Hi

What do you do about names in Esperanto?

My first name is 'Guy' & I can see that could be spelt 'Guj' to be pronounced correctly by an Esperantist, but what happens when we need to add the 'n' for the accusative?

Should I be using a more European form such as 'Guido' or are names treated as an exception to the rules of grammar?

I did find an earlier thread on this, but found it inconclusive & confusing.

1Guy1:What do you do about names in Esperanto? My first name is 'Guy'. Should I be using a more European form such as 'Guido'.

Its pretty much up to you with a less frequent name, where there's no common custom, so this is only an opinion: Guido may be as good as anything.

I wouldn't say you should be using an assimilated form for your name. You may do so, if you so wish, and in that case Guido or Vito will do fine. You might also spell it Gaj (NOT Guj!), as you suggest, and then use Gajon (or Gaj'on, with an apostrophe) as an accusative. Most people, however, leave their names as they are, even when there is an obvious Esperanto equivalent (I never heard William Auld or John Wells call themselves Vilhelmo or Johano!) The accusative is a bit of a problem with unassimilated forms; if there is a real risk of ambiguity, you can always try to add a word like Sinjoron, samideanon, kolegon etc.

Angelos:I wouldn't say you should be using an assimilated form for your name. You may do so, if you so wish, and in that case Guido or Vito will do fine. You might also spell it Gaj (NOT Guj!), as you suggest, and then use Gajon (or Gaj'on, with an apostrophe) as an accusative. Most people, however, leave their names as they are, even when there is an obvious Esperanto equivalent (I never heard William Auld or John Wells call themselves Vilhelmo or Johano!) The accusative is a bit of a problem with unassimilated forms; if there is a real risk of ambiguity, you can always try to add a word like Sinjoron, samideanon, kolegon etc.

I prefer assimilation, leaving a final vowel intact or adding -o if the name ends in a consonant for ease of adding the accusative.

By the way, gajo means "gaiety", so it would be an interesting added meaning to one's name!

Angelos:I wouldn't say you should be using an assimilated form for your name. You may do so, if you so wish, and in that case Guido or Vito will do fine. You might also spell it Gaj (NOT Guj!), as you suggest, and then use Gajon (or Gaj'on, with an apostrophe) as an accusative. Most people, however, leave their names as they are, even when there is an obvious Esperanto equivalent (I never heard William Auld or John Wells call themselves Vilhelmo or Johano!) The accusative is a bit of a problem with unassimilated forms; if there is a real risk of ambiguity, you can always try to add a word like Sinjoron, samideanon, kolegon etc.

I prefer assimilation, leaving a final vowel intact or adding -o if the name ends in a consonant for ease of adding the accusative.

By the way, gajo means "gaiety", so it would be an interesting added meaning to one's name!

Angelos:You might also spell it Gaj (NOT Guj!)

He could be a hockey player...then he'd have to spell it "Gi".