Should names be in its language or translated?

So Ai-chan is plotting a story set in a fictional Chinese dynasty. There are names such as Prince Haiwen, Queen Lan Zhaochun, Qinglan etc.

Originally, Ai-chan wants to make the names in English, such as for example, Queen Radiant Spring of Orchid Family (Qinglan Nujun, Lan Zhaochun), Princess Spring Blossom (Chunhua Junzhu) and Azure Waves (Qinglan).

But then came the problem that some of the names that sounds decent in Chinese, sounds completely bonkers in English, such as Prince Cultured Sea (Haiwen Wangshu). There will be more issues as the names increase.

What do you all think? Should the names be in chinese or english?

Chinese of course.

Okay, hang on. Give another example, just names. No translation or anything. One name in Chinese, one in English.

Ah, that’s the problem with language barriers. I’ve had so many incidents where I want to write something that sounded so beautiful in Chinese (my native tongue) but in English it’s just… flat.

I see the usual rule is just writing the pinyin (Chinese pronunciation) for titles, but you can put an author’s note at the end to translate it. Like in the story you write Prince Haiwen, then at the end you write Haiwen = Cultured Sea.

On YouTube, I saw this subtitle group for a famous drama called “Empresses in the Palace” (Zhenhuan Zhuan, Story of Zhenhuan) put in French words for some of the concubines’ granted titles because in English, French is considered fancy or whatever. For example, Wǎn 莞 = Sourire, Huá 华 = Fleur. You could also do that for some of your names if you think it’s cool.

Alas, ultimately, you can never make the English version of the names fully encompass the Chinese meaning due to the language barriers, so you’ll have to just do the best you can.

How about using the Chinese name, but including the English translation as a sobriquet? A bit like in Game of Thrones the character Sandor Clegane is sometimes referred to as 'The Hound', your queen could occasionally be referred to as 'The Orchid Queen' as a bit of a nod to the literal Chinese meaning?

Its better if they are in thier native language — Nya.

Worthy39 said:

Okay, hang on. Give another example, just names. No translation or anything. One name in Chinese, one in English.

Click to expand...

Okay, here is a list of some other names

Bunch of her own court assholes
Prime Minister Lin Shou (To guard)
Lady Zhao Ruoxi (Like Light)
Lord Cao Yuren (Humane Jade)
Lord Yun Shuhai (Ocean Tree)

The imperial court of Tianrong
Grand Chancellor of the Left Xu Mingde (Highest Virtue)
Grand Chancellor of the Right Lu Heng (Measure)
Minister of Rites Han Zeyu (Moist Universe)
Minister of War Guo Tianshun (Obey Heaven)
Minister of Revenue Liang Shouyan (Accomplished Guard)
Minister of Personnel Cai Lian (Lotus)
Minister of Works Duan Mingzhi (Bright Person)

Definitely the original Chinese, as long as it's just names. I mean, most of my characters in my story have Japanese names, so...

Ai-chan said:

Okay, here is a list of some other names

Bunch of her own court assholes
Prime Minister Lin Shou (To guard)
Lady Zhao Ruoxi (Like Light)
Lord Cao Yuren (Humane Jade)
Lord Yun Shuhai (Ocean Tree)

The imperial court of Tianrong
Grand Chancellor of the Left Xu Mingde (Highest Virtue)
Grand Chancellor of the Right Lu Heng (Measure)
Minister of Rites Han Zeyu (Moist Universe)
Minister of War Guo Tianshun (Obey Heaven)
Minister of Revenue Liang Shouyan (Accomplished Guard)
Minister of Personnel Cai Lian (Lotus)
Minister of Works Duan Mingzhi (Bright Person)

Click to expand...

It's pretty cool how chinese names carry their meaning openly (it's charmingly autistic, lol). English names have their meaning buried ten layers deep, so most of us never know what our names mean (I'm a light deer, for instance, which is not obvious at all).

As for the subject, use the original chinese, obv.

Search your heart follow your soul

They should be romanized, but not translated.

If you aren't writing it in Chinese, ditch the Chinese names. Their naming conventions are 'charming' only to autists.

Ai-chan said:

So Ai-chan is plotting a story set in a fictional Chinese dynasty. There are names such as Prince Haiwen, Queen Lan Zhaochun, Qinglan etc.

Originally, Ai-chan wants to make the names in English, such as for example, Queen Radiant Spring of Orchid Family (Qinglan Nujun, Lan Zhaochun), Princess Spring Blossom (Chunhua Junzhu) and Azure Waves (Qinglan).

But then came the problem that some of the names that sounds decent in Chinese, sounds completely bonkers in English, such as Prince Cultured Sea (Haiwen Wangshu). There will be more issues as the names increase.

What do you all think? Should the names be in chinese or english?

Click to expand...

If it's purely fictional then, as long as you are consistent, it doesn't matter. If any historical characters are involved, though, you should use the Anglicized phonetic version of their names for recognition.

I like writing names not as Romanized Japanese, nor as English, but literally using Google Translate to write kanji or other text.
Such as 秋の星虹の乙女 for the ridiculously fanciful name Autumn Star Rainbow Maiden.

Which makes audiobooks impossible.

Although, sometimes I do use English text, just to make it clear just how absurd the name I chose is. I guess I use Romanized too.

If you want to convey the feel of your story in a European style, then translating the name into a more Western name is a wise choice. But if you intend to leave the name authentic, then there is no need to translate.