How did Clannad get its name? Excellent question!
Clannad was one of several different project monikers considered for the visual novel, which also included ‘Life’, ‘Gensou Monogatari’ (Fantasy Story), ‘Kazoku’ (Family), and yes, ‘CRANNAD’. ‘Life’ was Maeda’s original designation for the project when it was being developed while ‘Gensou Monogatari’ was the original project designation by Key as a team. ‘Kazoku’ was considered as a name for the game due to its focus on familial relationships, though Maeda reportedly preferred the sound of ‘CLANNAD’. To this, VisualArt’s president Takahiro Baba said that the title of the game should instead be ‘CRANNAD’. As described by Maeda, Baba said:
“‘People can easily find out CLANNAD means family when people check its meaning on the internet, so change the L to an R.’ (laughs) But I didn’t want to change it to R, so I kept it as it is."
Page 35 of the publication ‘Pre-CLANNAD’ confirms that Key believed ‘Clannad’ meant ‘family’ in Gaelic. Maeda says this about his selection of the title:
“By the way, at first I just liked the sound of ‘CLANNAD’ so I decided to use it as the title. But now, I like the meaning, the ways the letters look. I just love it as a whole.”
If you’re interested in learning more about the development of CLANNAD, I would encourage you to review my presentation from Anime North (Toronto, CA) given this past May. (See below.) The purpose of the presentation was to focus on the game’s development from the perspective of its creators. I tried to make it informative and entertaining, so I hope you enjoy it if you take a look. Also, I ask the audience a question about similar to yours at the 10:30 mark in the video.
PowerPoint Presentation (1.6GB) : http://goo.gl/Uho7Ux
