Background of the issue:
I am trying to rename a menu item for the secondary language on my site.. In Appearance > Menus, I have the menu in the original language (English) where some items have been renamed. I have not created a separate menu for the second language (Spanish), so the menu is syncing automatically.
Symptoms:
In the second language, the menu item displays the name of the page instead of the renamed menu item, and I can't find a way to change that without creating a separate menu for Spanish.
Questions:
How can I rename a menu item in the secondary language without creating a separate menu?
Is there a way to edit the synced menu item name for the Spanish language?
To ensure the quickest and most accurate support, please provide your debug information so I can look at some of your configurations. We have an excellent article on how to locate it here: https://wpml.org/faq/provide-debug-information-faster-support/.
Please try the following:
❌ Please make a full website backup before proceeding ❌
- Go to WPML → String Translation.
- At the bottom, Auto register untranslated strings > select Untranslated strings that I encounter while logged in
- Visit the front-end page where the menu appears in both languages (to register the label if needed), then return to String Translation.
- Filter by the Menu / Navigation domain (search for the current English label).
- Add the Spanish translation for that label and save.
- Go to WPML → WP Menus Sync, click Sync, select proposed changes, and Apply changes, so the translated label is pushed to the Spanish menu instance.
This method only works for custom links. If I add my existing pages to the menu and simply rename them in the original language, they aren't picked up as translatable strings in WPML. I followed your instructions and can confirm that it works fine for custom links, but not to standard pages that have a custom label
As an alternative, you can use custom links for the pages for which you want a specific label:
Step 1: In the default language menu, replace the page item with a Custom Link (same URL).
Step 2: WPML → String Translation: enable “Look for strings while pages are rendered,” visit the front end once to register, then translate the label (and URL if needed).
Step 3: Run WPML → WP Menus Sync so translations are pushed to other languages.
Step 4: Verify the Spanish label on the front end.
This mirrors the method you confirmed works for custom links and avoids per-language manual label edits, with the trade-off that it’s no longer a “page” menu item.
