Wherefore art thou Wally?

Discovered this in the bookstore yesterday, and after a moment of panic in which I believed that Waldo was for the first time legitimately missing and that his British evil twin named Wally had taken over...I decided to do a little research on the seemingly unnecessary name change. So here is a little segment I'd like to call "Wherefore art thou Wally?" (cause I'm an English major and I can.)

According to Wikipedia, the most smartest website ever, Wally actually came first. Here is where I should apologize to the British public for changing Wally to Waldo on every book and piece of merchandise in the greater Manchester area...in permanent marker. Whoops.

However, because the "Where's Waldo" franchise in North America far surpassed the Wally of England, even Martin Handford now mostly refers to the little striped dude as Waldo, according to some source that I don't feel like citing.

Some other fun facts: Waldo was not the only name change, and in Germany he was the more sophistocated Walter, Valli in Iceland, Willy in Norway (which just makes me giggle), Holger in Denmark, Hetti in Sri Lanka, Effy in Israel (what?), and my personal favorite, Charlie in France. I know nothing of the cultures of the other countries, and so cannot comment on their weird names (Effy???), but I can confidently say that Charlie is a completely normal [English] name that has absolutely no resemblance to Wally or Waldo, making it my favorite. And I thought America was rebellious (soccer, anyone?).

Now that I think about it, ¿Donde esta Wally? has a very familiar ring to it. I quite possibly discovered this name change 3 years ago in Spain...

In any case, Waldo/Wally/Walter/Valli/Willy/Holger/Hetti/Effy/Charlie must have a serious case of identity crisis. No wonder he tries to run away.