Best way to go about name translations?

Mary Brown #956

Should I just do each letter separately so when you read it you can spell out the English version? Or do I need to figure out the name meaning and then take that and figure out the proper word? So lost... Is there a beginners list somewhere ?

Example, for Charles Kathryn Maisy, should I be looking up the meaning like strong, pure and pearl?

Elaran #957

Doing "each letter separately" would be transliteration (or transcription), not translation. It is an option, but it would not make the name "Elvish", only written in another alphabet (i.e. Tengwar, the Elvish writing system). And I would not recommend translating a name to the Elvish languages for a beginner. Both Quenya and Sindarin are too complex for that to go well in a first attempt, especially with Sindarin (and the 140-or-so phonetic rules that govern it). Luckily, I can help.

The meanings that you mentioned for Kathryn and Maisy seem to be correct, but I rather found the meanings "man" and "army, warrior" for Charles. Assuming that you want these to be translated to Sindarin, I offer:

Charles - Belvaethor "Strong Warrior"
Kathryn - Glandis "Pure-woman" (with glân being "white, clear, bright, pure")
Maisy - Aerviriel "Sea-jewel-daughter" (there is no attested "pearl" word, thus "sea-jewel")

And this is how they would be written in Tengwar.

Mary Brown #960

Thank you so so so much! I really appreciate everything.

Francisco Gatti #969

Hi, I have the same problem here. My brother and I want to translate our names. His name is Thomas, and I found out the meaning is "twin" so the translation to Sindarin would be "gwanunig". But, my name is different, "Francis" literally means "the french man" and it is obvious that there is not a single translation for that in Sindarin or Quenya. Is there any other meaning for my name or is there any translation. Thanks very much for the help!!!!

Elaran #970

We can translate Francis easily as "Free-man" (cf. etymology), which would be Reindir as a late compound. As for Thomas... an early compound like Gonondir could work. Both are in Sindarin.

Francisco Gatti #972

Thank you very much for the help Elaran!!!!