Why do names get changed for other languages?

Because names are cultural – in different cultures, there are variations…no name just is what it is…this has a lot to do with linguistic patterns in a specific area

Same reason that words get changed from language to language – they evolve. Like “Chat” in French and “Gato” in Spanish is “Cat” in English. They call you “Peter” when you go there because “Peter” is your name, not “Pedro,” but Spanish babies aren’t just named Peter any more than a Spanish person would point at a gato and say, “Cat!”

It just doesn’t make sense to me considering most people name their kids after someone else so why would they change the name if it was honoring someone else?

Names are words. That’s all. If words never changed from place to place, we’d all be speaking proto-proto-proto-Indo-European.

Peter, actually, comes from the Latin “Petro” meaning stone or rock. But have you ever noticed that people in different regions pronounce things differently sometimes? As the Romans moved around, Latin caught on (swords helped, I’m sure) but the Visigoths who lived in what would be called Spain probably had a different way of mouthing the words, so it came out “Pedro.” The sounds for t and d are formed similarly in the mouth – try it! – so it’s an easy slip to make. However, when the folks up in Britain heard the name, it sounds like they kept the T sound in the middle, and moved the R around because it was easier for them to say. So we have “Peter” instead. A regional accent.

I imagine you’re picturing someone thinking, “Ah, Pedro, that’s a nice name. I think I’ll change it to ‘Peter’ and name my kid that.” I don’t think it happened that way. It’s really the same name, as you know – just with years and years of people saying it different ways, like a big game of Telephone.

Just a correction, the name Peter dirives from the GREEK ”Πέτρος<πέτρα” (NOT LATIN) that means stone.

Link

You’re right, the roots are Greek, but they moved through Latin.

@laureth well, Greek is my mother’s tongue. ty for looking into it:)

Some names really can’t translate from one language to another. For example, Harry Potter in Russia is Garry Potter because they don’t have an “h” sound.

Other times, it’s a cultural or pronunciation variation that prompts the difference.

And, as @laureth said, names evolve in a way very similar to to a game of telephone.

I think it is strange too, especially famous figures like Christopher Columbus. I understand it more if you immigrate to a new country that speaks another language. It can be easier to pronounce and fit in if you change your name to the what is customary. But, that is the individuals choice, not historians changing it for them.

Wouldn’t it it be ‘Petah’ in Britain?

@Fly, Russians do have an ‘h’ sound – it’s written ‘X’, but you’re right, we do pronounce it Garry :)

@Laina Thanks for the correction…my friend speaks Russian and just explained it do me that way.

@jaketheripper: How do you pronounce “tsunami”? “Psychology”?

As @laureth already pointed out, different languages have different sound systems. English doesn’t have a word-initial [ts] or [ps] consonant cluster, so words that are borrowed form languages that do will generally undergo a phonological transformation of some kind.

In the same way, Japanese is almost entirely devoid of consonant clusters (apart from when the only sound that isn’t a consonant/vowel pairing – “n” – is used), so words like “talent” will be rendered as “tarento” (there is neither a bright nor dark [l] sound in Japanese, so it’s rendered as almost a very short rhotic “r” sound). My name (Scott) is pronounced “sukotto” there.

@faye: That depends on which part of the British Isles you’re from – I’m Scottish, so I tend to pronounce my “r” sounds although I do it differently from an Arabic speaker of English, for example, who would most likely roll the “r” somewhat more than I do (if I do at all), whereas a speaker of English from the Thames Estuary would never roll their “r“s, even were it in a syllable-initial position.

This wikipedia entry has some very good information on rhoticism in the English language – it’s very interesting!