The paper starts with the discussion of the distinction between proper and common names, and then moves on to examine the specific nature of the names in literature and the mistakes that are often made when translating them. Among other things, it is argued that proper and common names may both have a reference and a meaning, but that they refer and mean in a dissimilar way. The translator should be aware of these differences, as well as understand that literature creates an alternative reality, and hence the task of the translator is to read the name as an intertextual fragment and analyze the associations – linguistic and literary – in order to see the system of that fragment and render it in the TL accordingly.