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Translating names to Esperanto

de ljbookworm, 2009-oktobro-12

Mesaĝoj: 99

Lingvo: English

Sez (Montri la profilon) 2009-decembro-04 04:16:34

I tried googling mine - Sarah - and it came up with Sara. I don't think I'm going to have an identity crisis over that one! rido.gif

erinja (Montri la profilon) 2009-decembro-04 04:46:00

The problem with Bradley is that it's a natively English name, with a native English meaning ("Broad Forest", it seems, though I doubt that you want to call yourself Larĝarbaro in Esperanto). It isn't all that international, so it isn't likely to have a ready-made Esperanto translation (unlike Sarah, which, as a Biblical name, is extremely international and certainly has been translated into every language that has a translation of the Bible)

A hint with Esperantizing your name - every single sound from English is not usually translated. Sometimes we can render certain sounds in Esperanto letters, but if those sounds end up as unusual Esperanto letter combinations, we usually leave them out.

ij is rare - I wouldn't recommend putting it in your name. Just because your name has Y in English, doesn't mean it needs J in Esperanto!

I'd render Bradley as "Bradlio", if you want the -o ending. If you want to go for correct pronunciation but don't care abut -o, you could call yourself Bradli. We also have the method of taking the first syllable or so of your name, and adding -ĉjo for a man, or -njo or -nja for a woman. That's a popular choice because an Esperanto name is a nickname anyway, since it isn't your legal name, so use of the nickname suffix is quite suitable. That would make you "Braĉjo".

RiotNrrd (Montri la profilon) 2009-decembro-05 17:39:54

erinja:We also have the method of taking the first syllable or so of your name, and adding -ĉjo for a man, or -njo or -nja for a woman. That's a popular choice because an Esperanto name is a nickname anyway, since it isn't your legal name, so use of the nickname suffix is quite suitable. That would make you "Braĉjo".
Which is the route I took. "Scott" (by sound) logically turns into "Skato", which I didn't like. "Skoto", the other obvious spelling-based choice, strikes me as even worse.

So I use "Skatĉjo" instead. I suppose I could have left the "t" out, but I actually like how it looks left in, and it doesn't appreciably affect the sound.

ceigered (Montri la profilon) 2009-decembro-06 06:44:04

Funny thing I just thought of - to an Aussie, NZer, Englishman, Scot and South African, "Scott" by sound logically turns into "Skoto", and only "Scat" would turn into "Skato" lango.gif

Similarly, to me my name Christian by sound logically turns into "Krisĉin" or "Krisĝjen", however someone from some part of England might find that "Kristien" sounds much more logical.

The point being that there's heaps of choices due to varying pronunciations lango.gif

Bradley could be heard as "Bredley" to people who don't have a proper "æ" sound in their language variety (e.g. some South African accents), so Breĉjo or Breĝjo could be an option for the adventurous self-nicknamer rideto.gif

CraigeryMontoya (Montri la profilon) 2009-decembro-08 00:46:59

How about Craig? I haven't had much luck finding it on my own.

Ezreal (Montri la profilon) 2009-decembro-10 05:27:37

erinja:

As I said, Esperanto is very free. Just tell people what to call you, and they will call you that.
Then I will be called Krondaro, Regato da la Nordo!

J/K

I would think Eriko is a typical Esperantization of Eric?

erinja (Montri la profilon) 2009-decembro-10 16:44:33

Most people named Eric call themselves Eriko in Esperanto, yes.

Craig is a difficult name because, again, it isn't very international, it doesn't have a lot of equivalents in other languages. Your options for rendering it in Esperanto (if indeed you want to do so - remember that calling yourself "Craig", even in Esperanto, is perfectly fine) are:

- Kreg Just using the sound of it only.
- KregoTranslating the sounds into Esperanto norms and adding -o. (in this case, options 1 and 2 are nearly the same, but for a name like David, they'd be significantly different - Dejvid versus Davido)
- Roko or Klifo The name Craig means "rock" or "crag" or "cliff"; some people translate the meaning of their names. For example, Argilo, a user on this site is called Argilo ("clay") in Esperanto because his English name is Clayton.
- Kreĉjo a nickname form (using the -ĉj- ending) of options 1 or 2.

I like Kreĉjo, personally, but do keep in mind that "kraĉi" means "to spit", so please don't feel tempted to preserve the a in "Craig".

LyzTyphone (Montri la profilon) 2009-decembro-10 17:49:30

A bit on the Chinese name part: real, authetic, classic Chinese names were ususally taken from classic materials like Peoms or The Chronicle. Less well educated people who still care usually go to one of those astrologers who will help you find a name that is (hopefully) good in meaning and allegedly ensures good luck in the future life.

The result is that most names won't have a meaning of sense to translate. That "Wei Min" sounds a bit too straightforward, mainland style. Names given to children are not proper place for witty pun (with the family name) or propoganda (lots and lots of mainlanders I met were given names like Wen Ge, "cultural revolution", Wei Dong, "Guard of Mao Zedong", etc.)

Just the moan for a bygone era.

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As for my real Esperanto name (not this one online), I transliterated it and added -o to the end. I am not worried about the meaning lost because, as I said, there is not much to lose anyway.

darkweasel (Montri la profilon) 2009-decembro-11 06:41:47

I see absolutely no sense in translating real names to Esperanto. My first name is "Paul", and that's what my documents and passport say, so "Paŭlo", just isn't my first name. After all, if I went to Spain, my name wouldn't get "Pablo" either, would it?

The same applies to product names. I see no sense in using "Vindozo" for "Windows".

Regarding fictional names, of course you can call them however you wish, even "Paŭlo".

ceigered (Montri la profilon) 2009-decembro-11 09:59:15

I think Vindozo is virtually Esperanto slang (not sure though). If I'm speaking in EO I might say "Vindozo" but if I'm writing something formally about it I'd change to the actual US registered product name - Windows. So I guess it's just slang, just like I might say "Radelaide" in English when referring to the city Adelaide (it's not the proper form in Aussie English, but its fun to alternate provided everyone knows what on earth I'm on about lango.gif).

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