Names Glitch

[Android994]

Okay, so I'm only just getting into Dwarf Fortress as before the Steam release i always found the graphics and interface too intimidating, and I'm still not entirely sure how everything works. However, to me it seems like this might be a glitch. These three descriptions are all referencing the same event in which a mad human killed someone's cat, but the game seems to be having trouble remembering what the names of the characters are:

https://imgur.com/a/iJv0XDp

[Fel]

It's not a glitch even if it kind of looks like it.

Instead creatures have a name in dwarf language and one in "english" which is the translated version of the dwarven name.
Asdûgmedtob means Drumblockades (or drum blockades)
Arlirulak means Toldbasins (or told basins)

The dev admited in the recent interview with blind that he never set clear rules (for himself when coding) on where to use which name, which is why the names are different in various places and kind of confuse everyone.

[Android994]

Originally posted by Fel:

It's not a glitch even if it kind of looks like it.

Instead creatures have a name in dwarf language and one in "english" which is the translated version of the dwarven name.
Asdûgmedtob means Drumblockades (or drum blockades)
Arlirulak means Toldbasins (or told basins)

The dev admited in the recent interview with blind that he never set clear rules (for himself when coding) on where to use which name, which is why the names are different in various places and kind of confuse everyone.

I suspected that it might be something like that, given that the devs are reportedly big Tolkien fans and he did that sort of think all the time it his writing, but the lack of consistency is what made me think it was a glitch.

Obviously the game must keep some sort of database of which names go with which translations or have some sort of algorithm for translating between the two, so it would make sense IMO if the player was given the option to cycle between the two at will rather than just having it be random.

[Fel]

It's not really random but it definitely is a known issue, especially since we can give nicknames to dwarves but it only shows in the "english" name.

It's not translating the names all the time by the way, both names are stored for the entity.