshi was his Master/"father" figure, so why shouldn't he give his own sons the same name?

Wow, that's annoying that Pete caught on and didn't like the Norwegian crap and they still ignored it. Would have felt more authentic to go with "Hamato".

While I would argue that they don't need surnames due to not being legal citizens of any country, let alone any country in which they are required, I feel that Splinter taking the Hamato name is more of an "honor Master Yoshi" thing than anything else. Plus a lot of people do bestow their family name to their pets (I know I did).

The Splinterson/Splintersson thing is just wacky though and was only mentioned twice, and kind of flew in the face of logic.

Except Norway haven't had that naming tradition for a looooong time. Iceland on the other hand still does it. Besides Splinterson makes more sense as a "surname" to the turtles then Hamato.

......Durrr wat

Good q. I always assumed it was an alias surname to keep prying foot eyes out of their business or something something Shredder. Deep undercover alias. Layers.

He probably don't know that Hamato is the surname, and Yoshi is the given name.
In many cultures family name comes first.

They are Splinter's sons, no? Altough Splinter cared a lot for Yoshi it just seems off giving them the surname Hamato, any surname feels off. But of the two, Splinterson makes more sense then Hamato.

In the media where Splinter is Yoshi, sure Hamato would of course be appropriate.

HurrrrrdurrrrmurrrrrDUUUUURRRR.

On a tangent...does Shredder ever call Splinter 'Splinter'? Because he knows who Hamato Yoshi is, right?

That's a good point. Doesn't Shredder just call him 'the rat'?

I don't think 4Kids Shredder cared that much about Yoshi or even Splinter. Yoshi was just the guy with the knowledge of the whereabouts of the Utrom, Splinter and the turtles was a minor nuisance in the beginning.

THIS...

I'm noticing in my rewatching of the 4Kids series, that the Turtles were only considered by Shredder to be a major threat when they denied him his revenge against the Utroms after the millennium he'd spent fighting them, Mortu in particular.

Yeah, all the Shredder cared about was getting revenge on the Utroms for hunting him down like the crazed animal he was, and destroying those who either wouldn't join him or got in his way.

What really annoys me is that I used the 'Splinterson' family name in my 2k3 fics only to be pm'd by people correcting my mistake and having the Hamato family name explained (in painfully patronising terms, sigh). I know Hamato makes a heck of a lot more sense but in 2k3 the only surname they were ever officially assigned was Splinterson so that's what I go with and it's kinda grown on me.

I agree though the Splinterson name is an illogical choice but I guess honour-wise and for identification purposes in the nexus the Splinter name is more predominant for the turtles to be associated with.

I don't recall them being directly assigned a family name in any other incarnation... were they ever?

In IDW, Splinter is Yoshi reincarnated, so yes, the turtles would all be Hamatos in that incarnation, for certain. 4Kids is a bit tricky- Splinter himself was (IIRC) referred to by the Hamato surname, but his own sons weren't. He took Yoshi's family name to honor his master and owner, but didn't give it to his own family? That never made much sense to me. If anything, he should have at least corrected the Daimyo in Battle Nexus by addressing the question.

I'm also in agreement about people giving their pets the family name- I've done it too. It makes sense, since pets are part of the family, too! And I've always thought that even the OT Splinter would probably have considered the turtles as part of the Hamato "family" since they were his pets even before they all mutated. (He had them for a while before the mutagen was dumped down the sewers onto them all.)

Well, among the Slavic people it was a known tradition for children to adopt the name of their father as their surname. There were still some differences among the separate tribes though. Some tribes used the stile "-of", like the Russians. The surnames end of with "-sky" or "-vsky". The name "James Johnsky" basically means "James of John" or "John's James". However, this tradition was later dropped. Today, the Slavic people's surnames are the names of their great-great-great-great... well you know where I'm going.

What I'm trying to say here is that if Splinter's previous owner Yoshi wasn't Japanese, but actually Slavic, then the surname "Splinterson" would make more sense. But we're dealing with Japanese people here, so the surname makes absolutely no sense.