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I understand translating names (when it's names-with-meanings) for children's books, although even as a child, I preferred it when the names were left as is and a footnote was added with an explanation/translation of the meaning.
On the other hand, I can't really imagine people's names getting translated in Dickens' novels, for example, although they're very often directly meaningful.
I felt The Hobbit - the translation from back when I was a child - got the balance right, at least for me: personal names (Bilbo Baggins, Gandalf, first names of the dwarves) were left as they were, while descriptive names and place names (Rivendell, Oakenshield) were translated. From what I've seen, a new translation of The Hobbit that came out after LOTR was translated (decades after The Hobbit) had many more names (including Baggins) translated, to go with what the LOTR translation did. To me, that felt awfully wrong, but it could well be also because that was not what I grew up with.
In Harry Potter, from what I recall (I only read the first four in translation), all personal names were left intact, other than Tom Marvolo Riddle which turned into Tom Marvolon Riddle due to needing to fit the translation of "I am Lord Voldemort", and Fluffy), as were the names of the Hogwarts Houses; Hogwarts itself got translated, as did Hogsmeade, IIRC. Again, I thought that was a better balance than what I've seen in many other translations where half the character names were left as they were in the original while half were either translated or changed - but I might just be biased in the "our way is best" way. ;-)
In general, I think it's a complicated issue, and I don't envy any translator of children's-fantasy-with-meaningful-names, especially if half the names are perfectly ordinary names already in the original and half are fantastical/meaningful. Nicknames are easy; given or taken names ... much less so. Where do you draw the line? What do you go with? It gets especially tricky if the translation opts for a translated version and then the later books in the series explain the origin of the name or otherwise go into it, and it's either difficult to translate in keeping with the translated name or it turns out the original translation wasn't even accurate / didn't get the meaning right.
My personal preference is definitely "never translate people's actual names". Nicknames, if appropriate, yes (that goes for things like Strider or Ranger as well - names that aren't the person's actual given name but a descriptive name they've adopted); place names - especially in children's books, if they're not-real-place-names but made-up names with meaning, yes; characters' given names, no. Add a footnote if it's significant enough.
In books aimed at very young children (preschool), I'm okay with translating also character names (if appropriate), but only if done consistently. I really do hate the mix-and-match thing where half of the names are translated and half are not.
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