Translating place names

[James Kirchner]

I have been engaged to do an English translation of a historical and
tourist-oriented book about the area around Marianske Lazne, Czech Republic,
from what could be called co-original versions in Czech and German.  The tone
of the originals is chatty and a bit quaint.  Right at the start of the
project, I can see a complication with place names that the Czech and German
writers never had.  I would therefore like to hear the ideas of other list
subscribers on the matter.

The problem is one of duel German and Czech names for almost every town
mentioned in the book.  This was unproblematic for the Czech and German
writers, but I have the difficulty of having to choose one name or the other
in every case.  For example, Marianske Lazne is better known by its original
German name "Marienbad", and visitors knowing only that name will have no
problem finding it.  The original name of the town's closest suburb, Usovice,
however, predates its German name "Auschowitz", and most people not
possessing a German map would never find it under the latter appellation.  In
any case there is a German/Czech place name glossary in the back of the
German edition.

This difficulty will extend to nearly every place name in West Bohemia, in
which Slavic settlements were renamed in German and after WWII renamed in
Czech again, or German settlements were founded in medieval times and given
official Czech names after 1948.  There are sometimes valid reasons to use
the German names (established recognition value, ease of pronunciation and
reading) and similarly valid reasons to use the Czech ones (ease of location
on maps, questions of Czechs' sovreignty and their desire not to encourage
recently resurrected German claims on property and territory).

Does anyone have any general suggestions?

James Kirchner

BTW, in the three years I lived in Marianske Lazne, I met very few Westerners
who learned to pronounce the town's Czech name correctly -- or got even
close.  One of my favorite mispronunciations (of which the speaker was not
aware) was "Marianske Lasky".