• Hi Guest - Come check out all of the new CP Merch Shop! Now you can support CigarPass buy purchasing hats, apparel, and more...
    Click here to visit! here...

Translation help?

{tpc}

{tpc}

Professional Poker Tournament Loser
Joined
Feb 20, 2008
Messages
3,613
Location
Berkley, MI
Is there anyone out there, either someone in tattoo industry or someone that can accurately translate something for me?

I've tried searching the internet, and I've asked this on various other boards to no avail. But I haven't asked this here, so I guess now is the time.

A little over a year ago, I got married. At the time, me and the wife came up with the idea of getting tattoos for each other. We wanted it in japanese, pretty much because we both adore the style of it, and because we wanted to have the ability to discuss it because none of our friends would know what it means unless they asked..which of course they would.

The idea was simple enough that it would just be each others name, and maybe an incorporation of our wedding date in there as well. Now there are various forms of japanese writing, and she liked or likes the style of kanji, but it seems translating english names into that form can't really be done. Or it can, but the symbols have meaning, so you can pronounce it so it will be as close as you can get it, but if the symbols aren't correct, you could end up with something that means "dead fish for sale" lol.

So basically I am looking to translate 2 first names (well actually 3 because of my nickname) and a date. Either to kanji or another japanese form like katakana.

What I know is this. My name "Anthony" would closest match with the romanji version "ansoni". My nickname "Tony" would closest match with "toni" and her name "Leslie" would closest match with "resuri".

So the names I would need translated are:

Anthony
Tony
Leslie

And the date would be:

February 23rd, 2007

Is there anyone out there that can help me? I've been through pages upon pages of google searches, and while theres lots of info out there, theres nothing that I feel confident in trusting. I'm willing to pay for the help, and while that will likely take some time, if I could find someone here I would at least like to get the process started and discuss terms. Or something. Unless of course the wife will pay for it or something...but I think this one is gonna be on me lol.

At any rate, any help is appreciated. I just can't google search this stuff anymore lol.
 
You are right about having to use katakana. Although you *could* use hiragana as it is also phonetic that alphabet is generally used for Japanese words not foreign words. I did a quick google search and the first hit I got shows what 'tony' (actually toni) would look like in hiragana and katakana. click. You shouldn't have any trouble finding the right characters, as you already have the phonetic translation figured out. You could do the date in Kanji no problem.
 
Ahh yes, I recall that website. Just hoping that it was accurate, sometimes you just never know hehe.

I played around with a program that seemed to translate the phonetic characters to kanji, but i'm weary. I have yet to figure out a way to translate a date into kanji, but I am still searching.

Thanks for the link, putting it in my bookmars now for quick reference. :) I'll probably end up with katakana, as it seems to be a safer way of doing it...
 
I wish I'd seen this today.

I work for a Japanese company. If I can remember on Monday, I'll check with our Japan staff and let you know.

Cheers,
Chris

(Personally, for body art, I think kanji is better. Katakana is very plain for such a decoration.)
 
Very cool of ya bimmer! I'll eagerly await any help you can offer! :)
 
I can work on this, and there might be others that can as well.

You're correct on the Kanji meanings, sort-of. When a name is translated into Chinese Characters (Kanji in Japan and Hanja in Korea - they're all essentially the same) then each character does have a meaning with some possibly interesting results, (Coca-Cola translated their name into chinese in the 60s and it was "Bit the Wax Tadpole") however, they tend to discount the meaning when it is obviously a trasliteration. When working with Kanji, many characters have the same pronunciation, so you can select the best ones so you don't have strange meanings.

For Japanese, Katakana is the primary alphabet used for any foreign word transliterations, so that is generally the best. I can work up a few options and let you pic or make desired changes too. Final product can be in jpg so you'll be able to see it as it should be, since I'd use the Japanese fonts (which won't show on your computer unless you have them added).

Are there any other elements you would like (background graphics - heart, knotwork, etc.) You can incorporate the characters for Love or Happiness if you wanted. The date is very easy to do in Kanji or numeral/Kanji mix. (they generally use the mix format in Japan from my time living there - but it may not look as good for your purposes). I can work up a few options for your consideration.

HK
 
Thanks much for the reply! I've sent a more detailed pm to you Treamayne, but I am greatly appeciative of all the help. Makes me feel good that I may actually be getting somewhere with this, and its not just an idea that gets passed by, like so many other ideas or plans I've had in my life.

:)
 
Hey Tony,

I got this done. I scanned it to a jpeg, but every time I try to upload to my album on CP, the screen goes blank and I must restart Firefox.

Anyway, I need to double check the "Anthony" ones anyway because it looks like my translator forgot the "h" and did "Antony" instead.

As for the "Leslie" kanji, the best one in my opinion translates to "Sound of jewels, happiness, hometown".

I can email you the file if you like, but it might be best to wait until I can confirm the "Anthony" vs. "Antony".

Cheers,
Chris
 
There are a few ways you could do this... first, as Insight mentioned, you could use katakana -- that's the phonetic script that is used for words that are foreign language words (hiragana is typically used for Japanese words).

However, this is probably not what you're thinking of when you think "Japanese characters" -- what you probably mean are Japanese Kanji characters, which are actually stolen Chinese characters. You could use Pinyin to translate the sounds of those names into Chinese characters... but the characters themselves may also mean other things.

For instance, my name translated into Chinese is literally "woman in house" (those are the symbols), which means safety/comfort. When you translate the names you mentioned, they could end up literally meaning any number of things (hopefully nothing too embarrassing ;) ).
 
All the points made in previous post are excellent, but I looked at this another way. Instead of finding kanji to match the sound of your names. I searched name meanings and found kanji for the meanings. Using the following

Name Gender Origin Meaning
Anthony male Latin, Greek priceless, flourishing, flower

and

The boy's and girl's name Leslie \l(e)-slie, les-lie\ is pronounced LESS-lee, LEZ-lee. It is of Scottish and Gaelic origin, and its meaning is "holly garden". Also possibly "the gray castle".

You could generate a Flourishing Holly Garden or Priceless grey castle. Just another idea to toss around or directly to the garbage.

One strange thing about Japanese years is that they are sometimes written in whatever of the emperor whoever, not 2008. I found this out while trying to get a cell phone in Tokyo and people had to back calculate my birth date.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top