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, 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

Samantha, your name is so cool! Its past is really mysterious. It’s reportedly from Biblical Hebrew and is a feminine version of Samuel, but it doesn’t appear in the Bible and it can’t be understood in Hebrew. We don’t have records of the name until the 19th century, where it

Samuel, your name is really cool! It’s the name of a biblical figure and has been borrowed into many languages, wherever Abrahamic religions show up. It has two possible meanings. The first is Shmū’ēl “Name of El Elyon.” The second is based off the passage in the Torah describing why

Melissa, your name is really cool! And cute. It means “honeybee.” We find it in Greek Mythology as the name of the Nymph who saved and raised Zeus, and it has changed little from antiquity. I also happen to really love how this name sounds, but I’m a weirdo linguist,

William, your name is really cool! It’s an ancient Germanic name that has been imported to many other languages. It’s a compound of “Wil – will” and “helm – helmet/protection.” Put together it’s a poetic way to say “Guardian,” making three ways to translate this, “Protection of will”, “Helmet of

Hi! My name is Fiona. My name is pretty darn cool! It’s a simple name – just the word for “White.” Some Latin-speakers slapped an -A at the end to make the masculine name Fionn into a feminine name. This word for “white” had come to be associated with hair

Jennifer, your name is really cool. It’s a cognate of an Irish goddess’s name, known as Findabair. Or Finnabair. Or Fionnabhair. It’s a lovely name with a long history, likely reaching back to Proto-Celtic languages. It’s most likely a compound of “Gwindos – White” and “Sēbarā – Spirit/Fairy/Phantom.” Sindarin Sindarin

There’s this weird misconception that translating a name should be a simple one-to-one process. That a translator should be able to just supply you with an Elven name, like you’re asking for the Sindarin word for “hat” (Carab, by the way). But, there’s so much more to it than that,