# My Name’s Translation!



## JoeTailor

Hello. Recently I’ve made a Japanese account for personal use. I wanted to express my name in Japanese. My name is Joe Tailor. The “Joe” derives from Joseph, whilst the “Tailor” is the literal profession (not to be mistaken for “Taylor”). I’m trying to translate my name through several online sources but whenever I re-translate them back, my name always is “Joe Taylor”. I was frustrated since I needed “Joe Tailor”. Best I found was the following name: ジョーテーラ

Is this a correct translation of “Joe Tailor”? If not then please do educate me about how to express my name “Joe Tailor” (the profession). Thanks


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## jazyk

As Japanese surnames go before given names, I'd suggest テーラー ジョー (pronunced roughly as Tera Jo, with all vowel long) using the Anglicism テーラー. This is however ambiguous, as テーラー can be a last name or a profession. An unambiguous suggestion would be 仕立屋ジョー, using a native word that can only be interpreted as a profession, pronounced Shitateya Jo, with vowels as in French, Spanish or German. Sh like in the English word shoe and J like in the word Joe.


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## JoeTailor

jazyk said:


> As Japanese surnames go before given names, I'd suggest テーラー ジョー (pronunced roughly as Tera Jo, with all vowel long) using the Anglicism テーラー. This is however ambiguous, as テーラー can be a last name or a profession. An unambiguous suggestion would be 仕立屋ジョー, using a native word that can only be interpreted as a profession, pronounced Shitateya Jo, with vowels as in French, Spanish or German. Sh like in the English word shoe and J like in the word Joe.



Thank you for answering, yes I’m more for the literal translation that’s unambiguous but I’d rather keep my first name first. So that would be “ジョー仕立屋”, correct?


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## jazyk

I don't think that's a possibility.


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## JoeTailor

jazyk said:


> I don't think that's a possibility.


 Huh...I’ll take that into account. Thanks for your time


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## JoeTailor

jazyk said:


> I don't think that's a possibility.



Sorry, before I go, can I add a comma like: “仕立屋,ジョー”. I don’t know but I don’t wanna be mistaken (by westerners) as Tailor Joe


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## jazyk

I don't think so, but wait for natives.


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## Flaminius

jazyk said:


> Japanese surnames go before given names


Sorry but not when you transcribe foreign names.  Unless you are talking about a Hungarian name, I don't think you need to flip your name components around.  Also, it is helpless for trancribing names with middle names.

Joe Tailor and Joe Taylor are invariably transcribed into ジョー・テイラー.  仕立屋?  This is going to give you all sorts of trouble.


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## jazyk

The asker insisted that his name refer to a profession, which your rendition doesn't make clear. I thought it was a joke and went along with it, also because he is Arabic, so I supposed the tailor part was his invention or a literal translation from Arabic. I'm not acquainted with Arabic naming conventions. The only languages I'm familiar with that employ tailor as a surname (let's discard English tailor/Taylor here because of the difference in spelling, although the pronunciation is identical) are Hungarian and Czech, with Szabó and Krejčí, respectively.


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## Flaminius

Ah, I overlooked Joe's native language.  Of course _tailor_ and _taylor_ are nothing but spelling variants of the English word that ultimately goes back to Late Latin or Romance _taliator_.

Since the OP's request is difficult to satisfy, maybe I should in jest mention the Japanese family name closest to Taylor: 服部, Hattori (〈tt〉is geminated as in Italian)
Since the family name is Japanese enough, you can get rid of the pesky middle dot (・), too.  Both ジョー服部 and 服部ジョー works.


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## SoLaTiDoberman

Use the syntax of くま*の*プー*さん *for this kind of thing:

ミカエル・シューマッハ　（靴屋のミカエルさん）
アダム・スミス　（職人のアダムさん）
ジョー・テイラー　（仕立て屋のジョーさん）
チャンシー・ガードナー （庭師のチャンシーさん、ガードナー家のチャンシーさん）

when you dare want to translate the name of the occupation in Japanese.

I didn't know 服部（はっとり）not はとりべ means something related to the tailors. I thought 服部 is a clock/watch maker.


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## Flaminius

SoLaTiDoberman said:


> I didn't know 服部（はっとり）not はとりべ means something related to the tailors.


hataori > hattori; hataoribe > hatoribe


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