I've found the following explanation: In Japanese reading the kanji for tear is pronounced "namida" (as Iggy Drougge wrote), whereas in Chinese reading it is "rui". When doing the German dub it was thought that Rui sounded like a male's name to German listeners, so they chose Nami (thanks to Dirk for the kanji-information).
Posted on Feb 16, 2000, 1:01 AM from IP address 134.96.99.20