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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37761
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37761
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

I have recently had to deal with a similar issue in my own writing: modern Hebrew names too have meanings. Common names might mean 'horizon','spring', etc. Actress Gal Gadot's first name means 'wave', for example, (and her last name means 'riverbanks'). Here's how I dealt with this in a story written in English with several Israeli characters.

- More than once, the names I picked for characters were somehow saying something about the character. However, I did not spell out the name's meaning - I found that would be too distracting, too "in your face". You can find an example of such use in _Battlestar Galactica_: Captain Adama's name means in Hebrew 'Captain Earth'. So _of course_ Captain Earth who's on a quest to find Earth,

> is going to find Earth.

However, spelling out that his name means 'Captain Earth' ruins the suspense.

- In very rare cases when a character was choosing a name for a child because of it's meaning, for example, (similar to your example of the two siblings choosing names for studying abroad), I added a very brief footnote, like this:

> Keren, an astrophysicist, and her husband Boris, mathematician, named their son Ofek<sup>1</sup>, thinking of the new horizons opening before Man.  
> <sub>1. 'Horizon' (Hebrew) </sub>

Such footnotes weigh on the text, so I try to use them very sparingly. You can also just weave the name-meaning into the story, if it works, and if it's actually important:

> My name is Shalom. It means 'peace', so you can see my parents had good intentions when they picked it. Trouble is, it also means 'hello', which led to an endless amount of teasing.

* * *

One important note: I never ever leave names in non-English characters. The moment you do that, you limit your readership to bilingual readers. **Always transliterate**. Consider: I have no idea what those non-English characters in your post are supposed to mean, nor what they sound like, unless you tell me. And you know Wonder Woman's actress as Gal Gadot, not גל גדות.

So, to address your specific question, as you say yourself, using the English names before they are chosen, and when choosing them is actually a part of the plot, is problematic. I would use transliteration and, if it's important enough, add a footnote.

Original score: 13