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.
