List of English translated personal names

This is a list of personal names known in English that are modified from another language and are or were not used among the person themselves.

It does not include:

names of monarchs, which are commonly translated (e.g. Pope Francis), although current and recent monarchs are often untranslated today (e.g. Felipe VI of Spain)
aliases, pseudonyms, and stage names (such as the librettist Metastasio)
latinized spellings of other languages and other spelling variants (such as removal/spelling out of diacritics, e.g. Arnold Schoenberg, born Arnold Schönberg, US citizen in 1941)^[1])
permanent name changes, colloquially known as "Ellis Island Specials" (such as George Frideric Handel born Georg Friedrich Händel, naturalised British subject in 1727; Sumner Redstone, legally translated his originally German/Yiddish surname Rothstein along with the rest of his family in 1940)

This list also includes names from non-English languages the individual did not use, such as Latin or French.

Modern convention is not to translate modern personal names.^[2]

Translated names currently used

English name	Original name	Language	Notability	Notes
Alexander Agricola	Alexander Ackerman	Dutch	Artist (musician)
Averroes	Muḥammad Ibn-'Aḥmad Ibn-Rushd	Arabic	Intellectual (philosopher)
Avicenna	'Ali Ibn Al-Ḥusayn Ibn-'Abdillāh Ibn-Ḥasan Ibn-Sīnā	Arabic	Intellectual (philosopher)
Bill Alexander	Wilhelm Alexander	German	Artist (painter)	Self-translated
Catiline	Lucius Sergius Catilina	Latin	Political leader
Christopher Columbus	Cristóbal Colón	Spanish	Explorer
Christopher Columbus	Cristoffa Corombo	Ligurian	Explorer
Claudius Salmasius	Claude Saumise	French	Intellectual
Clovis I	Chlodovechus	Latin	Political leader
Clovis I	Hlōdowig	Frankish	Political leader
Confucius	Kǒng Qiū (孔丘)	Mandarin	Intellectual (philosopher)	Birth name, no longer used
Confucius	Kǒng Fūzǐ (孔夫子)	Mandarin	Intellectual (philosopher)
Cornplanter	Gaiänt'wakê	Seneca	Political leader
Cornplanter	John Abeel III	English	Political leader	Birth name, no longer used
Denis the Carthusian	Denys van Leeuwen	Dutch	Religious figure
Ferdinand Magellan	Fernão de Magalhães	Portuguese	Explorer
Ferenc Dávid	Franz David Hertel	German	Religious figure	Hungarian and German names were both in use
George Santayana	Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana	Spanish	Intellectual (philosopher)	Self-translated
Georgius Agricola	Georg Pawer	German	Intellectual (scientist)
Gerardus Mercator	Gheert Cremer	Dutch	Intellectual (philosopher)
Hector Boyardee	Ettore Boiardi	Italian	Chef
Henry of Ghent	Henri de Gand	French	Intellectual (philosopher)
Henry of Ghent	Henricus Gadavensus	Latin	Intellectual (philosopher)
Hieronymous Bosch	Jheronimus Bosch	Dutch	Artist (painter)
Homer	Hómēros (Ὅμηρος)	Ancient Greek	Artist (poet)
Horace	Quintus Horatius Flaccus	Latin	Artist (poet)
Hugo Etherianis	Ugo Eteriano	Italian	Religious figure
Hugo Grotius	Huig de Groot	Dutch	Intellectual
Ignatius of Loyola	Ignacio de Loyola	Spanish	Religious figure (saint)
Jacobus Arminius	Jacob Hermanszoon	Dutch	Religious figure
Jerome	Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus	Latin	Theologian
Jesus	Iēsoûs (Ἰησοῦς)	Koine Greek	Religious figure
John Amos Comenius	Jan Amos Komenský	Czech	Intellectual (philosopher) Religious figure
John Cabot	Zuan Chabotto	Venetian	Explorer
John Calvin	Jehan Cauvin	French	Religious figure (reformer)
John Huss	Jan Hus	Czech	Religious figure (reformer)
John of Damascus	Yuḥannā Ad-Dimashqi (يوحنا الدمشقي,)	Arabic	Religious figure (saint)
Josephus	Titus Flavius Josephus	Latin	Intellectual (philosopher)	Full Latin name.
Josephus	Yosef Ben-Matityahu (יוסף בן מתתיהו)	Hebrew	Intellectual (philosopher)
Lee Iacocca	Lido Iacocca	Italian	Businessman
Livy	Titus Livius Patavinus	Latin	Intellectual (historian)
Julius Evola	Giulio Cesare Andrea baron Evola	Italian	Intellectual (philosopher) Relligious figure (mystic)
Maimonides	Moses Maimonides	Latin	Intellectual (philosopher)
	Moshe Ben-Maymon (משה בן‏‏ מימון)	Hebrew
	Mūsa Ibn-Maymūn (موسى بن ميمون)	Arabic
Mark Antony	Marcus Antonius	Latin	Political leader
Mencius	Mèng Kē (孟軻)	Mandarin	Intellectual (philosopher)	Birth name, no longer used
Mencius	Mèngzī (孟子)	Mandarin	Intellectual (philosopher)
Michael Servetus	Miguel Serveto	Spanish	Intellectual (scientist)
Moses	Mōše (מֹשֶׁה)	Biblical Hebrew	Religious figure (prophet)
Muhammad ibn Abdullah	Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh (مُحَمَّد ٱبن عَبْد ٱللَّٰه)	Arabic	Religious figure (prophet)
Nachmanides	Bonastruc ça Porta	Catalan	Intellectual (philosopher) Religious figure
Nachmanides	Moshe Ben-Nachman (משה בן נחמן)	Hebrew	Intellectual (philosopher) Religious figure
Nicolas Steno	Nicolas Stenonis	Latin	Intellectual (scientist) Religious figure
Nicolas Steno	Niels Steensen	Danish	Intellectual (scientist) Religious figure
Nicolaus Copernicus	Niklas Koppernigk^[3]	German	Intellectual (scientist)
Nicolaus Copernicus	Mikołaj Kopernik	Polish	Intellectual (scientist)
Nostradamus	Michel de Nostredame	French	Intellectual
Octavian	Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus	Latin	Roman emperor
Ovid	Publius Ovidius Naso	Latin	Artist (poet)
Paul of Venice	Paolo da Veneto	Italian	Intellectual (philosopher)
	Paolo Nicoletto	Italian		Birth name, no longer used
	Paulus Venetus	Latin
Pete Fountain	Pierre LaFontaine, Jr.	French	Artist (musician)
Peter Damian	Pietro Damiani	Italian	Religious figure (saint)
Peter Lombard	Pietro Lombardo	Italian	Intellectual (philosopher)
Peter of Bruys	Pierre de Bruys	French	Religious figure (priest)
Peter of Ravenna	Pietro de Ravenna	Italian	Intellectual
Peter Waldo	Pierre Vaudès	French	Religious figure
Petrarch	Francesco Petracco	Italian	Artist (poet) Intellectual
Petrarch	Franciscus Petrarca	Latin	Artist (poet) Intellectual
Petrus Apianis	Peter Bienewitz	German	Intellectual (scientist)
Plato	Plátōn	Ancient Greek	Philosopher
Pompey	Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus	Latin	Political leader
Raphael	Raffaello Sanzio	Italian	Artist
Regiomontanus	Johannes Müller von Königsberg	German	Intellectual (scientist)
Rodolphus Agricola	Roelof Huysman	Dutch	Intellectual
Samuel Maresius	Samuel Des Marets	French	Intellectual
Terence	Publius Terentius Afer	Latin	Artist (playwright)
Theodore Beza	Théodore de Bèze	French	Religious figure
Thomas Aquinas	Tommaso d'Aquino	Italian	Intellectual (philosopher) Religious figure (saint)
Thomas à Kempis	Thomas Hammerlein	German	Intellectual (philosopher) Religious figure	Birth name, no longer used
	Thomas Hemerkin	Dutch		Birth name, no longer used
	Thomas van Kempen	Dutch
	Thomas von Kempen	German
Titian	Tiziano Vecelli	Italian	Artist
Tycho Brahe	Tyge Brahe	Danish	Intellectual (scientist)
Virgil	Publius Vergilius Maro	Latin	Artist (poet)
William of Salicet	Guglielmo da Saliceto	Italian	Intellectual (scientist)
Zoroaster	Zarathustra	Avestan	Prophet

References

^ John R. Shook – Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers: Volume 1 – 2005 Page 2153 "He became a US citizen in 1941, thereafter spelling his name as Schoenberg."
^ Journal of the Kafka Society of America Kafka Society of America 2003 Volume 27, Nos 1 & 2 – Page 54 "To begin with false notes, the conventional recent practice among translators has been not to translate personal names, and we might therefore think of the transformation of the German Georg into an English George (Jolas, Beuscher, ."
^ Dava Sobel A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionised the Cosmos – Page 5 – 2011 "He was christened for his father — Mikolaj in Polish, Niklas in German, his native tongue. Later, as a scholar, he Latinized his name, but he grew up Niklas Koppernigk,"

[1] John R. Shook – Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers: Volume 1 – 2005 Page 2153 "He became a US citizen in 1941, thereafter spelling his name as Schoenberg."

[2] Journal of the Kafka Society of America Kafka Society of America 2003 Volume 27, Nos 1 & 2 – Page 54 "To begin with false notes, the conventional recent practice among translators has been not to translate personal names, and we might therefore think of the transformation of the German Georg into an English George (Jolas, Beuscher, ."

[3] Dava Sobel A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionised the Cosmos – Page 5 – 2011 "He was christened for his father — Mikolaj in Polish, Niklas in German, his native tongue. Later, as a scholar, he Latinized his name, but he grew up Niklas Koppernigk,"

[1]

[2]

[3]

List of English translated personal names

Contents

Translated names currently used

See also

References