[Riful]

Originally Posted by Matt122005

How do you know for sure that the Japanese company is dictating the names and it wasn't an open decision for Yen Press to make? O_o

Because that's the spelling they use and have used ever since the anime first premiered in Japan.
And as Vexx said, the foreign companies need the approval of the Japanese company for almost every little detail. And if the Japanese care, they can decide the names' spelling, which ends in things as Satoru being spelt as "Satol" (E'S author), Taito turning into "Tite" (Bleach author), Yuu becoming "You" (You Higuri). These are all authors but of course they can do the same for character name's (f.ex. in Sgt Frog there was a character Kirara, but the Japanese forced Tokyopop to turn it into Kilala).

Seriously, for Holo they even did show her name in the anime itself. So it's pretty clear that the Japanese have decided on this spelling.

I'll quote myself:

Originally Posted by Riful

The only official place where "Horo" has been ever used is indeed Yen Press' homepage. On the other side Holo has been used everywhere, from the japanese anime homepage, to Kadokawa's English page, to the Japanese merchandise [ one, two, three, four, and many more] and finally now by Funimation.

Now add the anime itself and Yen Press to that list as well. Also note the Nola cell phone strap.

And Vexx, your explanation is quite right, but one thing is missing imho.

Hey, I even took her name (in the light novels) to a few Japanese instructors I know and they were like, "of course it should be "ro" that's the official romaji for that character".

The problem is, we aren't necessarily talking about a Japanese name, actually the chances that Holo's name is supposed to be Japanese are very slim imho, given the setting of the series. So especially when using Katakana "lo" can be the intended sound (even a D can be intended - see "Purin = Pudding"). As you wouldn't turn Lawrence into Rowrence just because "ロ is usually transliterated as ro". That'd end in quite a mess. I'd go so far as to saying that in theory (i.e. in the Katakana chart) ロ might be ro, but in practice (Katakana-go used in daily life) it can be quite a lot of different things.
And honestly I'm a bit shocked at a Japanese instructor not explaining that in a more detailed way, we had a whole debate about that in class ^^;

They also intuitively made the connection to the Ainu word for wolf.

you're kidding? This I find hard to believe XD few Japanese know Ainu-go, so would this one word be one of the few they all know? (like Kamui maybe, I dunno any other)

Now this is the first I've heard of them writing "Nora" as "Nola" ... if so, that's definitely offbase as there's clearly a European name spelled "Nora". Blergh... another reason to learn Japanese and blow off the translations, eh?

Nora might be more well known, but Nola is also an existing name. Might be a coincidence and I do prefer Nora myself, but it's there.

I only hope they'll spell Diana as Diana, not that weird english-fied spelling the fansubs are using.