How to translate names of business places

Google Maps tips & tricks
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Flags of different countries at Connect Live 2018
Flags of different countries at Connect Live 20181632Ă—1088 297 KB

Google Maps offers a features not everyone may spot at a first glance: the ability to see business places in our language and to translate names as well. If you want to contribute to Google Maps by providing helpful translations for business places names, here are some tips which aim to clarify what are the best practices to do it.

The first step to follow is to set Google Maps in the language we want to translate. Google Maps app usually runs by using the language set in your phone general settings, so you may have to change language from Settings menu of your phone. Following this guide may be useful as well.

If you have changed your Maps from English to Italian, for example, you will be able to translate all places you see on Maps in Italian (obviously names of places in Italy will not be available for translation). Here is the edit page of a business place the way you should see it:

Under Name, you will now see two voices: the first ones contains the original name of your place, while the second one, the translation you should provide in the language you have chosen (for example, Italian). In this case, all Italian users will see your translated name instead of the original one.
Under Name, you will now see two voices: the first ones contains the original name of your place, while the second one, the translation you should provide in the language you have chosen (for example, Italian). In this case, all Italian users will see your translated name instead of the original one.1125Ă—739 68.6 KB

Tips for a correct translation

  1. Always translate words you know for sure: never rely on auto-translation for names
  2. Never translate the official name of the place. For example, if a place on Google Maps is called “Little Pizza - Pizza & Restaurant”, you will translate it in Italian “Little Pizza - Ristorante & Pizzeria” (or other language). You are not going to translate the “Little Pizza” part, as it is the official name of the business place. The translation is valid only for the part of Google Maps name which are meant as an extra for the official name.
  3. Provide a literal translation only if you can: if the literal translation sounds strange in the second language, adapt it in order to have the most natural result.
  4. Never give different information in a translation: every people should see the same thing, but in their own language.

Translating Google Maps business names is a way to make information more access to people using a specific language and it counts as an editing contribution. Happy translations to everyone!

23 Likes
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@user_not_found Good tips!

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Oh that’s something new to me. Thanks for this post.

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Great text, @user_not_found . Very useful and complete. Congratulations. I began noticing this problem here in Brazil as well and even wrote a text about that. When I was about to publishing, I find your text (that is much more complete that mine) and I linked it in my own text (I hope that you don’t mind). You can check my text here.

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@AlexandreCampbell have done a good thing: also in Italy and - I guess - other countries too, there is not much information about how to correctly translate names in Google Maps, so having more than one guide is a good thing!

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