Since the last 15 years or so, I've been reading English books exclusively, except when the original was written in Dutch. However, before that, I've read translated books in Dutch, and sometimes, I encounter Dutch reviews about these translations.
The one thing that always jars me is the translation of names. It seems to be completely random: some names are not translated. Some names are "Dutchified", while other names are translated literally. Some are actually translated wrong. Most of the times, the translations appear to be foolish or out of character.
Some examples from Lord of the Rings and a few from the Shannara series; I can't draw on other fantasy, because it's the only fantasy I read in both Dutch and English that long ago, while still remembering specific names
Not translated:
Tom Bombadil
Elrond, Glorfindel, Arwen, many others...
All the Ohmsfords, AFAIK (Shannara)
Quickening (Shannara)
Literal translation:
Strider -> Stapper
Treebeard -> Boombaard
Walker Boh -> Loper Boh (Shannara)
Whisper (cat) -> Fluister (Shannara)
Rumor (cat) -> Gerucht (Shannara)
Dutchified:
Brandywine Bridge -> Brandewijn Brug
Peregrine / Pippin Took -> Peregrijn / Pepijn Toek
Meriadoc / Merry Brandybuck -> Meriadoc / Merijn Brandebok
Baggins -> Balings
Bree -> Breeg
Wrong/weird translations:
Shire - Gouw
Ranger -> Doler (correct translation: Woudloper)
Sackville-Baggins -> Buul-Balings ("Buul" ?)
Samwise Gamgee -> Sam Gewissies (?)
The Lord of the Rings -> In de ban van de ring (correct translation: "De Heer der Ringen"; the Germans translated the title like that. The Dutch title translated to English would read: "In the grasp of the Ring.")
Actually, I think the "Dutchified" names sound best, but it could be because the original English names sound as if they are English pronunciations of Dutch names. Must have had something to do with the fact that Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein in South Africa.
What do you prefer; should names be left alone in a translated work, changed to fit into the pronunciation of the language the work is translated into (such as Baggins -> Balings), or translated literally? Or maybe even... should there be completely new names to fit the translation?
(PS: South African language is actually so close to Dutch that a South African and a Dutchman could just speak their respective languages, and still understand each other easily. Actually, to a Dutchman, South African sounds like "Dutch with the grammar of a 4-year old"
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