Please translate

June 26, 2011 12:51 PM

My neighbors put these Chinese characters up on their front door. Can someone please translate them?

This seems to have been the recommendation of their decorator. I overheard them mention that it was Chinese. I must explain that my neighbors are not Chinese and have limited, if any, knowledge about Chinese culture I assure you. They are the type who would simply find this "exotic". I would ask them myself but I am afraid that I will not be able to disguise my disapproval.

link to the picture: http://i.imgur.com/oey9A.jpg

posted by anonymous to Writing & Language (7 answers total)

It's 雅典娜, meaning Athena (the Greek goddess).
posted by gubo at 1:12 PM on June 26, 2011

I think it might mean "Athena."

First two characters, Ya Dian, mean Athens, and the third, Na, is a suffix for phonetically translating girl's names.
posted by pluot at 1:14 PM on June 26, 2011

It's also very poorly-written Chinese, clearly done by someone who doesn't understand Chinese or who doesn't know how to write Chinese characters.
posted by suedehead at 2:15 PM on June 26, 2011 [7 favorites]

Maybe they just lost the use of their dominant hand, suedehead. ; )
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:34 PM on June 26, 2011

Yeah, those characters are written really poorly, almost as though someone had written ATHENA in magic marker on their door.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:25 PM on June 26, 2011

Next step – write this on your door: O Κομφούκιος ("Confucius" in Greek)
posted by taz at 9:47 PM on June 26, 2011 [22 favorites]

I have some friends whose handwriting looks like this (it was "in" for a while), but the spacing on the last character is just... strange. I agree, not the best handwriting for something on your door.

Next step – write this on your door: O Κομφούκιος ("Confucius" in Greek)

Fabulous suggestion!
posted by xmts at 5:41 AM on June 27, 2011