厄恩 transliterates short Western names like Ern (English/German diminutive of Ernest), Erne, or Irish Earnán. The
厄 character means hardship/disaster on its own — translators chose it purely for phonetic match with the [ɜ] vowel. To avoid the inauspicious connotation, modern translators sometimes prefer
恩 (en, grace) or
欧 (ou) prefixes instead.
