The name of someone, is that persons name.
When someone is called Maria, and they go and live in, lets say England, the name on their birth certificate, or visa or other documentation is not changed/translated to Mary.
However if a person with the name of Maria, chooses to be called Mary, then that is different. In common usage, it is then respectful to choose to call / refer to that person as Mary. (Unless for example, it is for "official/legal documentation" reasons).
Just is if a person, who has a legal name of Maria chooses to be called Ann, then it is polite to respect the choice of the person, and call them, and refer to them as Ann.
To insist that someone must be called a different name, to the one that they are called, and that they choose to be called, it is also a form of abuse. For most language pairs, names are not translated into other languages. It is seen in many cultures as a type of name calling and put down.
When people do that to us, there is substantial number of us that can feel :
- you are being belittling to the person
- you are seeking to dishonor the person and strip them of their identity.
- you are seeking to disrespect and alienate the person.
The Scottish Gaelic culture though has a twist on this. Check out this sub discussion.
Though their culture seeks to do this in a respectful way to the person, in how they do this.
Also check out this sub discussion. Of how in the target language they are learning, the community they are learning with are suggesting taking on version of their name in the target language, in order to celebrate their progress and in a way to be even more inclusive.
I welcome people to express your opinions to this, and also feel free to talk about historical situations.
One variation to this is when translating from a script different to the target script/alphabet, then there can be variations in spelling. Especially when it is into English, that has such a huge variation in spelling to sound relationships.
sub note: yes, this is a repost, from one a handful of days ago. And in a "desk review", there was no due cause or reason to why the original became removed. And I have a green light of approval from Duo to repost. We do not know all the details of why that original post disappeared. And I hope all of us will choose to move on, and contribute to this discussion.
Thank you all of you for choosing to be spectacular and inclusive and choosing to discuss issues that are important to a collection of us in a respectful way.