Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-63.249.41.72-20150316033558/@comment-26019879-20150316043300

I'm going to come out and say this is foolish in the extreme to consider a plot hole. Just because their world doesn't possess these languages doesn't mean OUR world doesn't. Last I checked, this is being marketed to people here on EARTH, not Remnant. The people on Remnant don't need to give a shit about different languages, because ultimately, they aren't necessarily the ones involved in the color naming motif. That was confirmed for us, the audience.

Also, not everyone's name is related to a color. Ozpin merely states that some people on Remnant decided to name their children for a color. Nora, Ren, Pyrrha, Ozpin, Glynda, Adam, Blake, Yang. None of those characters names have anything to do with color (except loosely Blake's last name, assuming she's named for the flower and not the Italian word pretty woman compounded), so the trend does not necessarily hold.

As for the Ren vs Yang part, I assumed it was because Yang's name is Chinese, and Ren's is Japanese. I'm not positive on this, but I know in Japan it's common practice to put the familial name first, and the given name secon. Which would explain why he's called Ren; Lie is his family name, Ren is his given name. I don't know if China follows the same naming pattern or not though.

TL;DR:  The people of Remnant don't need to know what these names mean, because ultimately, the color motif is more for us. The people watching the show.