Translating the name of a business

[lblanco]

Hello,
I am having a debate with someone at work about whether its proper to translate the name of a business. I say no, a business name should not be translated. Please give me your thoughts.

Thank you!

[Rusty]

Business names are generally not translated. I've seen many articles written in Spanish that talk about Lexmark, IBM, Apple, Lotus, UPS, Toshiba, Sony, Prada, etc., without providing the reader with a translation.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

In principle, I'd only leave proper names in English:
·La financiera McGraw Hill
·La calificadora Standard y Poor's
.La empresa Coca-Cola
...

However, it's hard to stick to such style, and usually in the press the whole business names are left as they originally are in English:
·McGraw Hill Financial
·Standard and Poor's / Standard & Poor's
·Coca-Cola Company
·Accuvest Global Advisors
...

[poli]

If the name is difficult to pronounce, for the English speakers at least, it's translated. Example: Medecins sans frontieres becomes Doctors Without Borders.
Red Cross becomes Cruz Roja among Spanish speakers I know. Maybe the rule changes for charities, because Blue Cross heath insurance is Blue Cross for Spanish speakers too.

[Tomisimo]

As a general rule, proper names should not be translated. This includes names of people, businesses, places, companies, etc. However, where convention has already established a translation, it can be used, e.g. Sevilla => Seville. I'm sure there are also some cases where it would make sense to translated a proper name.

When an organization or company has an official presence in several countries, they often decide how their name appears in different languages.

[pjt33]

With organisations (other than really well known ones like the UN / ONU, NATO / OTAN, etc), in newspapers I often see a translated name, followed by e.g. "(ABBR, de sus siglas en inglés)", and then ABBR being used for the rest of the article.

[CrOtALiTo]

I'm agree with the Rusty's answer.

[Elaina]

Business names should not be translated...

Acronyms on the other hand (PJT) can be translated with an entry of the English initials (siglas en inglés).

My :twocents: