Dandelion, Jaskier - who?
 

I found Wiedzmin/Witcher TV series with English subs a week or so before buying the game and while the acting was rather stale I quite enjoyed its cornyness and it proved a useful way of getting a feel for the setting prior to playing the game. However, in the TV-series, Geralt's bard friend is called Jaskier both by the actors and the subs so I was rather surprised that Geralt's old friend the bard with very similar characteristics was called Dandelion in the game. How come? Are they different characters or did they just change his name?

Well, 'jaskier' in Polish means 'dandelion' in English. That's what happened :). Though I think it's rather strange to translate Jaskier's name, some monsters, like Strigha and Koshtchey, or whatever they are spelled in English, were left rather intact from their original Polish words of 'strzyga' and 'kosciej', only changing phonetics. Oh well…

They translated Jaskier name? Maybe they were afraid of that people woudn't know how to pronounce it.

Doh. I should have realized. Thanks for the clarification.

"Jaskier" actually means "buttercup" in Polish, but since that name sounds more feminine in English, they changed it to "Dandelion" instead. Anyway, the character is the same.

Wasn't that the heroine of The Princess Bride?!! :)

Another argument in favor of changing the name in the translation. :)