The Translation of Brand Names

1、商标语的翻译the translation of brand namesabstracttranslation of brand names is a form of intercultural communication. however we translate the chinese brand names into english ones or translate the english brand names into chinese ones, language laws, cultural psychology, aesthetic interest and some othe

2、r factors will be involved. the translators should also pay attention to some cultural taboos and choose appropriate method to translate. of course, brand name translation is not a simple thing. sometimes the good translated name likes the inherent one, when we translate brand name there is somethin

3、g we can do to strive for perfection. one good kind of commodity adding on a good name is not different with improving on perfection, and its charm is infinite.key wordstranslation of brand names; principles; methods; cultural taboos; 摘要商标名的翻译是一种跨文化交际形式，不管是中文商标的英译还是英文商标的汉译，都会涉及到语言规律、文化心理、审美情趣等方面的因素。

4、商标翻译者在遵循翻译原则的同时，也要注意一些商标翻译的文化禁区，并且选择适当的方法来进行翻译。当然，商标的翻译绝不是简单的问题。有时好的译名也有自然天成的味道，所以在翻译商标时我们大有文章可做，可以精益求精。一种好的商品，加上一个动听上口的名字，无异于锦上添花，魅力无穷。关键词商标翻译；原则；方法；文化禁区； introductionthe human society has entered the 21st century. the international trade is developing fast. the national boundary concept desalinate

5、s gradually, when the scale of the commercial cooperation and the commodity import and export expand unceasingly. import and export product in foreign land whether can develop the market and seize the market successfully; the brand name translation is playing the pivotal role, besides medium adverti

6、sement. the commodity brand name is similar to humans name. the translated brand name is the second name of commodity in other country, its importance is self-evident.d. equivalence principle of brand name translationequivalence is the core in the west translation theory. in 1961, a famous person po

7、inted out: “the influence which the translated works gives us should be identical with the influence which the original text gives its first audience.” the principle of equivalence is suit for brand name translation best in all the translation theories. according to the principle of equivalence, tra

8、nslated brand name must have two factors: a. translated name should have the brand name form. b. the translated one must have the ability to produce the same or approximate functions of the original brand name. that is to say, the translated name should be reading easily, pleasant to hear, good-look

9、ing. it must be the perfect unity of tone, form and meaning. let us see some examples: cosmetic “clean&clear” means clean and fresh. the information of the original is if you use the product, your skin will be clean and fresh. the original name is bright and makes consumers feel clean and neat. if i

10、t is translated into “干净清爽”, the comfortable feel which it gives us may disappear. if we use “可伶可俐”,the product is the girls favor sure. because it makes consumers associate it with clever and bright girls. in the example, both the original and translated words give the same influence to different a

11、ccepters.e. observing the international standardthe general country all stipulated that, the word of brand name must not have narration to the commodity nature, the quality, the function, raw material and so on. as a result of the historical reason, there are many registration trademarks opposed the

12、 above stipulation in our country. for example, “永久自行车”,“金杯足球”,“羊毛毯”, “钻石手表”and so on. if uses their english names which are translated directly in the overseas application registration, they are easy to encounter the veto. the shandong “qinqi” group produces “qinqi” motorcycle, “qinqi “are not tran

13、slated into english directly, so as to evade the suspicion of implication commodity quality, but used chinese pinyin form qinqi , it passed on chinese pronunciation and meaning by used latin alphabet. compared with forever (永久), “goldcup” (金杯) and best (百得), it registers easily in overseas.f. observ

14、ing our countrys relevant lawsthe peoples republic of china brand name law stipulated that we can not use the word which is similar with the name of peoples republic of china, also can not use the word which has the national prejudice. in 1988, a factory in hangzhou registered brand name “prc “for i

15、ts product industry chain link. but “prc is the english abbreviation of peoples republic of china, therefore, this brand name is impossible to allowed to register. as a result of the contrast intense, blacks tooth appear very white, therefore some one used 黑人 as the brand name of the toothpaste. but

16、 its english name darkie is one kind of derogatory names to blacks, so this brand name which has used several dozens years in mainland china cannot continue to register and be avoided to use just because of including the racial discrimination ingredient. revised in february, 1993, the peoples republ

17、ic of china brand name law didnt limit the kind of language of brand name; we might use the chinese word, chinese pinyin, the foreign language or the minority language. if we use chinese and the foreign language together as a brand name, the industry and commerce department requests that the two kin

18、ds of language are mutually consistent, or requests that chinese and the foreign language divide into two brand names to register, and then use the combined form of the brand names. in fact, commodity packing design should take into consideration the internationalization and the modern market, if it

19、 is, we can use the foreign language as the commodity brand name. there are many chinese products only thought the local role during the development period, and till the scales are big enough to march to the international scene, they just then discovered the images fall behind america, japan and som

20、e other countries obviously. the methods of brand name translation“brand name means business.” brand name concerns image, credit, and actual strengtha series of significant elements of enterprise. when the west advertisement designers design the brand name, product and manufactory, they rack their b

21、rains to produce vivid and unique brand name which in order to give consumers deep impression and win in the fierce market competition. when the standard petroleum company designed the brand name “exxon”, they invited many faceted specialists including package-linguists to research the language situ

22、ation of 55 countries. it took 6 years and cost more than 1,400,000 dollars to complete. of course, brand name translation doesnt likely cost so much effort, but we should adopt different methods carefully on the basis of different conditions.a. the method of chinese pinyinchinese pinyin is the form

23、 of latin words and the sound, meaning of chinese. it is popular in chinese brand name words. chunlan （春兰空调）, lishen（力神咖啡）, etc. some use the abbreviation of chinese pinyin to express brand names: ll（露露饮料）, lc（浪潮集团）, tg（天歌集团）. when we use chinese pinyin to translate brand names, we should pay attent

24、ion to that it only marks tone to brand names, but it has no sense itself and its meaning is the content of corresponding chinese words. some chinese pinyin words have sense in english in some translation practices. “芳芳”cosmetics pinyin is “fang fang”, and “fang” is “the teeth of snake” in english.

25、there is a brand name “fuck” of pliers. maybe it is the abbreviation of company name. but “fuck” is also an english word. its meaning is “cheat, dupe”, even “have sex” in slang. so when we use pinyin to translate, we have to be careful. “永芳”cosmetic supplies us some inspirations. “永芳”has been marked

26、 as “yin fang” to avoid ambiguity.b. the method of paraphraseit is popular that brand names of company and commodity are translated into english according to their sense in daily life. “开元集团”is translated into “create”, “雪莲羊绒衫”into “lotus”, “椰风饮料”into “coconut hit”, “巨人集团”into “giant group”, “h型强场磁化

27、杯”into “h-type magnetize a drinking water cup”. when we paraphrase brand names, except that some registered english words have other senses in their culture background, we must pay attention to that because the brand names of most enterprises in china are ready-made words; maybe they are same with t

28、he brand names which have been registered abroad. for example, there is a “浪潮计算机集团公司”in china, and there is also a famous “fiae” （浪潮）company in america which produces detergent specially; or some brand names involve the quality, nature, function and raw material etc. all the above cannot paraphrase

29、to english directly. we need re-consideration. maybe we can register another english brand name. the brand name “美加净”has another corresponding latin brand name “mamam” abroad; “广”beer of guangzhou beer company has another english brand name “guangs”.c. the method of transliterationwe can adopt or cr

30、eate english words which the tones are near to the chinese words to translate brand name. these english words are very particular because they not only have the approximate tone of chinese, but also meaning of itself. “风华”refrigerator has been translated into “forward”（向前）,“四通计算机集团公司”into “stone”（石头

31、）,“黛妹牌生眉笔”into “dame”（夫人）,“好娃友口服液”into “how are you oral liquid”（你好口服液）,“海信电器公司”into “hisense”（高灵敏）. all these give people deep impression.d. the method of word-buildingwe can use mechanics, spelling wrongly on purpose and adding prefix or suffix to create many new words according to the specialty o

32、f english. then adopt these words to translate brand name and express the distinction of the product. although the sharps of new and original words are different, the meanings are remained. the new words not only are vivid and interesting, but also can spread information of product effectively.1. th

33、e method of piecing together and adding affixsometimes we tailor two words and choose the beginning or end to make up a new word which is used as a brand name. 东方星表is translated into “eastar” （east东方+star星）, 新意达集团is into “newit”（new新+wit智慧），肤美灵化妆品is into “skinice”（skin皮肤+nice美）, 金霸王电池is into “durabl

34、e cell” （durable耐久的+cell电池）, 康立戒烟灵is into “convene smohquit” （smoke烟+quit戒除）.2. the method of misspellingthere is a “kasn karry supermarket” abroad. “kasn” and “karry” is the wrongly spelling word of “cash” and “carry”. it indicates the supermarket where if you pay money you can leave at once. altho

35、ugh there are only a few examples which use this method to translate brand names, its very successful. “奥林饮料”is translated into “orien”. although “orien” is the wrongly spelling word of “orient” （东方）, the sense is remained. it makes consumers recall the mystical “orient” life spring in the west lege

36、nd; “清妃化妆品”is into “chine”. “chine” corresponds to “china ” （中国）. consumers didnt use the product yet; they have seemed to see the beauty of chinese woman already.3. the method of compounding wordsthe method means we make up new word by arrange two or more than two words according to some order. “hi

37、sense” is a good example. there are many example: “梦月广告公司”is translated into “dream moon ”（dream梦+moon月亮）, “清脑助学器”is into “brain bright”（brain大脑+bright聪明）. at present, we use paraphrase or pinyin to translate trad.ch.medicine and health products generally. 胃苏冲剂is translated into stomach comfortable

38、lotion, 555神威丸is into three five shenwei pill, jie shen chun and jie er yin are both the pinyin of their chinese name. because they dont have the proper names, the features of the medicine cannot be showed up completely. maybe the method of compounding english words could start a new road of transla

39、tion.4. the method of using the corresponding english wordssome products names are the corresponding english words of chinese names. so we can just find the original english words when translate them. “乔士衬衫” is translated into “choice”（精选）, 雅戈尔衬衫 is into “ younger”（更年轻）, 康巴丝钟表 is into “compas”, 奇士美

40、is into “kiss me”, 凯瑞按摩笔 is into “carry”. the cultural taboos of brand name translationin international commerce, we can find easily that the product which uses the same brand name is welcome in some countries but in other countries it may be treated coldly. whether the brand name can be “in rome do

41、 as the romans do” is very important to cater to the aesthetic sense of consumer. wang zuoliang said: “a translator must be a real educated person.” it is undoubted problem that how to get rid of the barrier which is caused by nations cultural diversity in brand name translation. the translation of

42、chinese brand name into english may do wrongly easily, if the translator doesnt have good comprehension of the target language and its culture. for example, there is an electrical equipment “蝙蝠”, “蝠” is the homophonic of “福”. but if we translate it into “bat”, the west people are disgusted with it.

43、because they dislike this kind of animal very much. it is bad to translate “蓝天”toothpaste which is made in china into “blue sky”, as “blue sky” means “the debenture of a enterprise which cannot be taken back” in english. the “白翎”pen cannot be translated into “white feature”. because “to show the whi

44、te feature” means “escape and flee” in english. someone translates “金鸡”clock into “golden clock”, it gives person vulgar and uncultured impression. except cock, “cock” also means penis. as we known, “白象”is left out in the cold in america, as it is translated into “white elephant”. and “white elephan

45、t” means “big but useless thing” in usa. some animals have different allusions in the west and orient. so if we want our products sell well in other countries, we should pay more attentions to the brand names and patterns of animals. dragon （龙）is totem in chinese history, but in the west dragon repr

46、esents crime and evil. in chinese tradition, phoenix（凤凰）is a mysterious animal, but in the west culture, it is a kind of birds which will never die and has meaning of revivification. magpie（喜鹊）is lucky bird in our country, as means hateful person in english. turtle（龟）symbolizes longevity in japan, a

47、s is seemed as hideousness in many countries. because panda（熊猫）likes pig, it is hated by people of islamic countries. there are many examples which like the cases above caused by translator lacking culture. the problems in brand name translationbrand name translation means translate brand name inclu

48、ding name of product and manufactory from chinese into english. the translated brand name must be standard english which conforms to the international usual practice and cultural customs of target countries. so that it can develop overseas market and improve celebrity of product, eventually create g

49、ood factors for founding chinese international famous brand name. because of economical development, there are more and more products join in the competition of international market. according to the international usual practice, the words on the package must be english. besides, when many products

50、of other countries come into chinese market, many products sold inside the country use english names which are used together with chinese words and have auxiliary function. it may improve the product grade and makes people have association with the fashion and high quality of imports. thus when more

51、 and more english names of products and manufactories appear on the package, some problems are made out.a. chinese consumers are puzzled that all the words on many products packages are english. the phenomenon breaks the chinese law. it doesnt worth the effort that some other products which use engl

52、ish and chinese together stress english excessively and limit the conveyance of chinese information.b. the limited english level makes translators translate wrongly or spell mistakenly. so it takes opposite effect. the wrongly translated brand name cannot improve the grade of brand name, but make co

53、nsumers doubt about the knowledge level and credit of product.c. because translator doesnt understand customs and social culture, the translated name of product has another meaning in other countries. the sale and credit of product are affected seriously. “白象电池” and “山羊闹钟” are not sold well in brita

54、in as their translated names have derogatory sense which is useless and burdensome thing or satyr.conclusion to sum up, a simple trade mark not only relates initially to the sale of products, but also reflects the quality and style of the country. the advertising message today is addressed to a vast

55、er, more satisfied public, and it plays a fundamental and unequalled role in the altering of customs and habits, the spreading and fixing of cultural and esthetic clichs. it is also the translators duty to translate refraining from falling into the culture trap and promote a good international image

56、.so the brand name translation is a difficult and important job. on the basis of understanding of products natural capacity, translator must see the change of products on market clearly and try to figure out the feature of consumers mentality. he should apply the pragmatics, sociolinguistics, folklo

57、re, aesthetics and the study of cultural language, selling, consumers mentality, advertisement and intercultural communication exactly. he also should adhere to the principles of translation as advertising nature, inductive, aesthetic and equivalence, and understand the differences between different

58、 cultures. the translator ought to choose appropriate methods to suit different conditions and in order to embody the information and functions which the original language brand name bears. thus it can help the national products enter the target country market successfully.bibliography1 claire krams

59、ch. language and culture.上海外语教育出版社, 2000.2 newmark, peter. a textbook of translation. hemel hempstead: prentice hall, 1998.3 nida. e.a. language，culture and translating. inner mongolia: inner mongolia university press, 1998.4 nida, eugene. the theory and practice of translation. leiden: f.j.brill, 1969.5 nord, christiane. translating as a purposeful activity