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[Buraku]

lyrics by Jackie

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[Naniwan Kid]

In Japan his name is Donald McDonald, right?

[Buraku]

McDonalds knew Japanese have trouble with Vs, Th, Rs, Ls...so the marketing honchos replaced Ronald with his cousin Dona-rudo ドナルド
In Thailand he also adapted to local customs by doing the local buddhist greeting
http://www.gilesorr.com/nucleusblog/media/1/20051020-RonaldMcDonaldThai.jpg

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[maraboutslim]

[ttjereth]

Unlikely. "Ro" is a common Japanese syllable after all. More likely they either thought "ronarudo" sounded too spanish and not a good match for hamburgers, or maybe some of the executives thought about this guy, ラ]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranald_MacDonald[/URL] or http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ラナルド・マクドナルド

Actually since "RO" is just the romanization of the Japanese, and the actual Japanese is not an "R" as in American English, it's still quite likely they changed it for reasons of pronounciation. It's definately the most commonly stated reason by far.

They did it for the name of the restaurant so why not the character.
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E3%83%9E%E3%82%AF%E3%83%89%E3%83%8A%E3%83%AB%E3%83%89#.E6.97.A5.E6.9C.AC.E3.81.AE.E3.83.9E.E3.82.AF.E3.83.89.E3.83.8A.E3.83.AB.E3.83.89.E3.83.BB.E5.90.8D.E7.A7.B0.E3.81.AE.E7.94.B1.E6.9D.A5

[maraboutslim]

[Jack]

[maraboutslim]

The answer to that depends on what exact english dialogue you are using as your reference for what "ro" vs. "lo" sound like in English. As I said in my post, there are probably twenty different ways english speakers from different places would pronounce those sounds in the same words.