Вот что с этим делать - перевести как есть и поставить сноски, типа "смеяться при слове лопата", или попробовать передать игру слов?
“And another saint’s name,” said Darcourt. “David let it be. Now—what order? Arthur Nikolas David?”
“No. It would spell AND on his luggage,” said Hollier, who seemed to be suffering an unexpected bout of practicality
“His luggage! What a consideration,” said Powell. “If you insist on this damned reductive nonsense, why don’t you call the child SIN?”
Arthur and Darcourt looked at each other bleakly. Was Geraint going to let the cat out of the bag? This was what nobody wanted, except Powell.
“Sin?” said Hollier. “You’re joking. Why sin?”
“Because that is what he will be called by his bloody country,” shouted Powell. “Social Insurance Number 123 dash 456789, and when he gets his pension in old age he will be SOAP 123 dash 456789. By the time he is SOAP nobody will have any other name except the one the God-damned civil servants have given him! So why don’t we steal a march on them and call him SOAP from the start? Примечание: SIN = social insurance number, SOAP - social old age pension. Ребенок родился не от законного супруга матери, поэтому присутствующие нервно реагируют на слово "sin". Это надо как-то передать. Ну и черную шуточку по поводу пускания пенсионеров на мыло - тоже.