Question on names

[homeskillet359]

Since all vowels end in O, are names said with an O at the end? I ask because the course (right now) uses two names, Adamo and Sofia. Sometimes if I just write Adam, it counts as correct. What's the scoop?

[Explorer]

Since all vowels end in O, are names said with an O at the end? I ask because the course (right now) uses two names, Adamo and Sofia. Sometimes if I just write Adam, it counts as correct. What's the scoop?

Personal names do not need to follow the rule. You can esperantize names as many esperantists do, but it's not mandatory. So Daniel / Danielo / Daniela are all correct.

[homeskillet359]

Thats good to know. Id rather not be called Matto, and there's not really a good way to say Matthewo.

[MatOzone]

Thats good to know. Id rather not be called Matto, and there's not really a good way to say Matthewo.

Via nomo (Matt/Matthew) en Esperanto estus Mato/Mateo

Your name in esperanto would be Mato/Mateo

[chloekearn5]

i think "esperantizing" names is not really worth it unless your name is particularly difficult to pronounce in the certain accent. but whatever makes people happy lolll

[salivanto]

In the course... the male name is "Adamo/Adam" and the female name is "Sofia/Sofia".

My advice is to always type "Adamo" in Esperanto and "Adam" in English -- and to type "Sofia" in both languages. This will give you the best chance of seeing your answer accepted. Occasionally there are "also correct" sentences with only one spelling -- and on rare occasions the course will present you with the spelling "Sophia" in English (this only started in the most recent update, I think.) If you're translating to Esperanto - put in "Adamo" and "Sofia" and select "report a problem" if it marks you wrong for the spelling of the name.

As for whether people SHOULD use Esperanto names - of course you should My name is Tomaso in Esperanto.

For my reasons why, try the following google search (with the quotes - without the square brackets).

[site:duolingo.com salivanto "translate names all the time"]

[Ady]

I always type 'Adam' and 'Sofia' (yes the Esperanto version of the one name and the English one of the other!) just because those versions have fewer characters to type!

I've never had a problem with 'Adam' not being accepted, but recently I think I did have an English answer refused because I used 'Sofia' instead of 'Sophia'. That's a real maybe, though, and after doing many, many, many lessons always using 'Adam' and 'Sofia' for everything with no issues.

[Explorer]

Fun fact: Adam and Sofia were the names of Zamenhof's children.

[Ady]

I only just now realized that the version of 'Sophia' used in the Esperanto DuoLingo sentences, 'Sofia', isn't even Esperantized, it's just different in an unrelated way!: It doesn't end in an 'o'! To be an Esperanto version of the name it would have to be 'Sofio'!

If 'Adam' and 'Sofia' exactly were names of Ludwik's children, it's weird that DuoLingo would Esperantize one but not both names.

I don't love the idea of Esperantizing names anyway, though (except that then you get an adjectival form for each person, and that could be used as a possessive?).

[Izabela]

In my experience, I feel there is some tendency that when names are Esperantized, often times men's names are given the -o ending and women's names are given -a ending.

For example, Claude Piron, who wrote the the story Gerda Malaperis as a story to help teach Esperanto, has that custom right in the title, Gerda being the unfortunate one who had disappeared.

[Ady]

Good to know, thanks. I wouldn't call that Esperantizing, though, since names are nouns. Spanishizing at best.

Claude could have gone with 'Gerdino' (and people could go with '-ino' generally, and maybe even '-icxo') if they really feel the need to have that aspect of a person to shine through the name.