Fiona J.
Hello! I'm your friendly neighborhood linguist! I grew up on a small sheep and horse ranch in Montana, but now I'm a city-slicker and a college grad, with a degree in English-Linguistics from the University of Montana. I am the owner and head translator of this website.
Anne in Elvish
Anne, your name is really cool! It’s an ancient Biblical name that has been imported all over Europe. It means “He[God] has favoured/graced me [with a child].” Elvish languages can’t have sentences in their names, so this name will be translated as “Favor/Grace/Gift.” Quenya Tolkien made a couple Quenya words
How to Say Manwë
Henry in Elvish
Henry, your name is really cool! It’s an old Germanic name meaning “Home King,” and fittingly, it’s been the name of many, many, many kings. And probably a few queens as well, since this name has plenty of feminine versions, like Henrietta and Harriette. Quenya The word for “home” in
How to say Melkor
Catherine/Katherine in Elvish
Catherine, your name is really cool! It’s an ancient and mysterious name from Ancient Greek, a name so ancient that the Greeks themselves didn’t know what it originally meant! Later on, it was reassigned the meaning “Pure/Clean/Clear,” based on connecting the Ancient Greek word Katharos. They changed the spelling to
How to say Eru Ilúvatar
Check out what my Patrons helped me make! On Patreon, you can set up goals. The goal for monthly $100 was a video series about pronouncing specific names. We reached that goal, so here it is! The idea behind this series is to show the pronunciation of well-known names from
Michael in Elvish
Michael, your name is so cool! It’s a rhetorical question, “Who is like El Elyon?” When it comes to translating this name, we have a huge problem. This name isn’t translatable. Not directly, anyways. Elven names aren’t made from sentences. They’re made by combining nouns, adjectives, and name suffixes. Worse
Margaret in Elvish
Margaret, your name is really cool! It’s an elegant name from Ancient Greece meaning “pearl.” When translating this into Elven languages, we have a problem, because neither Sindarin nor Quenya has a word for “pearl.” So, I’m translating it as “sea-gem.” Quenya If you’re a connoisseur of Elvish name translations,
Christopher in Elvish
Christopher, your name is really cool! It’s an ancient Greek name, describing and therefore naming a Saint, one who carried baby Christ across water. It literally means “Christ-bearing.” Tolkien liked this name, and gave the name to his son who went on to make sure the world knew the true