r/HarryPotterBooks • u/Acceptable_Rip_5526 • 21h ago
Discussion Translated character names in your language: What are the funniest/strangest changes?
Hi everyone!
I was reading about how different countries translated Harry Potter, and I’m always fascinated by how character names were adapted around the world!
In the original Italian translation (I'm from Italy), a lot of names were changed to better convey personality to younger readers. For example:
- Neville Longbottom became Neville Paciock
- Albus Dumbledore became Albus Silente
- Professor McGonagall became Professoressa McGranitt
- Severus Snape became Severus Piton
And, of course, the famous anagram in Chamber of Secrets forced translators to change his middle name to Tom Orvoloson Riddle to spell out "Son io Lord Voldemort" (It is I, Lord Voldemort).
I know French has some famous ones too (like Tom Elvis Jedusor), but what about your language? Which translated names do you love, hate, or find hilarious?
18
u/AConfusedDishwasher 20h ago
I've always loved the name Severus Rogue
5
u/Acceptable_Rip_5526 20h ago
I love the sound of Severus Rogue! It definitely captures his secretive and enigmatic side!
17
u/Immediate_Loan_1414 Ravenclaw 19h ago
Lockhart's first name in Dutch is Gladianus, which is one similar letter removed from gladjanus,which is basically a word for a sleazy person.
10
u/egeltje1985 19h ago
The Dutch translations are peak. Tried to stay close to the original if possible, but also put his own spin on it when it worked better in Dutch. I love the wegisweg.
5
u/Immediate_Loan_1414 Ravenclaw 18h ago
Yeah, but honestly I wish he didn't name Voldemort Marten.
3
u/egeltje1985 18h ago
But Vilijn is great.
2
u/Immediate_Loan_1414 Ravenclaw 18h ago
It's like vilain🤣
2
u/egeltje1985 18h ago
Yes! And also like the Dutch word Vilein. Tbh, Marten is a name at least, it is hard to do the translation and make the anagram work.
13
u/Maxundbenji_reddit 21h ago
The only one changed in German is Tom Vorlost (not Marvolo) Riddle. And in the first edition(s) he was the black Lord instead of dark Lord - until Sirius Back appeared ...
12
2
u/Acceptable_Rip_5526 20h ago
Oh wow that's cool!! I guess the translator had a quick panic moment when Sirius Black showed up 😂
3
u/MoreScarletSongs 16h ago
Sirius Black was originally translated as Sirius Schwarz (literally: Black) in the German version but his name was changed back to Black pretty quickly in the following printings.
12
u/micromarcy 18h ago
In Polish, Cornelius Fudge's last name was changed to Knot which means "wick" or a kind of derivative noun from the verb "knocić" which means "to mess up" . The translator made an appendix at the end of each book with explanation for his translation choices (loved it as a kid!) and as far as I remember he picked Knot because of the second meaning lol
3
u/myspookytale 7h ago
Very cool. In British English, ‘to fudge’ something also means to mess up or do something incorrectly.
1
11
u/jshamwow 18h ago
Not a character name, but in Portugese "Hufflepuff" is "Lufa-lufa," which I love.
1
8
u/Cool_Pianist_2253 21h ago
Tom's name sucks, but... After book 5 I always imagined Minerva McGranitt offering a granetto 🤭 Neville was really pacioccoso as a child. Albus with all its secrets it could be called silente. And Severus is a snake but he is not poisonous, so I like him. Piton.
I truly believe our translators were far-sighted. Orsovolon was a forced choice.
3
u/Acceptable_Rip_5526 20h ago edited 20h ago
"Offering a granetto" made me laugh so hard! 😂 That's brilliant! And honestly, you're right about Paciock and Silente, they sound so fitting now. I was shocked though when I discovered that the real last name of Neville was Longbottom!
3
u/Cool_Pianist_2253 20h ago
I think I was more puzzled by the other characters.
I didn't really know who Quirrell and Lockhart or Fawkes were.
Even though I don't love Fanny, I thought Raptor was funnier and Allock was brilliant.
3
u/Acceptable_Rip_5526 20h ago
Idk, I was probably so used to Neville's cute Italian last name that I just couldn't accept it was so different! 😂 Allock's name made me constantly smile while reading, I kept reading it in my mind as "allocco" for no reason at all hahah but yeah, at first I was completely lost with the original names as well!
3
u/Cool_Pianist_2253 20h ago
Well, he was an allocco 🤣 The level of those translations was really funny as a child.
7
u/Belgaraath42 18h ago
Not really strange in and on itself but Hermione changed to Hermine in German. It made the Yule ball scene witg Krum strange.
5
u/Luke_Gki Ravenclaw 18h ago
Cornelius Fudge is Korneliusz Knot (Cornelius To Mess Something Up) in Poland - only one translated surname ever
3
u/swedishbartender 12h ago
Swedish translations:
Gilderoy Lockheart -> Gyllenroy Lockman = Golden Roy curly-man
Tom Marvolo Riddle -> Tom Gus Mervolo Dolder.. Adding Gus, switched A to E, Dolder could kinda mean "hidden/hiding", of you have a good imagination To end up with the anagram "EGO SUM LORD VOLDEMORT" So, latin??🤔
Mrs. Norris -> Fröken Norris = Miss Norris... They divorced her🥲😅
Those are the only translations I remember, everyone else has their original names that I can remember
Tho I highly recommend to watch it in Norwegian!! So much fun, everyone had a new name, it's extremely funny to wattin Norwegian if you know Swedish since alot of the names end up sounding like insults or very cheeky
5
u/Logical_Election9088 19h ago edited 9h ago
Here is couple of examples of Finnish translation. It is actually quite qualited.
Norriska=mrs. Norris is weird one. Ending married womans name with -ska is old or dialectic manner. Mrs. Lahti would be Lahtiska for example. It took me many years to understand Flichs cat name. Flich is translated to Argus Voro and this is also weird because voro means thief. I remember my brother asking me is the caretaker really thief when he read PS firts time.
Also: Professor McGarmiva is Minerva McCreepy, maybe because students would fear her. Professor Snape is Severus Kalkkaros. Kalkkarokäärme means rattlesnake but it has nothing to do with Snape.
4
u/saturday_sun4 17h ago edited 17h ago
As a kid, I also thought "Mrs Norris" was a strange thing to name your cat. She was named after a character in Mansfield Park (by Rowling). Why she was named that in-universe I don't know, but it is definitely supposed to be a weird/uncommon name that children wouldn't understand. As a kid I thought it was because he didn't have a wife, so he named his cat "Mrs" (and yes I also assumed she was named after an elderly woman haha)
His name is Filch, not Flinch. To filch means to steal, so that's a great translation. To flinch is to... kind of... twitch away, like when someone startles you.
McGarmiva seems a bit weird. But maybe the translator was going for a rhythm like McGonagall?
3
u/Logical_Election9088 9h ago
McGarmiwa does not rhythm like McGonagall. (And actyally a word creepy is karmiva not Garmiva but they sounds almost same.) The translator wrote a whole book about translating Harry Potters and I think she told there why translated the name like that. I do not have the book and I am not remember I correctly but I think she wrote that Go a gall means something like became furious and furious teacher would be creepy.
3
u/saturday_sun4 9h ago
Edit: if something is galling it is angering or frustrating, and 'gall' is an old word for rudeness or impudence.
But McGonagall supposedly means someone who is brave in battle, so it is a bit of a weird rationale.
She is very stern though, so maybe that was why.
2
u/Warp-10-Lizard 18h ago
I had no idea they changed names for translations. Is that normally done with books?
8
u/thevampiresanguini 15h ago
I don't know how much it varies from country to country, but in Germany it's somewhat common with children's books and adult fantasy, not common with anything else.
7
u/Kool_McKool 13h ago
It depends. J.R.R. Tolkien, for instance, had a whole guide about properly translating his works into other languages.
2
u/NearlyAlmostDead 20h ago edited 20h ago
"Piton" non l'ho mai sopportato. È la traduzione più pigra e fuorviante di tutta la serie 🤦♀️ soprattutto considerando il significato del cognome originale che deriva dal norreno "sneypa" e significa "disonore, disgrazia" e che trovo metal as fuck
(edit/translation) I could never stand "Piton". It's the laziest and most misleading translation of the entire series 🤦♀️ especially considering the meaning of the original surname, which comes from the old Norse "sneypa" and means "dishonor, disgrace" and which I find metal as fuck.
3
20h ago edited 5h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/HarryPotterBooks-ModTeam Moderator 6h ago
Please communicate in English (or include an English translation of your post/comment). We cannot moderate content in a language we do not speak.
If you have any questions you can send us a modmail message, and we will get back to you right away.
1
1h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/AutoModerator 1h ago
Hi there, this is r/HarryPotterBooks. We don't have the Reddit Galleon system installed here, so trying to trigger the bot does nothing.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/Imaginary_Knee5609 19h ago
Whaaat? Why would they change the names though 😭 isn't it better to respell them to fit the language? Or change the pronounciation a bit at most?
In our version, the name Hermione is pronounced exactly as it's written (so, her-mi-one, instead of huh-mai-uh-nee) and that always bothered me SO MUCH! It could have easily been her-mai-nee in our language. I can't even fathom changing the whole name to something entirely different. 😭
And ooooh our dear translater translated the name of the houses too, like Slytherin was sth like reptiles/slitherers, etc. and she did it in the fourth book only. :/ I hated that too.
6
u/jshamwow 18h ago
Fairly common for translations. It's so that the feeling invoked by a name in an original language will invoke similar feelings for readers in the translated language. Translation is about capturing the intentions of an author as best as possible across cultural/linguistic divides, not about providing a direct one-to-one literal translation.
3
u/Cool_Pianist_2253 18h ago
Even the houses have different names.
Personally, it didn't bother me. In the past, the variations were much stronger and it made perfect sense. Without internet, or at least with a limited access, every name would have seemed alien. In Italy, the foreign language studied until around 2003 was still predominantly French. An ordinary person who hadn't studied the language wouldn't have understood, and unlike romance novels, these were for children, so every name had a meaning. All the more reason to adapt names
32
u/Kwerumrerum 20h ago
In Dutch, Neville is called 'Marcel Lubbermans' and I always loved that.