“抢夺罪”是介于盗窃罪（theft）和抢劫罪（robbery）之间的一种犯罪形态，与两者并不等同，因此，将“抢夺罪”译为“theft”或“robbery”均是不合适的。

一些中国的《刑法》译本将“抢夺罪”译为“snatch”或“forcibly seize”。

Snatch是有抢夺的意思：

If something is snatched from you, it is stolen, usually using force. If a person is snatched, they are taken away by force。但这属于第二个义项，第一个义项并无“抢劫”之意：If you snatch something or snatch at something, you take it or pull it away quickly。

法律语言讲究确定性，因此简单使用snatch 似乎不能准确传达“抢夺”的法律含义。而seize本身就包含“用力”之义，再用seize forcibly就显得比较重复了：If you seize something, you take hold of it quickly, firmly and forcefully。

经查找，更为通行的说法是snatch theft。这是维基百科对于snatch theft的定义：

In Malaysia and Southeast Asia in general, snatch theft is a criminal act of forcefully stealing from a pedestrian’s person while employing rob-and-run tactics. It is typical for two thieves to work together and ride a moped to make theft and escape easier. A person steers the vehicle while another does the act of theft itself. However snatch thieves work alone or do not use a motorcycle to rob。

同时，既然抢夺介于theft和robbery之间，也可以robbery为基础来定义。美国佛罗里达州的法律中就使用“robbery by sudden snatching”：

“Robbery by sudden snatching”means the taking of money or other property from the victim’s person, with intent to permanently or temporarily deprive the victim or the owner of the money or other property, when, in the course of the taking, the victim was or became aware of the taking。

因此，这里的抢夺罪可以译为“snatch theft”或“robbery by sudden snatching”。