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Topic : Re: Should I translate foreign names of companies, organisations, political parties etc? Is it okay to keep foreign names of companies, organisations, etc even if they have official English translations? - selfpublishingguru.com

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Your example text is bad. Not because the companies are poor examples of your problem but because right after identifying the official translation you don't use it. Instead you make the error of translating the sentence with the name in it instead of translating the name then the sentence. The official English name is "Swedish Steel AB" not "The Swedish steel company". There is nothing wrong with using the original language name which appears to be what you want to do, and consistency is certainly valuable, but using weak examples to try to validate your gut makes you look indecisive, instead of merely undecided.

Names and their meanings are important particularly those that are self chosen. I think your core desire to do due diligence in this regard is admirable. So the first questions are what are your core goals? Accuracy? Readability? Preservation of Style? I suspect that you are torn between the desires to preserve the original accuracy, preserve the subtlety, and preserve the style. unfortunately subtly is incredibly difficult to preserve in translation, particularly with names. Often the best way to preserve that which is hinted is to state it which interferes with style. I suspect your gut is right in that in this case you want to use the Swedish name, but I would supplement with a foot note of the form "means meaning. official translation Name"or similar.


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