Rather, we use the word "dumpling" to refer to several different kinds of food, not necessarily round. The kind of dumplings I was raised with were just clumps of dough boiled in chicken broth. But there are also things like apple dumplings, which are fruit wrapped in pastry. Asian dumplings are basically similar to ravioli, which are also considered a form of dumpling, though I never heard that term used for ravioli growing up. I always took the etymology to be that they were small items cooked by dumping them in water, oil, or broth, but the dictionary says the "dump" part is more likely a variation on "lump."
But even with subtitles, there are still going to be details changed in the translation, and ideas that go unexplained. (Although I once saw a fansub of Dairanger that included the occasional annotation explaining cultural references.) For a simple example, in Shin Godzilla (at least the DVD edition), when the police board the abandoned boat at the beginning, they say Sumimasen, meaning "Excuse me" or "Sorry" (for the intrusion), but the subtitles say "Hello?" because that's what an English speaker would expect someone to say in that situation. The ultra-politeness of Japanese interaction tends to get downplayed in subtitles because it's not a part of American culture.
