Rendering literary proper names in another language: the works of Flann O’Brien as a case in point

In fictional texts, personal names (and more generally, proper nouns) are considered to be meaningful linguistic and cultural items since they often convey specific connotations, and they constitute a challenge for translators because they are usually used to define a character, often from an ironic perspective. Translators can adopt different strategies (copy; naturalization; transcription; addition; phonological replacement; re-creation; cultural transplantation) but a significant part of the name’s specific connotation is usually lost. Flann O’Brien resorts to a “creative” use of proper names and he often comments on them (De Selby, one of his characters, claims “to be in a position to state the physiological ‘group’ of any person merely from a brief study of the letters of his name”). This study analyses O’Brien’s use of proper nouns and the several solutions adopted by translators of his novels and short stories, while suggesting some possible alternatives and highlighting the semantic potential of the examined proper names which is inevitably lost.