Can person name be translated?

by Target Language Translation Services

- November 22 2021

If you ever paid attention to various newspaper articles in foreign language or to some magazines, you may have noticed that, for instance, Queen Elizabeth II is translated as Reina Isabel II and Alliance Française is translated as Instituto Británico in Spanish. The translation of given names, whether of public figures, characters in books and even of our own names when we travel, is a sensitive matter.

Why is it necessary to translate names?

There are numerous situations where it impossible to avoid translating names. For instance: it is difficult not to change names in the Russian or Korean languages, as they are written in different alphabets – Cyrillic and Hangul, respectively.

How to translate names?

Because there is no fixed rule about how to translate names, the translator must assess every time they are confronted with a given or surname in a text on its merits. Sometimes they keep the names non-translated, which leads to different pronunciation in a target language; sometimes they use transliteration, cultural adaptation, substitution, and so on as following:

Use transliteration

It means to change from one language to another in such a way as the new word or name translation uses letters that have a similar sound to the original.

For example: if one is specializing in the certified translation of official documents, one is unlikely to look for the meaning of the client’s name and just use transliteration to make it sound similarly to the source language, like the name吉姆•门罗is the Chinese translation of Jim Monroe.

Engage in cultural transplantation

That is to say, adapting the name to another with an equivalent or very similar meaning.

For example: the name “Daisy” means “Margarida”, despite there being no phonetic or visual correspondence between the two. However, both are derived from the name of a small white flower with a yellow centre. Since they mean the same thing in both languages, this is a valid translation option.

Slightly adapt the spelling to local custom

The Portuguese name “André” can be an acceptable translation of the Ukrainian “Andril”, Italian “Andrea” or Lithuanian “Andrius”.

Substitute one name for another

In cases where there is no fixed rule, the name translator can substitute one name for another, without there needing to be any relationship between the two. When translating a book, giving the characters names that may or may not be variations of their original names is always an option.

As you can see, there are a lot of ways to translate a name, and it requires very sensitive decision-making on the part of a translator.

Here at Target Language Translation, we cooperate with specialized translators around the world. They know what option of proper translation is appropriate for every kind of text they are working with. At Target Language Translation, we provide high-quality translations and interpretation services in over 200 languages. Contact the Target Language Translation team for more information about translations.

This article is reprinted from LingoStar and Traductanet.

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