<p>The letters of the Greek alphabet <em>already</em> have set transliterations.</p>
<p>For Ξ/ξ, for which the Latin is <em>xi</em> (with various pronunciations in English, ranging from /ksiː/ to /zaɪ/), the <a href="https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%B8%8C%E8%85%8A%E5%AD%97%E6%AF%8D/4428067" rel="nofollow noreferrer">standard Chinese version</a> is <a href="https://zh.m.wiktionary.org/zh-hans/%E5%85%8B%E8%A5%BF" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><strong>克西</strong></a>, which in Mandarin Pinyin is transcribed as <code>kèxī</code>. You're right that the sound is very close to the Mandarin for <em>Cauchy</em>, with just a difference in tone for one character; but that is different enough to be classified as a different word.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-20T18:50:59.313Z
2021-08-20T18:50:59.313Z
Michaelyus
<p>Unless it refers to a Chinese person, &quot;柯西&quot; in modern Chinese almost always means the great mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy. Since he is so famous, people would avoid transliterating other names to the same characters, to prevent misunderstanding.</p>
<p>I've never heard of a western person whose last name is &quot;Xi&quot;. If there is, I suspect his name would be transliterated as &quot;奚&quot;, &quot;熙&quot;, etc.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-20T15:46:35.767Z
I see, though the character in question isn't western, but not Chinese either (it's an alien). Also, `柯西` is not necessarily a last name, it's just the name they are known by. But I infer from the answer that the likelihood that it's supposed to mean `Xi` is negligible.
Shadow97
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-20T03:34:23.043Z
2021-08-20T03:34:23.043Z
user2249675
<p>I'm trying to figure out how to correctly translate the name of a character which is written as <code>柯西</code>. I've used a few translation resources, and all of them output <code>Cauchy</code>, however, the pronunciation (according to Google Translate) sounds similar to the greek letter Xi, and to make matters worse, this character is a part of a group where every other character's name is also a greek letter. When auto-translated into Chinese, <code>Xi</code> yields <code>席</code>, however, its pronunciation is nothing like the original name, so I assume that if the author did mean the character to be called Xi, they wouldn't use <code>席</code> for that purpose.</p>
<p>So the question I'm having is, can <code>柯西</code>, possibly mean <code>Xi</code> as a greek letter, which is specifically used as a name?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-19T05:28:53.273Z
我只听说过柯西-黎曼等式 Cauchy-Riemann Equations ……
Zhang
<names><transliteration>
柯西 as a character name: can it potentially transliterate as Xi (as in the greek letter)?
# 柯西 as a character name: can it potentially transliterate as Xi (as in the greek letter)?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2021-08-18)

I'm trying to figure out how to correctly translate the name of a character which is written as `柯西`. I've used a few translation resources, and all of them output `Cauchy`, however, the pronunciation (according to Google Translate) sounds similar to the greek letter Xi, and to make matters worse, this character is a part of a group where every other character's name is also a greek letter. When auto-translated into Chinese, `Xi` yields `席`, however, its pronunciation is nothing like the original name, so I assume that if the author did mean the character to be called Xi, they wouldn't use `席` for that purpose.

So the question I'm having is, can `柯西`, possibly mean `Xi` as a greek letter, which is specifically used as a name?

**Tags:** names, transliteration

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: 我只听说过柯西-黎曼等式 Cauchy-Riemann Equations ……  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2021-08-20. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

The letters of the Greek alphabet *already* have set transliterations.

For Ξ/ξ, for which the Latin is *xi* (with various pronunciations in English, ranging from /ksiː/ to /zaɪ/), the [standard Chinese version](https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%B8%8C%E8%85%8A%E5%AD%97%E6%AF%8D/4428067) is [**克西**](https://zh.m.wiktionary.org/zh-hans/%E5%85%8B%E8%A5%BF), which in Mandarin Pinyin is transcribed as `kèxī`. You're right that the sound is very close to the Mandarin for *Cauchy*, with just a difference in tone for one character; but that is different enough to be classified as a different word.


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### Answer by username_3 on 2021-08-20. Score: 0

Unless it refers to a Chinese person, "柯西" in modern Chinese almost always means the great mathematician Augustin-Louis Cauchy. Since he is so famous, people would avoid transliterating other names to the same characters, to prevent misunderstanding.

I've never heard of a western person whose last name is "Xi". If there is, I suspect his name would be transliterated as "奚", "熙", etc.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I see, though the character in question isn't western, but not Chinese either (it's an alien). Also, `柯西` is not necessarily a last name, it's just the name they are known by. But I infer from the answer that the likelihood that it's supposed to mean `Xi` is negligible.  

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