# Transliteration: Sophia & Noah



## MJB77

Hi, 

I hoping that somebody can help.

I am considering having a couple of Tattoo's done on each Forearm. One of my Daughters name Sophia and the other of my sons name Noah. 

During a recent trip to the British Grand prix I came across an Official Stall advertising the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, on the stall was an Arabic gentleman writing out names, sayings etc for the passers by. He very kindly wrote out the two names, I've since been back and looked up both Sophia and Noah in Arabic on the internet and there are subtle differences on both names as to the ones I had written free hand. They are very similar in the main but I wondered if the subtle changes could be accents like you have in French German etc

I'm struggling to post the images so unfortunately I cant show you the ones that were written free hand. Can anybody shed any light on the true written txt in Arabic for both Sophia & Noah.

It would be a great help, so any feedback would be much appreciated.

Kind Regards


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## ayed

MJB77 said:


> Hi,
> 
> I hoping that somebody can help.
> 
> I am considering having a couple of Tattoo's done on each Forearm. One of my Daughters name Sophia and the other of my sons name Noah.
> 
> During a recent trip to the British Grand prix I came across an Official Stall advertising the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, on the stall was an Arabic gentleman writing out names, sayings etc for the passers by. He very kindly wrote out the two names, I've since been back and looked up both Sophia and Noah in Arabic on the internet and there are subtle differences on both names as to the ones I had written free hand. They are very similar in the main but I wondered if the subtle changes could be accents like you have in French German etc
> 
> I'm struggling to post the images so unfortunately I cant show you the ones that were written free hand. Can anybody shed any light on the true written txt in Arabic for both Sophia & Noah.
> 
> It would be a great help, so any feedback would be much appreciated.
> 
> Kind Regards


Welcome, MJB77, to the Arabic forum

Here is a photo
http://s1.postimg.org/9dkhw4ai7/image.jpg


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## MJB77

Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply, can I ask where you got the image from?. I am guessing that this is your spoken/written language?.

There are some big differences on both, so confused now. The last thing I want is to have the two names spelt or written incorrectly.

Kind Regards


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## ayed

MJB77 said:


> Hi,
> 
> Thanks for the quick reply, can I ask where you got the image from?. I am guessing that this is your spoken/written language?.
> 
> There are some big differences on both, so confused now. The last thing I want is to have the two names spelt or written incorrectly.
> 
> Kind Regards


I wrote it down and print-screened
صوفيا ونوح
صوفية ونوح
سوفيا مع نوح
صوفيه مع نوح


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## MJB77

Oh ok thank you for doing that for me. 

So I now have 3 versions:

1 from the Arabic gentleman from The British GP
1 from off the Internet
1 from you

All three seem to be different, is there any reason why this could be?.


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## ayed

MJB77 said:


> Oh ok thank you for doing that for me.
> 
> So I now have 3 versions:
> 
> 1 from the Arabic gentleman from The British GP
> 1 from off the Internet
> 1 from you
> 
> All three seem to be different, is there any reason why this could be?.


The only correct version is the photo صوفيا ونوح


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## MJB77

Thank you so much for your help, I will use your version then.


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## AndyRoo

Hi,

What ayed wrote says "Sofia and Noah" but if you want one on each arm I guess you don't want the "and".

In which case:
Sofia = صوفيا
Noah = نوح

It's better to get a calligrapher to do it, rather than a computer font.


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## MJB77

Hi,

Oh right, my daughters name is spelt SOPHIA not SOFIA so all I want is:

SOPHIA (spelt with a PH) - on my left forearm

NOAH - on my right forearm

Would they now be different?, its pretty important for to get it absolutely spot on as its not something I can get removed.

Many thanks for any help or feedback.


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## AndyRoo

Oh yes sorry. Sophia and Sofia would be spelled the same way in Arabic.


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## akhooha

To muddy the waters a little, you may want to know that, while نوح is indeed the correct Arabic _equivalent_ of Noah, it does not represent the English spelling and pronunciation of the name.  An Arabic speaker would pronounce نوح as "Nūḥ" and not as "Noah". If you wanted a representation of Noah to reflect the English spelling and pronunciation, it would be نواه
Note: There is no problem with Sophia (صوفيا) as its Arabic equivalent matches the English pronunciation.


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## fdb

akhooha said:


> If you wanted a representation of Noah to reflect the English spelling and pronunciation, it would be نواه
> .



"Date pit" does not sound like a very nice name.


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## akhooha

Ah, the pitfalls of translation of a name vs its transliteration! (Although, strictly speaking, I believe a date pit is actually "نواة" and not "نواه").
So this fellow is faced with a choice of a tattoo which _means_ Noah, but is _pronounced_ "Nūḥ", or a tattoo which is pronounced  "Noah" but which could be misread as "date pit" . . .


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## Bakr

akhooha أتفق مع
مثل هذه الأسماء التي لها مقابل بالعربية، مثل أسماء الأنبياء، لا نكتبها بنفس صورة كتابة اسم النبي، على سبيل المثال
Yannick Noah يانيك نواه/نوا
وليس 
يانيك نوح


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## MJB77

Guys, many thanks for all of your comments.

I think I would rather have a person of Arabic decent be able to read my tattoo's and know that they say Sophia on one arm and Noah on the other as to be honest no British person is going to know what they say unless I tell them.  I fell in love with the way that the Arabic calligrapher wrote it at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Stall but as of this morning I am extremely confused. 

Noah seems to be the name that is giving me the most concern, so finally what would Noah be so that it could be recognised as Noah by a person of Arabic decent? If any of you could write it up and add it as a link it would be much appreciated. I promise this will be the last request. 

Sorry to be cheeky but its got to be right.

Kind Regards

Matt


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## cherine

Hi Matt,

I think it should be clear from the discussions above that you have the choice between writting the name as it is pronounced in English نواه or نوا , or writing its Arabic equivalent نوح .
To give you an example from another common name: Joseph. It can be written as is pronounced in English جوزيف , or it can be written in its Arabic equivalent يوسف (Yusuf).

It is for you to choose.
And, if you allow me a personal advise: it is not wise to permanently ink your body with something in a language you don't speak, because there's always a risk that what you have is not really what you wanted or think you have.


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## MJB77

Hi Cherine,

Thanks for your comments and your personal advise its much appreciated. I understand what your saying with regards to having a tattoo done in a foreign language. This is why I came on here to ask for your help and opinions, to make sure what I was having done is correct. 

My tattoo session is booked for Thursday night and I cant wait to have there names on my body in what is a beautiful looking written script.

Once again thanks for your help.

Cheers

Matt


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## akhooha

MJB77 said:


> I think I would rather have a person of Arabic decent be able to read my tattoo's and know that they say Sophia on one arm and Noah on the other ...


If you want a person of Arabic descent to know what your son's name is, then ask yourself this question:
Is your son's name Nūḥ or is it Noah?
If your son's name is Nūḥ, then it should be نوح  .
If your son's name is Noah, then it should be either نواه or نوا  .(Letter by letter, نواه is the closest to the English spelling).


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## AndyRoo

I agree with akhooha, and of the two suggestions I prefer نوا because firstly it doesn't look like "date pit" (which I vaguely remember has negative connotations in Arabic, about being a very small insignificant thing) and secondly because it is closest to the English pronunciation of Noah, which doesn't pronounce the "h" (the ه at the end of نواه is an "h").

Whether نوا has a meaning in Arabic, I don't know.


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## akhooha

> Whether نوا has a meaning in Arabic, I don't know.


As "nava" in Persian, it refers to a musical mode. It is also a female name in Persian....


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## MJB77

Guys/Girls,

Can I ask one final question is Arabic written left to right like the English language?.

Kind Regards

Matt


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## Hemza

No, it's written from right to left, like Hebrew, Persian, Urdu, Aramaïc and Bambara (as far as I know) .


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