The present paper offers an overview of the translation of proper nouns (PNs) in Romanian. The examples chosen from published translations are both non-literary and literary names and illustrate the problems of translating non-semantic PNs (referential, appellative, denominative), semantic PNS (descriptive, connotative, nicknames, pseudonyms), altered or pseudo PNs. Our aim is, on the one hand, to signal normative instability and, on the other hand, to highlight the need to create lexicographic instruments capable of standardizing the transfer of PNs, and thus of guaranteeing their accurate and homogenous translation.