Tonks

[Kingaroo]

One of my favorite aspects of the Harry Potter books is the wonderful names and incantations that Rowling creates.  I have read articles about how translators struggle to get just the right connotations in other languages.  I need some help translating a character's name from British to American.  Tonks doesn't mean or sound like anything I can think of.  I can see it's an awkward unladylike name for an awkward unladylike girl, but I feel like I'm missing some sublter shade of meaning.

[moonshine]

tonks the name isnt so much awkard as quirky and shows that she isnt your average girl. it also indicates her clumsy nature.

[Narolines]

I'm not sure anyone with the surname Tonks -  a good old traditional surname -  would agree with you (except possibly about not being average - but then nobody wants to be average, do they?)  And I'm not clear why it would be necessary to translate a name from British to American (whatever American means in this context) - or indeed from any language to another.  You don't hear Giuseppe Verdi being called Joe Green or Bedrich Smetana referred to as Richard Cream, do you?  Or am I missing something?

[Kingaroo]

Naroline, if there were a character named Ta, British readers would pick up on a connotation of casual politeness, but it would be lost on Americans because we don't use that word. IIf a character were named Bodger, a Brit might expect him to have a big nose, but an American wouldn't I was wondering if Tonks was some kind of slang word or abbreviation. Now that I know it's a common surname, my curiosity is satisfied.

[Narolines]

Fair enough, Kingaroo  - I see where you're coming from.  Mind you, I'm intrigued as to why you say Bodger would suggest a big nose - a bodger is an old English term for a chair-maker, and is now used to mean someone who makes do with slap-dash methods instead of doing a proper job. I've never come across any connection with nasal enormousness.........

[Kingaroo]

Okay, bodger is a bad example. I had to look it up because I found it in a song, and forgot all the other meanings but the one that suited in that context. From World Wide Words (a great site to browse!):

Yet another sense of bodger is hinted at by a line in the Flanders and Swann song that mentioned the rhinoceros having a �bodger on his bonce�. Many people have written to say that they know a bodger as a pointed instrument for various purposes.

[*~Shelley~*]

Lol be careful, thats my moms maiden name!!! But she can sometimes be a bit clumsy........ :)