# Translate your name **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 25, 2017, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808 "2017-06-25T04:11:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/1 "2017-06-25T04:11:33Z")
[right]“I’m American, honey. Our names don’t mean shit.” — Butch, _Pulp Fiction_, (1994)[/right] Dickheads know that Philip K. Dick translates to “Horselover Fat”: Dick translated his first and last names, obviously tracing “Philip” back to the Greek _Philippos_ and analyzing it (and I make no claims as to the accuracy of this analysis) as _phil hippos_, or “lover of horses”/“horse lover”, and _Dick_ is just the German word for “fat”; he then used that in some of his fiction as a character name. What happens when you do that to your name? It could be real or your username. I’ll use my real name. My first name is, by some amazing coincidence, also Greek: Christopher. It’s from St. Christopher, a dog-headed God-toter who also never existed. It breaks down to _Christos phoros_, or “Christ-bearer” / “Christ-carrier”, much the same way Lucifer is _luci phoros_ or “light-bearer” and so on. My last name is, by some amazing coincidence, also German, and it is… not Dick. It’s also not easy to track down. On [Ancestry.com](http://Ancestry.com), it suggests that the spelling my German ancestors probably used translates to something like “short and stocky like a tree stump”, so I’ll go with that. So. I’m Christcarrier Stumpy. Pleased to meet you. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/2 "2017-06-25T04:16:27Z")
My last name is too uncommon to show up on “What’s the meaning of your last name?” sites, and I don’t know enough German to figure it out myself. But as God is my judge, my first name is God is my judge. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/3 "2017-06-25T04:33:08Z")
Huh. No result. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/4 "2017-06-25T05:20:03Z")
Funny story, one day I was perusing a dictionary that had a threadbare cover when I happened to turn to a certain page in the back. There, in my dad’s lettering, in pencil, was my full name at the top of the list of boy’s names. A few pages further, at the top of the list of girl’s names was another name. My surname is kind of a mundane portmanteau. Interpreting the name of the baby girl that was not me, I get Bill’s nephew’s wild gift from god. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/5 "2017-06-25T06:05:23Z")
My name basically means “Guy who bosses everybody around like he’s God.” ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/6 "2017-06-25T06:53:17Z")
Lighbringer Wolf from Anobscuretinyplacenobodyhasheardof OfthehouseholdoftheSailfamily I hafta say, two of the Basque words are a lot shorter in the original 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/7 "2017-06-25T07:00:09Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > Lighbringer Wolf from Anobscuretinyplacenobodyhasheardof OfthehouseholdoftheSailfamily > > I hafta say, two of the Basque words are a lot shorter in the original 🙂 Are you saying we could Basque in the light the wolf brings? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/8 "2017-06-25T08:15:26Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Are you saying we could Basque in the light the wolf brings? > > 😉 You left out the yatch 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/9 "2017-06-25T08:18:01Z")
Chosen name: God is Merciful, Son of Kenneth Screen name: Godfield Cat Legal name (first and middle): Little Successor. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/10 "2017-06-25T10:48:32Z")
There was a recent thread that, I think, compared our username with the original meaning of our IRL name. As I stated there, my IRL name is basically “Clan member Scribe”. Pretty funny that I’m WordMan here. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/11 "2017-06-25T11:17:36Z")
Rivkah Chaya Maccaby. Maccaby means “war hammer” in Hebrew. Chaya means “life” in Hebrew, with an ending tacked on to make in feminine. Rivkah is older than Hebrew, although the oldest recorded occurrence of it is in the Torah. Rivkah was the wife of Isaac. The name seems to mean “attractive,” but in the sense of “fit for a purpose.” It also may mean to “tie or bind.” The theory is that it originally meant to bind a sacrifice, and then it came to mean fit for sacrifice, and finally “good,” or “healthy,” in the sense that an animal that was chosen for sacrifice was usually the best of the lot. Rivkah was chosen as a wife for Isaac because she was the best woman that Avraham’s servant found when charged with finding a wife for Isaac, so the name seems already to have meant “Most attractive of the lot,” or something by the time the story was committed to writing. Interestingly, Isaac was the child who had once been bound for sacrifice, so having a wife whose name once meant that, but the name had been transformed was sort of b’shert. Rivkah is the same name as Rebecca, or Rebekah. The vowels are just placed differently, and the B/V is expressed differently. Probably, the central “V” is correct, but no one really knows for certain. The voweling of Rivkah is certainly the correct Hebrew, but like I said, the name is actually older than Hebrew. So my name means something like “Most attractive of life – War hammer.” ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/12 "2017-06-25T12:59:06Z")
My first name is Norse, or early modern Norwegian on a Norse pattern. Interpreting it as original Norse it means Bear-Warrior or Bear-Protector (with bear of course being the old Germanic euphemism “the brown one”). My last name is from a small tenant farm and can be interpreted as “(The place with) the (presumably old) house foundations”. So I’m the bear-like warrior from the place where there used to be buildings. ---
**Author:** ![Santelia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Santelia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santelia)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/13 "2017-06-25T13:44:27Z")
I’m also a Horse Lover:) Surname means something like “Grove of Ash Trees” ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/14 "2017-06-25T14:00:34Z")
Manly Red-haired Man. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/15 "2017-06-25T14:08:46Z")
Wagonmaker of the Island and Brave Friend. Don’t live on an island, never made a wagon, not particularly friendly. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/16 "2017-06-25T15:15:05Z")
Rocky Dark. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/17 "2017-06-25T15:24:20Z")
My real English name is Norman French for the end of (the village) of apples. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/18 "2017-06-25T15:29:38Z")
Manly of Brave Counsel from the Broad Wood English … German … … … … … Irish ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/19 "2017-06-25T15:38:21Z")
_ahem_ small and naked… ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2017, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808/20 "2017-06-25T16:02:45Z")
Well, my username here means, um… “broomstick” My real life name could be translated as “Golden Song of Joy” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/translate-your-name/789808.md?page=2)