"Was called"

Question

Would "was called" be conjugated into preterite or imperfect past tense?

The context of "was called" is that a person was known by a certain name. "There was a man in the mansion, he was called Steve."

Would it be "se llamó Steve" or "se llamaba Steve"

Or "le llamó Steve" or "le llamaba Steve"

Answer 1

I reckon 'se llamaba Steve', mm hmm, unless Steve changed his name/people started calling him a different name, in which case it would be 'se llamó Steve'.

Answer 2

Había un hombre en la mansión, se llamaba Steve.

Answer 3

I think that it would be "Había un hombre en la mansión llamaba, Steve." Assuming that it is in the past for a while it would be in the imperfect. Is this correct?

Answer 4

If this is a past event I believe the translation would be "había un hombre en la mansión, fue llamado Steve".

No, that sounds awkward. It´s either preterite or imperfect. - missy8888, Mar 26, 2012

Answer 5

What about , Se estaba llamado Steve?

No, that would be an -ing verb, which I don´t want. I want past tense. That would be like "They were calling him Steve." which sounds awkward. - missy8888, Mar 26, 2012