Vivi Dommage

16:53 May 14, 2015 

was done by an official translator and had official approval from Hergé, his heirs or his editors. That's something else entirely different than the context here.

16:05 May 14, 2015 

E.g. Milou in Tintin is Snowy in the English Tintin books. And see http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/List_of_characters_in_tran...

13:17 May 11, 2015 

If you translated it, people would wonder how come this French person has an English name.

11:34 May 11, 2015 

Risky. I agree with my peers. I mean Shakespeare came up with Caliban (anagram of canibal) in The Tempest, but that was Shakespeare.

Even if you were to go with "Damage" for "Dommage", it might be on target in some contexts and be way off target in others. For example, "Dommage" can mean "damage" and could be a bit funny if the person is always breaking things, or if he is a character who causes hurt and damage around him, or if he is the subject of damage (which would not be funny, of course). However, if the original is using "dommage" as a hint for someone for whom things are always a "pity", another meaning of "dommage", then it would not work. It might also be a double "Dommage" if the author plays on both.

You could go for a different name altogether, but if this is being done as a commissioned piece, then you'd need authorization to do so.

Thank goodness noone came up with Olivier le tordu for Oliver Twist!

I'd leave it as is.

11:20 May 11, 2015 

with @writeaway.

"Vivi" does not have any specific meaning in French anyway, and is not even a common contraction of any first name such as Virginie.

Only found in modern colloquial language in this form: "Vi, vi" for "Oui, oui".

11:13 May 11, 2015 

with writeaway ...

10:51 May 11, 2015 

You are translating an extract. Just leave the names. If you feel like writing a translator's note, that should be ok. But your first instinct was right imo. Don't translate the name of a character