Standard transliteration of an English personal name uses
本杰明 for the given name 'Benjamin' and
富兰克林 ('rich-orchid-conquer-grove') for the surname 'Franklin'. The middle dot · (called
间隔号) separates given name and surname for foreign names — without it, Chinese readers can't tell where one name ends and the other begins. Same convention applies to
乔治·
华盛顿 (George Washington),
阿尔伯特·
爱因斯坦 (Albert Einstein) etc.
