Translation of Anthroponyms in Children’s Cartoons: A Comparative Analysis of English Dialogues and Persian Subtitles

The impact of animated cartoons on children has already been emphasized by quite a number of researchers. The present study aimed to investigate the strategies Iranian subtitlers of English animated cartoons used in rendering English anthroponyms in cartoons. To this aim, two theoretical frameworks were employed: Van Coillie's Model of Translating Proper Names and Fernandes’s Model of Proper Names Translation. The aim was to find which strategies were the most prevalently used by Iranian subtitlers of cartoons and to see which model fitted these attempts best. Five cartoons were investigated: Ben 10, Ninja Turtles, Kung Fu Panda, Spider Man, and Dream Works Dragons. Through a qualitative content analysis, distribution of strategies was found and reported in frequencies and percentages. They were cross-compared between the two models. The results showed that quite a few strategies of each model were used. The only strategy, which was dominantly used by Iranian subtitlers in all cartoons was termed as Reproduction or Copy which was the least demanding on the part of the translator. Many strategies were left unapplied which could be explained by Iranian subtitlers’ sheer unawareness of a variety of strategies for translating anthroponyms.