两者指的都是企业（firm）中的合伙人，但各自强调的重心并不一样，因此两者并不能译为同一术语。Sleeping partner(a business partner who doesn't play an active role in running the day-to-day operations of a business, who instead, finances the business in the form of capital investment-from Wiktionary)，强调的是合伙人将与企业的关系对公众隐瞒，为公众所不知（a partner whose connection with the firm is concealed from the public）。故sleeping partner为“秘密合伙人”，也可称之为“secret partner”。

而silent partner (A silent partner is an individual whose involvement in a partnership is limited to providing capital to the business. A silent partner is seldom involved in the partnership's daily operations and does not generally participate in management meetings.-from Investopedia)则主要是指仅出资分享利益而不参与积极经营管理的合伙人。至于其与企业的关系，虽然常常为公众所不知，但这也是不一定的，且合伙人并未隐瞒其余企业的关系（a partner who shares in the profits but who has no active voice in management of the firm and whose existence is often not publicly disclosed）。因此，这一术语一般译为“隐名合伙人”，也称为“dormant partner”。

以下为相关示例：

The partnership jurisprudence concerning the issues of civil subjective status, assets, liability assumption, form of partnership, sleeping partner and limited partner is more worth researching.

在立法方面，合伙的定义与形式、法人合伙、民事主体地位、责任承担、秘密合伙合伙与有限合伙等问题有待完善。

Deutsche Bank still retained its shares, but limited its role to that of a silent partner.

德意志银行仍持有其原先股份，但只是一个隐名合伙人。

参考文献：宋雷《法律术语翻译要略》