Why is Wednesday called Merlina in other countries? The explanation of his two names

Netflix launched its Merlina-centric Addams family series, but the ending of “Wednesday” not only left some things up in the air, but has also raised doubts about the character’s name change in Spanish.

The Netflix production in English is called “Wednesday”, but in Spanish in the Spanish-speaking countries of Latin America it does not have the literal translation of its name (Wednesday), but is called “Merlina”.

This name has been given long before Christina Ricci’s famous performance as Merlina in the 90s movies, as it is what amounts to the first TV adaptation of the Addams Family.

• Christina Ricci also appeared in the movie ’10 Things to Do Before We Break Up’ which you can watch for free on ViX.

Why is Wednesday called Merlina in other countries?

Since the characters were introduced to Spanish-speaking audiences with the series “Los Locos Addams” that ran from 1964 to 1966, those doing the dubbing decided to change the characters’ names.

Since TV content wasn’t as massive and far-reaching as it is now, the dubbing rules weren’t as defined and those responsible for doing so were free to change things as they wanted.

So at that time characters like Gomez became known as Homer, Uncle Fester as Lucas, Pugsley as Pericles, Thing as Fingers and Wednesday as Merlina.

The fact that Wednesday became Merlina and not “Wednesday” is because the name is not very common and it was decided to use one that sounds similar. Even in other countries her name is not Merlina.

The series also has Friday as her middle name, while in Spain Addams’ daughter’s name is Wednesday, but in Brazil it is Wandinha.

What does name wednesday mean in the netflix series?

In the original Charles Addams cartoon published in The New Yorker, the Wednesday character didn’t have a name, but when the series was made, the little Addams family had to have one.

Actress and poet Joan Blake suggested that Charles Adams take the name from a lullaby that names each day of the week. Thus he gave her the peculiar name of Wednesday. The full lullaby says:

This is mentioned in the series, in both English and Spanish. In the first chapter, the principal of Nunca Más Academy asks Morticia and Homer why they named their daughter Wednesday.

The mother replies that it was because of the lullaby, although in English it is because of the name of the day, while in Spanish Morticia says “on a gloomy day Merlina was born”.

Although she was born on Friday the 13th, her name is associated with the melancholy of the weekday that the lullaby describes, since the child of Wednesday brings sadness, which is consistent with the personality of Merlina’s character.