This article attempts to list possible problems concerning Old Norse nouns and names that arise in translations and suggests some basic rules of how to handle them in the context of the Czech language. Some of the questions are universal for any Indo-European language. Some occur only in inflected languages. As the answers depend on language policy, tradition and the background of the expected reader, research on the history of rendering Old Norse nouns and names into Czech has also been undertaken.

Questions are posed around transcription and translation, as well as around the forms of place-names, how names of nations and other groupings should be used, and in what cases the translation of nicknames, personal names and place-names is deemed appropriate. Regarding grammatical issues, we touch upon the problems of declension and derivation. We discuss whether nominative endings of masculine nouns should be retained and whether the word stem should be used as a basis for declension within the target language. By listing the existing prob­lems in the areas of nouns and proper names and the advantages of each possible solution, we hope to provoke a fruitful discussion on translating also in other target languages.