Keep accents for names when translating to English?

Question

I have noticed that when a place name has an accent in Spanish but on a map published in an English speaking country the accent is usually dropped. Does the same hold true for people's names when translating to written English or is it a courtesy to keep them?

I apologize if this has been asked/answered before but I couldn't figure out what keywords to use to search for it.

Answer 1

With peoples names, a lot of the style guides state that you should indeed keep the accent. One even states that you should keep the accent for French, Italian, Spanish, German and Portuguese names, but drop them for other foreign names.

To me, honestly, it's all about context. Are you writing for a publication? Then yeah, keep the accents as it's a professional document.

Are you writing to your daughter and telling her about your new friend María? Then I wouldn't consider that necessary.

Are you writing TO your friend María? Then yeah, keep it lol.

If it's a place that is clearly well established within the English speaking world such as countries and famous cities, then fine, drop it. But if you're writing about a rather unknown town/city then I would keep it. Like, if you're writing about your trip to the beach in Florida and you say "I spent some time on the beaches of the gulf of México" well, that's a bit pretentious. But if you're writing about visiting a lovely city that the person may have never heard of, say Culiacán, I would keep the accent.

Also, consider your audience. Do they speak spanish? Cool. Then typing the name Taña is fine but to a person that has absolute zero clue what the ~ over an n sounds like, it would be pointless and you might be better off anglo-cizing it and typing Tanya.

Thank-you for this comprehensive answer! I appreciate it, Hucklebeary :-) - Jellylava, Sep 12, 2014

you're welcome :) - Hucklebeary, Sep 14, 2014

Answer 2

Hi Alfonso, welcome to the forum

This is an old thread...why don't you open a new one

I agree. Closed - 00fac92a, Aug 29, 2017

Answer 3

Do not forget that the right to a name is a basic human right, therefore not writing the accent can be interpreted as a violation when referring to a person who bears it. The accent in Hernández, Sánchez and Cárdenas are part of the name.