Discussion Why translate chinese names to English?

Discussion in 'Novel General' started by Hegao, Mar 18, 2019.

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  1. Otwentyfirst

    Otwentyfirst skillfully clueless // lazy book reader ;)

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    Asian names are made of words in the vocabulary, which means they can be translated easily. On the other hand English names aren't often vocabulary words. For example "Veronica." The name has meaning but isn't a vocabulary word. Most Asian names, on the other hand, are composed of actual real words, therefore they can be translated.

    Some may find translated Asian names awkward because they're not used to names in that way or are just too unfamiliar with the sounds of the names so they all blur together.
     
  2. Asdq

    Asdq RSS FEED SECT! I WANT YOU FOR THE RSS ARMY!

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    Western names are crazy, just the word was based maked sense, in truth, looks as nicknames in games, you pickup a word and "make cool" then someone pickup this name and make him looks like a name in his country, like Friedrich, Frederico, Fredrik, Frederic, Frits, Fridericus, Fedrik and etc. Friedrich is from frid and ric, old german.
     
  3. lnv

    lnv ✪ Well-Known Hypocrite

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    That isn't exactly true.

    English names are also words, just a lot of them are based on latin. Just like Vera in Latin means "true".

    The only difference is that since latin based languages are composed of letters instead of how chinese is composed of words. The names have warped over the years in spelling.
     
  4. Deleted member 155674

    Deleted member 155674 Guest

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    Take a nap and drink a cup of hot milk before you do, it should help you if you are stressed about something :blobsmilehappy:
     
  5. twkisanotaku

    twkisanotaku Booksloth

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    Just down to personal preferences tho honestly pinyin is just way btr for me, like I have a Chinese name which is Yongkang but if u were literally translate it, it would be forever healthy which is not exactly regarded as a name in English.
     
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  6. Grenore

    Grenore 《Member》

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    It's cringy and awkward, after all in english it doesn't look nice. The other day I was reading one book, and there was this character called ''Evil Fire''. Now, who in their right mind would have such a name and this doesn't even looks like a name so keeping it in Chinese looks better then the english version.
    at least I don't like this.
     
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  7. UnGrave

    UnGrave ななひ~^^

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    Just to add to that, there are also names that are directly based on English words. Take 'William' for example. It's from the root name 'Willhelm' and has warped over time. It also has child names, such as 'Liam'.
     
  8. Cygsiulle

    Cygsiulle error 404: title not found

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    way i see it, a person's name or location should be kept as is, a title or rank or anything else should be translated, so long as an appropriate translation exists. these are people stroking their co- i mean, egos over how impressive their names sound. making people spout off a bunch of high and mighty nonsense is basically the same, regardless of language. the only difference is that english readers won't understand a word of it if it isn't translated.

    hell, if someone calls themselves "The Almighty Greased Lord of Bologna: Brick N. Hammerpants" how would you translate that to chinese? it's not like keeping it in english means it makes more sense or makes it any less cringy.
     
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  9. Otwentyfirst

    Otwentyfirst skillfully clueless // lazy book reader ;)

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    True. The names have meaning, but they aren't used as words though. What I mean by words is, you don't have people using them as words. Like in the case of "Vera" meaning true. No one uses vera in sentence.

    Like: He showed his vera face when the chips were down. --> He showed his true face when the chips were down.

    People just don't use names in that way in English. It would come across as weird. Which I think is part of the reason English speakers find Asian names odd - because Asian names are used that way.

    You do see some merging in the modern day in how celebrities name their children. Like: Apple (Chris Martin), North West (Kardashian), Blue Ivy (Beyonce) etc., but it's not common enough to be normal.
     
  10. lnv

    lnv ✪ Well-Known Hypocrite

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    Well there are names like that too, especially some shortened versions:

    Will
    Victor
    Earl
    Don
    Bill
    Angel
    Wade
    John

    and so on...

    Not to mention some names have become part of terminology such as:

    Great scott
    Jesus!


    For a big list:
    https://www.wordnik.com/lists/common-english-words-that-are-also-first-names

    Of course I realize that it isn't the same for all names, and most names aren't like that, but plenty exist.
     
  11. readerz

    readerz Madam Jin

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    If the names are supposed to be Western, then they need to be translated. In Chinese the authors use characters to phonetically sound out Western names using Chinese characters:

    艾莉儿 - ai li er = ailier = Ariel

    罗切斯特 = luōqièsītè = Rochester

    I think most people would agree that putting Luoqiesite would be worse than Rochester. :)
     
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  12. ToastedRossi

    ToastedRossi Well-Known Member

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    It's partly because pinyin names are hard to remember and partly because of tradition. For the latter, this is because a lot of translations from Chinese tended to use translated names. As a result, it's considered more acceptable to do this in Chinese than it is for other languages.

    So in what cases should translators translate Chinese names? There are no such cases. This is an Orientalist artifact that is now well outdated and should be left in the dustbin. A Chinese name is not primarily defined by its meaning; it's defined primarily by how it's written. A name like "Lotus Huang" is not the correct name; it's just a gross approximation of the original. And it's not as if names aren't meaningful in other languages but you'll basically never see them translated. Sure there are cases where the actual meaning of a Chinese name is important, but it's easy to draw attention to this by providing the translation in brackets as needed. For me, seeing a translated name is a sure sign that I'm reading a bad translation.

    This is a good point. If a name isn't supposed to be Chinese to begin with, then rendering it into the proper form isn't translating the name; it's just localizing it. Also, non-Chinese names rendered in pinyin tends to look terrible because it can be imprecise to the point where you might only know what it's supposed to be if you knew beforehand.
     
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  13. gingerale

    gingerale Member

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    I'm Chinese, and as dumb as translated names sound, it's just so hard to remember the names in pinyin. All the letters just blend together. Imo weird name translations are still more disconcerting to the reading experience than forgettable pinyin, but I can see why some translators would choose to do that.
     
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  14. Raneday

    Raneday Not Rane

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    ^ this one

    and to make it more easier to read too
     
  15. Junweizhu

    Junweizhu Well-Known Member

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    The chinese.
     
  16. Kuro_0ni

    Kuro_0ni Cocooned in a Life transition

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    This title reminds me of third party call-centers. You get sent to a guy whose name is Harold, John, Jake, Bill, or some western sounding name.
    Like why do they do this? Even though their names are like Jamal, Nashir, Arnav, Laksmi, etc.

    Some westerners prefer, English names over the original language. I personally don't mind, but I know a few people who aren't comfortable with it.

    Each to their own.
     
  17. GDLiZy

    GDLiZy Wise Deepsea Mermaid

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    It felt weird when you have someone named literally Road To Victory in Chinese or Seven Nights. I also don't want the Senior Brother John Thomson to break my immersion. However, if the name was supposed to be western in a western setting, then translated it.
     
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  18. Soren59

    Soren59 MTL Shill

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    Raw: 慕千雪
    Pinyin: Mu Qianxue
    How it's translated: Mo Eversnow

    Raw: 东方芷若
    Pinyin: Dongfang Zhiruo
    How it's translated: Eastern Zhiruo

    In the case of 小/Xiao (little) it usually isn't a part of their actual name, the same way 哥/Ge (brother) isn't.
     
  19. lnv

    lnv ✪ Well-Known Hypocrite

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    Senior Brother Chuck Norris
     
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  20. GDLiZy

    GDLiZy Wise Deepsea Mermaid

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    That should be Heavenly Ancestor Chuck Norris
     
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