Transliterating names

[Kesvirit]

quoth Klythe in the How long did it take you to learn thlIngan? thread:   And after all this time, my name doesn't even parse in tlhIngan Hol.

Why should it?  Despite its favored status with the current regime, thlIngan Hol is hardly the only language spoken in the Empire.  And it's not as if a name must have a literal translation, or "mean something."  Perhaps whoever named you liked the way the sounds flowed together.

-=- Kesvirit

[Klythe]

Names do not need to mean something, but they still follow the phonology of the language.   Even though the meanings were largely ignored, names comming in from other languages get shifted over time to fit the sounds the language speakers are comforatable with.

Thus a name like John in TerrAnglo English is the same name as
Johan in German
Ivan in Russian
Juan in Spanish
etc...

Each of these forms although spelled smilarly sound quite different.
They carry the sounds of thier distinct language.

tlhIngan Hol is not the only language of the empire, but in canon it is the language Kahless spoke, the language of all warriors.

   So there is meaning to Klythe in that it does not easily take to tlhIngan Hol   It shows a deliberate defiance of the official language.  It shows adherance in part to the fandom that was before there was an official Klingon Language...   It shows I'm old, and grumpy...

[El Payaso Malo]

And after all this time, my name doesn't even parse in tlhIngan Hol.

I'm not sure how you intended "Klythe" to be pronounced, but I would try to put that in Klingon as tlhay'IH, which could be seen to mean "handsome sleeve." Not that it matters; I just wanted to try. 

[Klythe]

    I pronounce my name as a single syllable, that rhymes with the word blithe.  Which I mistakenly too for the pronunciation of Captain Blythe, from Mutiny on the Bounty...  Frankly when I admit where I took my name from, I'm somewhat shocked that I have not met another Klythe.   And I am equally fortunate enough to have never have met a Klingon officer named Kweeg.

  I'd think tlhay'Iv would be a closer transliteration, of course that makes it rather hard to distinguish from the Terran name "Clive", which is a name given to many distinguish a distinguished British gentlemen.

[El Payaso Malo]

That works, too. I was just trying to follow usual transliteration. Generally, I see the English th sound replaced with a Klingon tlh, but I substituted H so it wouldn't start and end with the same sound, which were different in the original incarnation. It all works, I think.