| Description | This system is the Intelligence Community standard for the transliteration of Bulgarian person
names that will be applied to all final written reports and products for IC consumers. This
standard matches both the Bulgarian national standard adopted in 2009 and the Board of
Geographic Names / Permanent Committee on Geographic Names standard adopted in 2013. It is
not intended to eliminate variations of a name that can contribute forensic information. Rather, it
is to provide an IC standard Romanized (English) transliteration from Bulgarian that can then be
linked to forensic information in ways that will help identify the referent of the name.
In cases where an individual’s name has already been transliterated in a variant spelling, the IC
Standard spelling should appear first, followed by the variant spelling(s) in parentheses at the first
usage. In addition, if the original Cyrillic-script spelling is known, that spelling should also
appear in parentheses following the name, if possible, following best practices of the issuing
organization and taking into consideration information system capabilities. For example: Dobri
Hristov (also seen as Dobri Khristov, Добри Христов). This convention is designed to ensure
that vital forensic information is not lost.
For names of persons who are known to not be part of the Bulgarian-speaking community, use
the relevant IC transliteration standard for names from that language (e.g., Yitzhak). A
translator’s note may be used to clarify the known origin of the person. Spell names of
individuals from languages that are written in Roman letters as they are spelled in those
languages (e.g., George Clooney, Jorge Garcia, Georges Pompidou).
In the case of active senior government officials in the on-line CIA World Factbook and the online directory of Chiefs of State and Cabinet Members of Foreign Governments, the spellings
given in these on-line reference works should be used in place of the IC Standard. For any
individual who has at one time been listed in the Factbook or Chiefs of State directory but who no
longer appears in those resources (i.e. is no longer a government official), the IC Standard
spelling should appear first, with the spelling, if known, as it previously appeared in those
resources listed within parentheses at the first usage.
The primary goal is to produce a consistent Romanized transcription of names that is specifically
readable to the English-speaking non-specialist. The system uses the 26 letters of the standard
(English) Roman alphabet. Some ambiguities in the Romanized form will occur without the use
of diacritics. However, within the context of a report, where additional information about the
individual is provided, the referent will be clearly identified. This system will be used in
conjunction with on-line tools, name dictionaries, and lists containing conventional spellings of
names of well-known individuals.
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