Translating (ancient) names

Aiya, mellyn nin.

Say, in my by now years of using Parf Edhellen, one thing I have found interesting yet hard to grasp is this. Imagine you want to translate a name from past ages (talking about 2000+ years ago), would you do: A: Take the name and make it Elvish or B: Find the meaning of the name and turn that Elvish?

For example. Emmanuel. In Hebrew it means "God with us", a different name given to Jesus of Nazareth (aka the Christ). Would you make "Emmanuel" into an Elvish version? Or would you use "God with us" and turn that into a name as translation of "Emmanuel"?

'Ere we go then,

We have a leftover precedent from various sources (most evidently used in the King's Letter, and by the fact that when the Ñoldor went to Middle-Earth they translated the etymological meanings of their names into Sindarin, rather than just adapting them via phonotactics. Where does that leave us? Well it's a common practice for nerds studying elvish to translate the etymological meaning of their own name into the desired Elvish language, e.g. Q. *Indocarm(ë/o) for "William/Wilhelm". Alternately my Elvish character name could go to Modern-Day "Stefan Smithson (latter being only a rough translation as the name could easily imply any profession where either actual stone or something of stone-like quality is used)" or it could go right on over to Quenya as Ríeno Telpequarion. One valuable resource I have found is this as most of the names have an explanation which I use to either judge if the name fits within my reasoning, accept it and call it good, or take it and make a Sindarin equivalent.

Hoping that this may have helped,

Ríon Gondremborion.

Ríon Gondremborion

Thank you kindly, Rion Gondremborion!

So if I understand this rightly, you could do both; but the Noldorin just used the etymological meaning and, as such, it would be more accurate to do it their way?

Names are very personal things, so it's difficult to come up a with a definitive answer. I may think it makes little sense to translate a name with - say - Aramaeic origins into an Eldarin language, but if someone wants to go that way to name themselves or their character in a story, who am I to naysay?

We know that Elves had specific traditions about names, we know, because Tolkien wrote about them, we know about emilessi and epessi and the others, we know that connection between the character of the child and their name(s) was important to them. In our current Western culture (which is all I can speak to, it may well be very different in other parts of the world) I think it is rather rare for parents to choose the name of their child based on its original meaning. Who names their child Anne or David or Hedwig or Ronaldo because of what those names mean (or we think they mean)? I think the majority of us choose a name because we either like how it sounds, or know someone with the same name.

But of course translating names can be fun and a nice way of getting into learning Eldarin. But it can also be difficult, because names are usually quite dense and have changed and simplified a lot over the centuries of use, so a literal translation might often result in awkward sounding garbage.

@ Mr. Ferencz Indeed, I did run into that problem a few time when translating a few of my friend's names for fun. For example if you look at the etymology of the name "Lindsay", I'm still unable to come up with a Sindarin equivalent that isn't a mouthful even for a person experienced with pronunciation (Names at 4 syllables w/o counting endings like "n(d)ír"/"Ion" tend to feel ridiculous, as you mentioned).

@ Mr. Calaerchon Yes, you could theoretically do both. As Tamas said names of extremely old meanings can turn out to be a little odd and really the older they are the more connotations, possible meanings, and general condensing may have accumulated/occurred. The Eldarin custom of translating their names makes sense from their perspective because, as Tamas said, their names were chosen for their meaning, and when going to Sindarin (Vs. some real world languages to Elvish) the names generally didn't increase in length. E.g. "Q. Fëanáro to S. Faenor", "Q. Carnistir to S. Caranthir (Alt. Cranthir)".

Assimilating the sounds of the name also works: adapting my earlier example "Stefan" to Sindarin.

By Etymology you may (Rinír may work too) get Ríon, by Assimilation you (may) get something like Thefán/Thefon.

re: @Tamas Ferencz I see. Thanks for the shared wisdom, mellon nin!

re: @Rion Gondremborion Then I guess it's just a matter of which better suits the situation eh?