Originally posted by Miamio
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You may say that a transliteration should be mandated. I have bad news for you. Different names can have the same transliteration into English alphabet (think Vietnamese for a trivial example).
However, the most important part is that a name is just a designation, so if one of these people
- Владимир Владимирович Путин
- Ευάγγελος Οδυσσέας Παπαθανασίου
- מנחם בגין
Life is complicated as it is. Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (the first on the above list) name is written in the countries that border Russia in Europe as follows:
- Vladimir Vladimirovitš Putin
- Vladimiras Vladimirovičius Putinas
- Vladimirs Putins
- Władimir Władimirowicz Putin
You may argue that Menachem Begin (he is the third on the above list) was known everywhere as Menachem Begin. The problem is that depending on how you approach it, he was born as
- Mieczysław Biegun
- Менахем Вольфович Бегин
- Menakhem Volfovich Begin (modern transliteration of the above)
I would not have used his example, if it were that easy. Jews in Poland did not use Hebrew as their everyday language, they either used Yiddish or Polish. So his Yiddish name...
Vladimir Putin, Vangelis and Menachem Begin are names well established in English. In general, that is not the case and the original names of people and places should be used, even if they are written in a non-Latin script. Think of them as pictograms. You do not need to pronounce them, all you need is to learn how to recognize them.
Good luck with your research!
Mr. W.
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