Understanding Translation Glossaries: How to Get Consistent Character Names

The Name Problem

Machine translation handles most sentences reasonably well these days, but proper nouns remain a weak spot. Without guidance, a translation engine might render the same Japanese name three different ways across a single novel: "Takahashi" in chapter one, "Takahasi" in chapter five, and "High Bridge" (a literal translation) in chapter twelve. For readers, this is confusing — and if a main character's name changes mid-book, it can break the story entirely.

Glossaries fix this by giving the translator a lookup table of terms that should always be rendered a specific way.

What Goes in a Glossary

A translation glossary maps source-language terms to their target-language equivalents. For novel translation, the most important entries are:

• Character names — First names, surnames, nicknames, titles. "田中太郎" should always become "Taro Tanaka," not sometimes "Tarou" or "太郎."
• Place names — Fictional locations, school names, city districts. These often have no standard romanization, so the glossary is the only way to keep them consistent.
• Magic systems / terminology — If the novel has invented terms (skill names, spell names, faction names), define them once and the translator will use them everywhere.
• Honorifics — Decide upfront whether to keep "-san," "-kun," "-sensei" or translate them to "Mr.," "Ms.," etc.

Auto-Glossary: Let the AI Do the First Pass

Building a glossary from scratch for a 300,000-word novel sounds tedious, and it used to be. Our auto-glossary feature scans your uploaded file, identifies recurring proper nouns and special terms, and generates a starter glossary automatically.

The auto-generated glossary won't be perfect — it might miss unusual names or incorrectly categorize a common word as a proper noun — but it gives you a strong starting point. You can then review and edit the entries before translation begins.

Editing Your Glossary

After auto-glossary generates the initial list:

1. Review each entry and correct any wrong translations
2. Add missing terms that the auto-detection didn't catch
3. Remove false positives (common words incorrectly flagged as terms)
4. Set preferred romanization styles for names

The glossary editor lets you modify entries inline. Changes apply to all subsequent chapters, so fix issues early for the cleanest results.

Tips for Better Glossaries

• Be specific with names. If a character goes by multiple names or titles (e.g., "Demon Lord" and "Maou-sama"), add separate entries for each form.
• Include context where it helps. Some terms are ambiguous — adding a note about whether a word is a person, place, or concept helps the translator pick the right rendering.
• Start with the first few chapters. Most proper nouns appear early in a novel. Build your glossary from the opening chapters, then refine as you go.
• Reuse glossaries across volumes. If you're translating a series, export your glossary and import it for the next volume. This keeps names consistent across the entire series.

For fiction translation, nothing improves output quality as much as a good glossary. It takes some upfront effort but saves hours of find-and-replace later.