Choosing names for translated sites

[prmaniac]

In a case of registering a domain for the country code (lets say Germany - de), would it be best to register the translation into German of the english domain? or does it not make a difference .....

[heini]

It really makes a difference in more than one regard, prmaniac.
First: keywords in domain names can obviously be beneficial for search engine promotion. Links to your site will have the keyword in the url.

Second a domain name must be appealing to users. Oh well, it should be, at least.

I would go from this considerations:
- is it a brand you want to etsablish? Then I would suggest perhaps not to translate the domain name at all, but just register the same under local TLDs, like .de, .fr etc.
- do you want the keyword in the domain name, try to find out what the best keyword in that language would be.

[choster]

Here's a case study of the internationalization efforts of LastMinute.com (no affiliation).
[thestandard.com...]

Caution is advised: the translation you choose may carry cultural or idiomatic baggage in the new language. Apocryphally, Coca-Cola's "Come Alive" 1950s ad campaign was mistranslated to "Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Dead" in Taiwan.

[Macguru]

Very good question prmaniac,

heini provided you with some very good awswer and choster raised an important point.

I live in Québec where people speak French (well, some kind of French). Cultural differences whithin the same language can have a serious impact on results. For instance is a French person from France wants to buy a new house, he will type completely different key phrases than a French person from here. I guess this can be duplicate to other languages too.