Kevin Basil

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<— See Part I
<— See Part II

Based on the argument put forth in the last two articles in this series, names should not be transliterated directly from either Russian or Greek. It’s not “Pavl,” it’s “Paul.” A few examples that get under my skin:

• Dmitri ==> (should be) Demetrius
• Juvenaly ==> Juvenal (this is also the name of a classical Latin author whose name was Anglicized ages ago)
• Andrei ==> Andrew
• Nikolai ==> Nicholas
• Ignatii, Ignatios, Ignaty ==> Ignatius
• Maria ==> Mary
• Maxim, Maksym, Maximos ==> Maximus
• Innokenty ==> Innocent
• Alexei, Aleksy ==> Alexis
• Fyodor ==> Theodore
• Chrysostomos ==> Chrysostom (though see discussion below)
• Kyrill ==> Cyril
• Athanasios, Afanassy ==> Athanasius
• Romanos ==> Roman

I could go on, but the list would get too long. (It’s probably too long already.)

However, there are some examples that prove somewhat problematic. The rest of this post is about questions, by the way, not answers. (I apologize to all those readers who trust my pontifications without question.)

The saints named “Germanus”. Why problematic? Because the most popular American saint is actually a variant of this name: St. Herman. New Skete decided that consistency compels them to opine that “Herman” should actually be translated “Germanus.” The problem is consistency — with all due respect to Emerson’s famous quote about foolish hobgoblins, consistency is, indeed, important in name translation. Inconsistency, after all, is what started this whole discussion to begin with. So, is it “St. Germanus of Alaska”? Or “St. Herman, Patriarch of Constantinople”? Or perhaps it should be “St. German.”

Another is this name: “Iakovos” (Gr.) and “Yakov” (Ru.). In English, there are two names that equate: The obvious “Jacob,” and the less obvious but more truly English “James.” Once again, Emerson’s foolish hobgoblin insinuates himself, but let’s allow that exceptions can be made for exceptional cases. We can decide to go consistently with Jacob or James, and continue to call the Patriarch “Jacob” or the Brother of God “James” — since those are instantly recognizable. (This exception also applies to the “Germanus/Herman” discussion above.) But how do we translate Greek saints named “Iakovos”? Or Russian saints named “Yakov”? It would seem that popular opinion is siding with “Jacob”; I regret that “James” is not winning the day.

On the related issue of pronunciation: There is an American saint named “St. Jacob Netsvetov,” or “St. Jacob of Alaska.” It should be pronounced “JAKE-ub,” not “YAH-kove” or any other such ethnic foolishness. Part of proper translation means pronouncing English names like English names.

What about the mother of the Theotokos? Her name in English is properly “St. Anne.” Problematic because “Joachim and Anne” trips the tongue in a way that “Joachim and Anna” does not. (New Skete, in case you are wondering, goes with “Anna” in this case.)

Or the prince of the Apostles? Yes, obviously it’s “Peter”; I’m talking about his other name. In Greek, it’s “Simeon,” not “Simon.” Should all “Simeon” saints be translated “Simon”?

Another interesting question: Having properly translated the first name, do we also translate appellations that are pseudo-names? St. Alexander Nevsky, for example, I recently learned is called “Nevsky” because of a miraculous battle at the river Neva. “Nevsky” means, approximately, “of the Neva.” So, should we translate it St. Alexander of the River Neva? What about — to take a Roman saint — St. Thomas Aquinas. These aren’t really surnames; they’re place names. Should it be St. Thomas of Aquino? Or, to get meddlesome — Chrysostom? Again, we treat it like a surname, but it means “golden-tongued” and refers to St. John’s unparallel preaching ability. It would be like calling my patron “Basil Magnus” or “Basil Megas” instead of “Basil the Great.”

This is mostly intended as a starting point for discussion. I don’t think I’ll be calling St. Jacob of Alaska “St. James” anytime soon, since no one would know whom I was talking about. The same for “Germanus/Herman” saints. I’m sure my many thoughtful readers will be able to provide their own name-translation pet peeves. However, I will continue to use English names (as in the list above) in almost every situation, where possible.