I need a translation for the following name and phrase.

[GabrielUmbert]

I'm trying to translate the name "Gabriel" into Chinese.

Alternatively how would "Messenger to the virgin" sound, and would it VA an appropriate in

Chinese?

Thank you

[renzhe]

Gabriel (the angel) is commonly transcribed as 加俾额尔 or 加百烈 or 加百利 or 吉卜利勒. Alternatively, the first one can be written as 加俾額爾. Personally, I don't know which is the most common.

But these are all phonetic translations that only approximate the sound. You can read this thread to understand the problems when "translating" names into Chinese. With this particular name, though, it's an accepted way of writing the name in Chinese.

"Messenger to the virgin" would likely sound extremely strange and not understandable to anyone who doesn't know it's a Biblical reference.

[GabrielUmbert]

Ah I see.. Do you think that the names which you gave me are used in the Chinese written Christian bible? And would it be of more meaning to a chinese-only speaking person to pick an original Chinese name?

[renzhe]

That's the thing -- I'm not a native speaker and I don't have a Chinese version handy to tell you which one is actually used in there. At least one of them is -- I got them from the Chinese wikipedia page on angel Gabriel.

If you want to allude to the angel, then using the standard transliteration (the one used in the Chinese version of the Bible) is probably the best choice.

But if you're looking for a Chinese name (you're going to China, learning Chinese, etc.), then picking a proper Chinese name that captures the spirit or sound of your name would be a better choice IMHO.

[GabrielUmbert]

Thank you very much.

[Lu]

And would it be of more meaning to a chinese-only speaking person to pick an original Chinese name?

Yes.