Meanings of Words in Other Languages

I love using BabyNames.com to look up names that mean what I want them to mean. I'll also use Babel Fish to translate words into another language, and then modify the word in some way so that it sounds like a name. (An example that I've used is an RP character of mine, named Luthene. It comes from the Gaelic word "lùth", meaning "strength", with "ene" added, as this is something done in Gaelic to make things feminine.) Finally, if that doesn't work for you, try looking up various mythological beings who rule over the domain you're looking for a name for. Ma'at, for example, is the Egyptian goddess of truth, law, and order. The Egyptians believed that, upon death, the deceased's heart would be weighed against Ma'at's feather. If the heart was too heavy, the scales would tip, and the heart would be devoured and the soul denied entrance into the afterlife.

Liberal Feminist Hippie

Instead of taking form another language why not create your own unique names. If the moons and planet are important enough you can explain their meaning in the story. Just remember to inclube and appendix with the proper pronunciation of the names.

*twitch* If you need an appendix for the proper pronunciation of names, you're doing something wrong. Names should generally be easy to read and pronounce, within reason, and if someone reading the story doesn't pronounce it in exactly the same way you do, it's generally not a big deal. (It's only if your book becomes a major movie that you really need to worry about the actors pronouncing it correctly. :P)

If you want to look up words in different languages at once, you can try this page:

http://dictionary.reference.com/languages/

Title: Breaking Light
Goal: Finishing this novel. (Probably be 100k-120k at this rate.)
Sanity level: Do you even need to ask?

You can use www.freetranslation.com to get those words in another language. The translation isn't guaranteed to be 100% accurate, but it might be more fun to take whatever translation you get and tweak it just a little to make it sound more like a name anyway.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. ~Mark Twain

http://www.behindthename.com/

There's a search option for different meanings. The site also has a sister site for surnames, if that would be helpful.

For hope, I actually named my FMC Esperanza (Spanish).

Translations of your words to Spanish and then Korean (dashes are to note separate syllables):
Law- Ley
법률 - beop-ryul
Mercy- Misericordia
자비 - ja-bi
Surrender- Rendición (as in a person capitulating), Entrega (surrendering objects)
항복 - hang-bok
Pervert- Pervertido
배교자 - bae-gyo-ja
Hope- Esperanza
희망 - heui-mang

"Von" means "hope" in Icelandic.

That's all I know, sorry.

-Con-

Law - wet
Mercy - genade
Surrender - (zich) over geven
Pervert - viezerik / zwijn / perverseling / smeerlap
Hope - hoop

I translated the words in Dutch for you.

Here's German:

Law - Gesetz
Mercy - Erbarmen / Gnade
Surrender - ergeben, aufgeben
Pervert - Perversling
Hope - Hoffnung

If you decide to go the translate to a foriegn language route (which is what I would also recommend), I would add that you should probably use the same language for all the words. Otherwise the sounds may sound "off" from each other. Unless some of your words are supposed to have a different orgin, then of course, change the base language for those words.

French-

Law- loi (le-wa, only said as one syllable XD like l'wa.)
Mercy- clémence (clay-mence)
Surrender- there are a couple- http://www.wordreference.com/enfr/surrender
Pervert- corrompre (as in 'to corrupt') (cor-rohn-pre)
Hope- espoir (es-p'war)

I think I can help you out with most other French translations if you need any more help.

These are in Portuguese.

Note that the Rs are hard.

Law- Lei (Lay)
Mercy- Graça (GRA-ssah) or Misericórdia (mee-zeh-ree-COHR-ja)
Surrender- Render (hen-DER), Entregar (en-tre-GAR)
Pervert- Pervertido (per-ver-CHEE-doh)
Hope- Esperança (es-pe-RAN-ssah)

Here's Latvian for ya. Pronounced "as written".

Law = Likums
Mercy = žēlsirdība (ž="zh", as in "zigolo", ē and ī are long versions of the letters), žēlastība
Surrender = Padoties (verb, o="uo"), padošanās (noun)
Pervert = izvirtulis
Hope = cerība

[img]http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/2193/mybanner491ab4be02ac5ky9.jpg[/img]

is the firstborn child male or female?

In hindi Asha means wish or desire or hope.

Here's Japanese:

Law - Hou (法)
Mercy - Jinkei (仁恵)
Surrender - Kanraku (陥落)
Pervert - Hentai (変態), Tousakusha (倒錯者)
Hope - Nozomi (望み)

Lög, Regla, - Law
Vægð - Mercy
Uppgjöf - Surrender
Öfuguggi - Pervert

what you lacked in Icelandic.
Now, russian, in same order.

закон, zakon
милосердие, miloserdie
сдача, sdacha
извращенец, izvrashchenets
надежда, hadezhda

There you go.

In Italian:

Law - legge
Mercy - pietà
Surrender - resa
Pervert - pervertito
Hope - speranza

Pronounced pretty much like in Spanish, only the s in "resa" sounds more like a soft "z".