Square Enix has finally and officially revealed how to pronounce the feline Final Fantasy VII character's name. This debate has raged on the internet for years and now we finally know how to say the name: Kate Sihth.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Square Enix settled the argument, saying that the name is pronounced the way it's read. The company said, “We saw many of you were asking so we hope this helps!”
This debate has been going on since 1997, when Final Fantasy VII was first released.
Fans of the game theorized in 2008 that the Gaelic spelling of the name also meant it would be said the same way or at least close to its Celtic roots, akin to “Ket Shee.”
Cait, in Gaelic, would sound somewhere between “ket” and the English word “kite,” meaning cat. Sith, would be pronounced more like “shee” as in the word “banshee,” meaning demon. However, Square Enix decided to take a different road and pronounced it closer to how it's said in English, according to IGN.
In the game, the “cat demon” was controlled by Shinra executive Reeve Tuesti to both help Cloud and Avalanche and act as a double agent against Shinra.
Cait Sith was voiced by Greg Ellis in the English version and Hideo Ishikawa in Japanese in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and Dire of Cerberus, but its name was never actually said out loud by any of the characters. It will be a playable party member in the upcoming Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, which launches on Feb. 29, 2024 for PlayStation 5.