What are titles even ?
Books that when translated into english got their title changed to something completely different. Cuz it happens A LOT and sometimes it's better, sometimes it's worse, sometimes it's just really funny hehehe đ€. Any and all recommandations from any language welcomed. Please give me all the recs !!
created by Bacchus
last updated September, 2026
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Original titles : đȘđž Cadaver exquisito / Tender is the flesh - tl : exquisite cadaver đ«đ· FrĂšre d'Ăąme / At Night All Blood is Black - tl : soul brothers đłđ± Lampje / Of Salt And Shore - tl : small light đ”đ± Sklepy cynamonowe / The Streets Of Crocodile - tl : the cinnamon shops đ«đ· S'adapter / And the Stones Cry Out - tl : to adapt đ«đ· Stella et l'AmĂ©rique / Holy Fuck - tl : Stella and America đđș Eric csillagok / Eclipse of the Crescent Moon - tl : stars of eger đđș A lĂĄthatatlan Ember / Slave of the huns - tl : The invisible person đžđȘ MĂ€n som hatar kvinnor / The Girl with them Dragon Tattoo - tl : men who hate women đ«đ· Ni d'Ăve ni d'Adam / Tokyo FiancĂ©e - tl : from neither Eve nor Adam đ«đ· Dans le jardin de l'ogre / AdĂšle - tl : in the ogre's garden đ«đ· Le Testament français / Dreams of my Russians Summers - tl : the french testament đȘđž La hija de la española / It would be nice in Caracas -tl : the spanish woman's daughter
Honorary contenders that don't fit the description but pass the vibe check (meaning that the inaccurate translation is from a language to not english ; orignal language on the left, tl on the right) : đŹđ§ Nightbitch / đȘđž Canina - tl : canine
oooh this is such an interesting list topic đđ
BacchusOP
Hihihi I love anything that has to do with translation, it's so interesting đ
it is! i used to be really into foreign languages too đââïž life/other interests/time got in the way tho and i fell off hard, my partner is dutch tho so i've been slowly learning dutch for a few years now at least đââïž
BacchusOP
Ooooooh dutch ! Do you like it ? Is it an interesting language in your opinion ?
hm, i like it and its similarity to english makes it one of the easier languages to learn, but it also makes it pretty confusing at times, largely in terms of pronunication đ
BacchusOP
Uhhhm that's fair. Good luck then, I think I've read one dutch book (translated ofc) that I loved, it's Lampje by Annet Schaap, 100% recommend, 10/10
thank you! i'll have a look đ my partner's mum says she might have some kids books for me to try to read in dutch from when he was a kid so i can slowly build up to try read full books in dutch too đââïž
BacchusOP
That's so cool !!!
she's so sweet, i mentioned getting a dutch library card (there's one literally 5 mins away from my partner's apartment) and she literally took a mini side trip the day after to the main library in the city to show me how many floors it had and its collection đ„čđ
BacchusOP
So cuuuute đ„čđ„č
Iâd like to speak to the publishers of Stella et lâAmĂ©rique please?
BacchusOP
Lmao have you read the book ?
No but that translation is CRAZY work now I kind of want to.
BacchusOP
Lmao, the English title does make sense with the book, but I also think it kind of changes the outlook the reader might have on it. Anyway, it's a fun read I think, but it's also a very particular kind of writing, and relying a lot on clichés so Idk, it's pretty short, so maybe worth giving it a try ^^
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo! It's Swedish title is MĂ€n som hatar kvinnor (Men Who Hate Women)
BacchusOP
Oooh thank you ! I've added it ^^
This is such an interesting list! Some of the original titles are so good!
BacchusOP
Yes ! I always find the new title choices to be very interesting because I think a title is supposed to show the intent of the book, and so you can see by the new choices, what the publishers/editors got from it and how people from different countries experience a book differently
HOW did I never know the real name of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?! That is chefs kiss perfect, and I'm so mad at the chicken-shit English language publishers who changed it!!! Thank you for bringing this delicious and infuriating fact to my attention!
Love the list idea!
It's crazy to me how much the title changes in English, because in Spanish they directly translated "Men Who Hate Women" so that's how I knew the book and the movie before reading the English version đ€Ł
As it should be! Makes me wonder where the English was published first... I can definitely see the US leading the way on that choice. I wonder if a search can tell me...Edit.... Nope, dammit, it was the UK before the US, so we are probably to blame! How damn embarrassing capitalism đ€ patriarchy is!
Omg, though, I found out that Steig Larsson specifically did not allow Swedish publishers to change the name, but the English publishers did it anyway! Outrageous, honestly!
Extremely outrageous!
BacchusOP
Hahaha sorry and you're welcome I guess ? But yeah, I see it a lot and thought I should not it down, because what's usually very funny to me is, I only see this with English ? Like sometimes I will check out translations into Spanish, italien, french and German, because I can easily recognize if the titles match or not, and only English changed the title. And I'm pretty sure other languages probably kept it, and it's just English who said "you know what ? No. Your name is this now"
I looked it up and in German itâs called Verblendung aka delusion/ facing/ blindness đ Iâm not familiar with the series but itâs really interesting that the German editions all have one word titles, starting with V.
BacchusOP
Wow, you know I'm kind of surprised, I feel like usually when I see German translation they keep the title. I guess there's no real rule đ€·ââ ïž maybe the OG title was too controversial and they were afraid it wouldn't sell
i wonder if tender is the fleshâs titled was changed for the english version because exquisite cadaver is VERY close to exquisite corpse (by poppy z brite) đ if anyone knows lmk im so curious
BacchusOP
My theory is more that "exquisite cadaver" is a reference to the (french) game of exquisite cadaver (if you don't know it I recommend looking it up, it's quite funny and easy, and will also be explained way better by Wikipedia than myself rn). And although the game has nothing to do with the book on principle, I think the familiar phrase is what sold the title in the first place, but maybe in English speaking countries the game is not that well known so it doesn't have the same ring to it ? Is what I'm thinking at least. But if I ever find out for sure, I'll let you know đ«Ą
There is a book in Hungarian called "The Fall of the Crescent Moom" in English, however the original title just "Egri csillagok" (stars of Eger) by GĂ©za GĂĄrdony. Also by the same author we have "Slave of the Huns" thats "A lĂĄthatatlan ember" (the invisible person) originally. They are very well known, almost classics here, but I don't think many outside of Hungary has read them
BacchusOP
Thank you so much, I've added them !! Hihihi I can't wait to see this list grow more and more đ€đ€ also happy to get recommended some Hungarian lit, I've never read any, but that's about to change ^^
Nightbitch keeps getting me - its original title is Canina.
BacchusOP
Unfortunately I think that's the other way around friend. Goodreads and Wikipedia are both telling me it's an english book so the originial title is Nightbitch, and Canina is the spanish translation. I will however, mention it as an honorary contender đââïž
Ah, curses! I always see the Spanish cover when I'm looking around, so I thought it was the other way around. đ
BacchusOP
Happens to the best of us ^^ you must be following around a lot of people that speak Spanish, so you see their version of the book I'm guessing
Eyy, this is such a good list! I wonder how you found all of these titles đ. I know a book by a venezuelan author with the title "La hija de la española" that changed to "It would be night in caracas"
BacchusOP
Oooh right, I think it was a nominee for the European prize for literature. You know it's funny it's one of the few I've encountered where German also changed the title (Nacht in Caracas) and so did Italian, and Portuguese... Lmao almost all the title editions I can find (and read) have Caracas in them. All except for french đ€·ââïž
