It’s always fascinated me the idea of translating names - my name is [name_f]Eve[/name_f] and I’ve spent a lot of time in [name_f]France[/name_f] where they decidedly pronounce it Ev (like the first Syllable of [name_u]Evan[/name_u]) rather than with a long ee- sound. Whilst living there it made me laugh that a girl named [name_u]Marie[/name_u] felt the need to translate her name to [name_f]Mary[/name_f] whilst speaking [name_f]English[/name_f] to me (because [name_u]Marie[/name_u] is also a name in [name_f]English[/name_f]) and I was wondering if anyone else has any expériences of being called Something different in a different country or having other people translate their names?
We have so many international names in use in the UK (and other [name_f]English[/name_f] speaking countries like the US) that it seems odd to pronounce somebody’s name differently just because they’re in our country rather than their home nation. For example, I know an Italian [name_f]Claudia[/name_f] - first Syllable pr like the word cloud. If I met an [name_f]English[/name_f] person with this name I’d pronounce it like the [name_u]French[/name_u] boys name [name_u]Claude[/name_u] but I don’t insist on pronouncing Italian [name_f]Claudia[/name_f]’s name this way or translating, for example, a Spanish [name_u]Maria[/name_u] to [name_f]Mary[/name_f].
It’s very interesting that in some countries translating names seems more of a normal custom? I’d love to hear your views
Also side note - when in other European countries I have been called [name_f]Eva[/name_f] too - like my name has just been switched to the default international variant
This may be because in many European languages female names have to end in specific sounds, like -ah. Greece, where I’m from, is one example. 95% of female names end in -ee or -ah, with a few ending in -s or -o. So an [name_f]Eve[/name_f] would automatically become [name_f]Eva[/name_f], because names ending in -v don’t exist. On the other hand, [name_f]Amelie[/name_f] wouldn’t become the more common Greek variant [name_f]Amelia[/name_f], because we’re used to names ending in -ee.
[name_f]Eve[/name_f], like beverage. Makes total sense to me! That is how it’s spelled! To pronounce eeev, it’d have to be Ive. Like naïve, native, olive, etc. And presumably Evie would be Ivy.
Heh. I also spent some time in [name_f]France[/name_f].
For what it’s worth, my skin stiiiiill crawls when I hear [the shrill] LEEEEN, LEEEEN! Instead of [name_u]Lynn[/name_u]. The closest we got to phonetic [name_f]Lin[/name_f] was phonetically [name_m]Len[/name_m]. Homonymn is [name_u]Laine[/name_u], which means wool. Vous savez, comme un mouton? Baaaaaaaaa.
My name doesn’t get changed a lot in other languages (I’m a [name_m]Jack[/name_m]). Some accents, it sounds closer to “Jeck,” but that’s about it. I mostly hear my name in [name_f]English[/name_f] and sometimes Spanish, though, so maybe I’ll encounter something else interesting in that regard later on— I haven’t done any international travel since before I changed my name.
Most of my foreign language experience is from taking different languages in school;)
In [name_m]German[/name_m] they pronounced my name “[name_f]Maudie[/name_f] shown”
In Latin they called me Madisonia (I’ve also had a project where we picked a “Latin name” to go by and mine was Lucilia)
When I’m speaking Russian or in that environment I go by my middle name which isn’t Russian but is a lot more well known and pronounceable in Russian contexts than my first name.
Such a fun question! [name_f]My[/name_f] name is [name_f]Alicia[/name_f] so it’s not unheard of in a lot of places (especially where Romance languages are spoken) but can be pronounced completely differently! In [name_f]France[/name_f], where I’ve spent the most time, it’s uh-lee-see-uh & I would pronounce it that way while speaking french because it’s seems more natural. But when speaking my native [name_f]English[/name_f] I pronounce it uh-lee-shuh.
I’m not really sure because people in other countries have just called me what I introduced myself as. One of my professors when I was studying in [name_m]Cyprus[/name_m] kept calling me [name_f]Audrey[/name_f] on accident but only because I think she wasn’t as familiar with [name_u]Abby[/name_u].
[name_f]My[/name_f] [name_f]Asian[/name_f] grandmother doesn’t speak [name_f]English[/name_f] very well, so she calls me Chao, the Khmer word for grandchild
I’m an [name_f]Emma[/name_f] and if there’s one positive, it’s that it darn well shows up everywhere.
The [name_u]French[/name_u] tend to make the final ‘a’ a lot snappier than us Brits do which confused me as a small child but it does make the name sound livelier so I think I can go with it. Germans got it pretty spot on. [name_f]My[/name_f] surname on the other hand…
I have a name that exists in different languages, but is pronounced differently in [name_u]French[/name_u] and Spanish etc compared to [name_f]English[/name_f]. When I talk to Spanish speakers they tend to use the Spanish pronunciation. I don’t mind either way.
My name is very versatile and works in most European languages, though the spelling does change a little, as does the pronunciation, depending on the language. I particularly like how my name sounds and is spelt in Spanish. My name is actually worn by a character in a famous opera set in Spain.
My full name is [name_f]Eirene[/name_f], which is Greek, but since I live in [name_u]America[/name_u] I just say my name is [name_f]Irene[/name_f] which is the americanized version. I also go by Reni, so in french class I was called [name_f]Renée[/name_f].
in france and a few other european countries they don’t pronounce the letter h so i’m anna, which honestly i don’t mind at all since i prefer the name anna to hannah
moderatly related story: my french teacher is french and she almost named her daughter hannah, but because her whole family would pronounce it without the h, she called her anna instead
When I studied abroad in [name_f]Russia[/name_f], people always tried to pronounce my name ([name_f]Julia[/name_f]) the [name_f]English[/name_f] way but most Russians have a really hard time with pronouncing the J sound so it came out sounding very awkward to me. I appreciated the effort but I would always try to get people to use the Russian version, [name_f]Yuliya[/name_f], instead. I think it’s very pretty and I would rather have them use the perfectly lovely pronunciation that comes naturally to them than try unsuccessfully to use pronunciation that is foreign to them, especially since I was the one visiting their country and we were usually speaking Russian.
To pronounce eeev, it’d have to be Ive. Like naïve, native, olive, etc. And presumably Evie would be Ivy.
