• Recent Posts
  • Recent Comments
    • ¿Por qué los traductores profesionales son rentables para tu e-commerce? - Blarlo on The importance of being present in the B2C (Business-to-Consumer) e-commerce
  • Archives
    • March 2024
    • February 2024
    • January 2024
    • December 2023
    • November 2023
    • October 2023
    • September 2023
    • August 2023
    • July 2023
    • June 2023
    • May 2023
    • April 2023
    • March 2023
    • February 2023
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • August 2022
    • July 2022
    • June 2022
    • May 2022
    • April 2022
    • March 2022
    • February 2022
    • January 2022
    • August 2021
    • February 2021
    • January 2021
    • November 2020
    • April 2020
    • March 2020
    • January 2020
    • December 2019
    • November 2019
    • October 2019
    • September 2019
    • August 2019
    • June 2019
    • April 2019
    • March 2019
    • February 2019
    • January 2019
    • December 2018
    • November 2018
    • October 2018
    • September 2018
    • August 2018
    • July 2018
    • June 2018
    • May 2018
    • February 2018
    • January 2018
    • November 2017
    • September 2017
    • August 2017
    • March 2017
  • Categories
    • Business
    • Culture and localization
    • E-commerce
    • Multilingual tourism
    • News
    • Orthography
    • Professional Translators
    • Specialised translation
    • Technologie
    • Translation tips
    • Uncategorized
  • Meta
    • Log in
    • Entries feed
    • Comments feed
    • WordPress.org

Curious translations of famous brands

Curious translations of famous brands
Do you need translation services?
Contact us now to get a quote

From time to time, a translator faces the following question: should a brand name be translated? In this post, we’ll tackle this question and provide some examples of translations to illustrate what can be done with foreign brand names.

Curious translations of famous brands

Should brand names be translated?

Absolutely. Although it’s not necessary in the case of proper names, brand names should be translated. However, translations are not meant to be literal, but rather improve on the way the name is pronounced in a foreign language and, above all, to avoid the use of words that sound bad or may even be offensive in another language.

This is the case of many famous brands that have created different names depending on the country in which their products are sold with the goal of boosting their sales. Sometimes the choice of a new name is based on a business strategy, since the imported product is sold for a higher price than in the original country, which may lead to a crisis in the company, easily solved by unifying the name in each country.

Famous cases that confirm the need to translate a brand name

The well-known cleaner Mister Proper became Don Limpio in Spain for the reasons presented above. Another good example is Axe deodorant, which is sold in the UK as Lynx. However, among the most curious cases, we find the following.

Frigo

This ice cream brand has existed since the 70s in Spain. However, when the brand was sold, it opted to use a heart-shaped logo (owned by Heartbrand), which led these products to be named Holanda in Mexico and Streets in Australia.

Burger King

Although this is an international franchise, in Australia, because a restaurant in Adelaide had already trademarked the name, it is called Hungry Jack’s.

Car model names

The Nissan Moco, a small green car, was never released in Spain, most likely because moco means “booger” in Spanish. The Mitsubishi Montero was the solution to the problem with its original name, Pajero, which in Spanish is a vulgar term for “masturbator”. The Chevrolet Nova was allegedly changed to Corsa, because in Spanish no va means “it doesn’t go”. The Mercedes Vito and the Honda Fitta translated their names in Sweden, as the two terms allude to a woman’s genitals.

The union of marketing and translation

The need to translate aside, everything seems to indicate that it is the market itself that decides what decisions to make. However, do you think it’s necessary to increase the number of foreign names in our language? Can our own language be devalued if brand names are not translated and remain as they are?

The answers to these questions will determine which path translators decide to take. One solution might be to adapt names to the local language without falling into the trap of coining new words that end up losing their meaning. Anything to add? You can leave a comment below.

This post is also available in: Español (Spanish) Français (French) Nederlands (Dutch)