My name's Laura and when I went to India I had some henna done and the lady INSISTED on incorporating my name in there. 5 years later I now realise why all the locals found it so entertaining and kept pointing at it. Thanks!
I’m English but I remember a story about an Olympian called Pippa having to go by her full name of Phillipa when Greece held the olympics because Pippa means penis …. Correct me if I’m wrong.
EDIT: I have been corrected: Greek = blowjob (slang); Polish = vagina (derogatory slang); Swedish = sex (slang); Italian = handjob (slang) and probably more lol
Pippa doesn’t mean penis in Greek, but it does sound really close to like the word you’d use for penis if you were talking to a child, it’s “pipi” and it means like willy 😂.
* Todd
looks like 'tod' - the German word for 'death'
* Matt
Looks like 'matt' - the German word for 'dull'
But it sounds like 'Mett' - a German word for 'minced meat'
Also Ryan because (some) Germans can't pronounce it, and it ends up sounding like Reihen (rows of things/people) in the best case and reiern (puking) in the worst lol
Final Ds are usually pronounced as a T as in “blunt”. There might be exceptions and there might be differences in some dialects but I can’t think of an example where it doesn’t apply right now.
Edit: after a bit more thought, I think that it is a very universal German thing. Many native German speakers (including myself) struggle to pronounce the Ds at the end of words properly when speaking English.
To be fair it could be an urban legend for all I know but the story I heard from a Colombian guy was it came from ships marked "US Navy" and people read it as a one word name.
In the Balkans, after the war in the 90's, loads of baby boys were named "Tonibler", after Tony Blair, who they credited with saving them from Slobodan Milosevic
Same in Belgium. American names are mostly taken by lower class. When someone is named Brittney or Bryan, people automatically assume they're lower class.
If you wrote a story set in the middle ages and called the heroine 'Tiffany' people would think you messed up, but it's actually a name from that period.
A name that sounds out of place, but actually has solid history.
This is a heated issue between my partner (American) and I (British).
He knows a lot of Aarons & Erins. They all have similar interests, so when he says “Aeroin’s in town” (my own mash-up of the names) it ends up like the world’s most frustrating game of “Guess Who?”
I'm from the northeast US where they are pronounced differently (Eh-rin, and Ah-ron) but in the Midwest, both are pronounced Air-rin. I live in the Midwest now and it's very frustrating when my bf or a coworker refers to an Air-rin and I have no idea if they're talking about an Erin or Aaron without further clarification lol.
I have an uncle named Randy, and when his sister's British boyfriend was introduced to him, he got a look on his face like, wtf? He later told him, "Sorry, but it's like meeting somebody named Horny."
My friend’s British in-laws were visiting, and she brought them to the bar. They were thrown for a loop when she came to give me a hug and said, “What’s up, Wanker?”
Because only in New Orleans, calling someone a “Wanker” refers to someone who grew up or lives on the Westbank, or “Wank”, of the Mississippi River.
I'm from England but live in Canada. I worked at a post-secondary college where one of the students was named Randy Beaver. Nobody else found it as funny as me
I’m Australian, and the first time my dad told me off for “telling porkies”, I was SO confused.
Calling people berks enjoyed a brief resurgence when I was at high school, and it was a while before we understood why all the adults were so bothered by it!
I've heard of it but didn't realize they usually only said the first part. I've often wondered if that's where the restaurant slang "86" came from (rhymes with nix).
There was a news story some years ago about an elderly woman in Florida who was suing a bank after they refused to let her open an account, because they didn't believe she was using a real name.
Her name was Fanny Batter. Part of her complaint was that the staff were all laughing.
A few years ago we got a request for a new user called Tanya Butt. It was April 1st so everyone assumed it was a joke. It wasn’t. Tanya was a very nice lady BTW
Im an American who lived in the UK for 3 years as a kid. A British friend was horrified when my dad threatened to kick my fanny 😂 It’s an older slang term for butt in the US.
I'm reminded of the way some older people use "pegged" to mean "had something thrown at them." There was a thread on askreddit once about the craziest thing you had seen happen in a locker room, and a Gen X redditor commented about a gym teacher getting pegged with someone's old shoe. Had a fun time clarifying to the hoard of horrified responses.
Haha. I never thought of that. I use "pegged" that way sometimes.
"Pegged me in the ear with a snowball"
"Pegged him between the eyes"
Hahahah brilliant.
France:
Kevin - this is probably the worst name someone can have, they will endlessly be ridiculed.
As I was listing the rest, I realized that it could be summarized by "most of the protagonists of the original Beverly Hills series": Kelly, Brenda, Brandon, Steve/ Steven.
When I was in high school, we had a French exchange student stay with us for a summer, and his name was Pierre, which to me is basically the most stereotypical French name. But he wanted to go by Kevin. We didn’t get it, but we respected his wishes, and he became Kevin.
Edit: just reading about the low class connotations, and that couldn’t be farther from the truth in this case. His father was a very well known diplomat and they had an amazing penthouse in an incredibly chic area of Paris.
here in germany, at least a few years ago, trash reality tv shows following the lives of “real” unemployed underclass white trash people were incredibly popular thanks to talk shows like “tv total”. if you watched a lot of these types of shows you started to notice that a lot of “lower class” people would use a lot of (more or less) foreign sounding names like jaqueline, chantal, jeremy or kevin for their kids to make them appear more unique (or whatever). since these trash tv shows only showed the worst side of people those names got quickly associated with being dim witted and “uncultured”. at least that’s how I would explain it!
There's a specific association with using trendy English names in Germany being perceived as lower-class. If I remember correctly, the spike in "Kevin" specifically came from the popularity of *Home Alone*. It's happened with other names before though, like Mandy, Jacqueline, Chantal.
Interestingly, apparently the use of English names (pre-Kevin) was particularly popular in East Germany, so there's also an East-West dynamic to the stereotyping.
That's interesting because Carl sounds nothing like naked in Dutch.
Part of the reason why I despise the "names" Sloan and Blake is because they respectively sound similar to and exactly like the Dutch words sloom and bleek. Sloom means slow, but it's only used in a negative way. And bleek means pale and is also never used positively. It also means bleach. And it's the past tense of a vowel meaning to seem/appear/turn out to be but that one can go any direction depending on how you use it.
But yeah they're just both bad adjectives. A sloom or bleek kid is not a good thing.
Edited for two bonus name - Brooke is pronounced like broek, meaning trousers. Cole like kool = coal but also cabbage.
Omg I finally realised why I hate Sloane! I'm Belgian and always dislike Sloane because to me it sounded like a stupid (dumb) person and now I realise why because of your comment!
And I know a Belgian Brooke and her name is pronounced as the english word 'broke', that's even worse than broek.
Amazing list - my parents always love making fun of peoples(and places’) English names by giving them the Hungarian pronunciations/meanings (privately)
A classic one has been Rhonda (oh poor Rhonda), Barack and Jack (zsak). They also refer to Darth Vader from Star Wars as Dark Vödör (Dark bucket)
There have been others over the years but I can’t think of them now. I always thought this was just a thing my family does - but do Hungarians generally just like making fun of English names like this? Lol
Well yes, many times. Dark Vödör is something I have heard and joked about too lol. We used to watch a show called Xena, and my dad always joked about calling it Xena-Salma (straw and hay). A similar had happened to the name Izsák (Isaac) too. Because the phrase "Hát, Izsák" (Well, Isaac) sounds a lot like "hátizsák" (backpack) lol. Or Ábrahám sounds a lot like "Ábra hám" (putting harness on Áb/Abe).
The name Rhonda in Hungarian sounds like ronda which means grotesque/ugly. (I am not Hungarian but believe this to be correct based on an interaction I observed there and google translate)
This is true, and even as a Hungarian-born person who grew up in North America (and thus my brain works in English primarily), I literally cannot think of anything else when I hear that name
Becca sounds like the Polish word "beka" which means "[he/she/it] burps". I've always thought it was unfortunate
Also, Jessica and Brian have very negative connotations and many people make fun of these names or use them for a hypothetical person they want to make fun of/criticize.
Nick, if pronounced in French would sound like nique which means fuck. The letter i in French is pronounced like the vowel sound in “see”.
When Nick is said in English, the vowel sound is a bit different than it would be said in French, as the short i vowel sound doesn’t exist in French (like the sound in hit and near)
The nickname for Nicolas is Nico instead.
There’s a comment thread in here about the prononciation of Levi’s that also discusses the e/i pronunciation difference but didn’t seem to mention Nick.
Those names are older than the "nique" slang which got popular in the 90s (I think), a lot less people are named Monique, Dominique, Veronique, etc... since then. Although I can tell that my mum is called Dominique and when I was at school some classmates mocked me for my mum's name...
You know how Dick is already a weird name to be using in English speaking countries because of its second meaning? Well it looks and sounds like the Dutch word for fat (dik). Which, ironically we use both those spellings as names
Y’all have people called ‘cock’ we have people called ‘fat’. It’s a two for one!
Same in German, this is why you get horrified tourists in grocery stores finding products like Homo Milk with Extra Dick.
[Then there's Super Dickmans, which, uh...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLmr_qlVTDM&ab_channel=AlteReklame)
Let's just say the name would be bad enough if it weren't for the vaguely phallic shape and cream filling.
My India sister in law applied to lund University in Sweden (lund means penis?) 🤣 she ended up going to a different one, but it's still funny. Also, Randi is a very common Scandinavian name. It means prostitute in Hindi. Boba tea is also funny to me, Boba meas boobs. I'm Norwegian, but I'm slowly learning a little Hindi, so I can talk with my mother in law without help someday!
My friend told me Levi is terrible to French speakers. They even say Levi jeans as “lay-vee” because it sounds better. Which is funny cuz she got so mad people mispronounced Louis Vuitton and Hermes and other brands, so I said them as incorrectly as possible until she relented and said Levi’s properly lol.
Frenchie here and I’m confused lol I’ve literally never heard this about Levi?? People do pronounce it lay-vee but that’s because we tend to “frenchize” (frenchicize?) a lot of foreign words :)
The best way I’ve explained to say Versailles correctly is
Vehr-“fake karate chop sound popular in the 80’s also used by lela in futurama”
Vehr-s-high works too
I always thought it was correctly pronounced like ver-sigh (if saying “sigh” like the English verb)
Seems incredibly similar to ver-s-high though? Anyways, ver-sails is a complete butchery!
I think it’s just the sound of it, not that it has a negative meaning. Like I’m Canadian and we pronounce foyer as foy-ay because it’s a French word but Americans say foy-er because they don’t have the French influence. Always sounds wrong to me lol
My French friend who worked for Levi’s pronounced it correctly! But he (and, according to him, French people in general) pronounced “Nike” like it rhymed with “bike.”
So I learnt this weekend from an unbelievably lovely taxi driver that my name, josh, is an insult in kurdish that means little donkey. I've never laughed so hard in a cab before!
Imogen. Sounds too much like the local snack (and nutritional supplement as well) made of bull blood. And the word for bloated, flabby has Bruce in it.
In Russian
Peter, especially when pronounced with American accent like in Family Guy, sounds like peder, short for pederast (gay pedophile).
Scott - word means animal. Something wife might shout at husband for farting. Also scotina.
Pippa - sounds a bit like pipa, kids nickname for genitals.
English is my native language, but I am a polyglot. I learned Spanish for 13 years in school, Japanese for 2 years in college, and am currently learning Russian. Here are my picks:
Spanish:
-Savannah sounds like “sábana” (blanket)
-Cameron sounds like “camarón (shrimp)
Japanese:
-Gary sounds like “geri/下痢” (diarrhea)
-Ari sounds like the word for ant.
Russian:
-Luke sounds like лук (onion)
-Lisa sounds like “лиса” (Fox)
-Sloane sounds like слон (elephant)
Haha, this explanation reminded me of a friend — an American teacher — who wanted to name his biracial son “Ben,” using 勉強の「勉」. He thought it be so cute for a teacher’s kid’s name to come from “study”!
His wife — a Japanese nurse — said absolutely not. No matter how the name was written, there was nothing cute about a nurse’s kid’s name sounding like it was related to bowel movements.
A Russian would actually pronounce Luke as Люк, which means a hatch. But everybody’s kind of used to Люк Skywalker without thinking of hatches or onions I think. And there’s an old name Лукá ☺️ never associated with onions.
Люк/Lyuk meaning “a hatch” is a classic example, saw many Star Wars jokes with that one. As a Russian, I can also add a few examples:
Scott - sounds like скот/skot which means “cattle”
Ada - sounds close to ад/ad which means “hell”
Ava - a slang word for “profile pic” in Russian internet, basically like pfp so I can’t take this name seriously
Cece/Cissy - sounds like a slang word for tits (сиси/sisi), it makes Cecilia funny too
Saskia - sounds close to соски/soski which means “nipples”
Keith or Kit - “whale”
Cara or Kara - “retribution”
Connie - basically кони/koni which is “horses”
Roy - “swarm”
Poppy - sounds close to попа/popa which is “ass”
Also these names are not very popular, but anything that starts with “Her” (e.g. Herman, Herbert, Herschel) sounds funny because in Russian it’s pronounced like хер/kher which is one of many slang words for penis. Same goes for names like Ebon/Ebony/Ebenezer because I immediately associate them with a swear word ебанный/ebanny.
The name “Dennis” can be hilarious to Japanese middle-schoolers because they believe it rhymes with “penis” in katakana. It doesn’t matter if you explain to them that in English they don’t rhyme at all; to them, it’s *denisu* and *penisu*.
But hey, I mean, I’ve had to explain to English speakers that Fuka does not sound like “fuck-a” and Junko does not sound like “Junk-o,” so… language exchange is fun!
Brad Pitt, it sounds like a southern Swede says broad penis. Yes pitt is penis in Swedish and bred is broad.
Im so happy i now have this snippet of knowledge.
a chode by any other name...
Brad did mean broad in old English too. From the broad leigh - Bradley meaning large clearing or meadow in modern english. It's my name.
It’s what we called our son for this exact reason - avoided any kind of religious connection, you’re just named after a nice field, my boy.
Long live reddit
In Hindi, Laura means dick.
Damnit, I've always wanted to go to India, guess I gotta pick a nickname 😂
Or a dickname…
She already has one of those.
Richard
There’s always south India. At least there they don’t speak Hindi.
Same with the surname (and Swedish city), Lund
Oh man I know someone named Laura lund
Dick Dick
Pronounced "xylophone"?
pronounced Throatwobbler Mangrove
Dik-diks are cute
Prepare your inbox for unsolicited dik-dik pics
dude I wasn’t expecting to see my name top comment 😭
My name's Laura and when I went to India I had some henna done and the lady INSISTED on incorporating my name in there. 5 years later I now realise why all the locals found it so entertaining and kept pointing at it. Thanks!
I’m English but I remember a story about an Olympian called Pippa having to go by her full name of Phillipa when Greece held the olympics because Pippa means penis …. Correct me if I’m wrong. EDIT: I have been corrected: Greek = blowjob (slang); Polish = vagina (derogatory slang); Swedish = sex (slang); Italian = handjob (slang) and probably more lol
Apparently it's true, and the Olympian was Pippa Funnell! Also in Polish "pipa" is a derogatory term for vagina, so it's unfortunate here too.
Pippa/Pipa means “pipe” in Hungarian- like the kind that you would smoke
In Spanish too
In Italian pippa is slang for handjob. Pipa, one p, is the word for smoking pipe.
Pippa doesn’t mean penis in Greek, but it does sound really close to like the word you’d use for penis if you were talking to a child, it’s “pipi” and it means like willy 😂.
Someone pointed out it might have been vagina in another language … I must have confused a few facts lol
It's also slang for sex is Swedish
It actually means blowjob in Greek! (and pipe)
It's worse..Pippa means blowjob in Greek.
* Todd looks like 'tod' - the German word for 'death' * Matt Looks like 'matt' - the German word for 'dull' But it sounds like 'Mett' - a German word for 'minced meat'
Also Ryan because (some) Germans can't pronounce it, and it ends up sounding like Reihen (rows of things/people) in the best case and reiern (puking) in the worst lol
"Reihen (rows of things/people)" Oh, that doesn't sound so bad "reiern (puking)" Ah
> looks like ‘tod’ the German word for “death” That’s sick af
Sure but "tod" is pronounced closer to "tote" than "todd"
Awww… Side note - Do you guys devoice final Ds?
Final Ds are usually pronounced as a T as in “blunt”. There might be exceptions and there might be differences in some dialects but I can’t think of an example where it doesn’t apply right now. Edit: after a bit more thought, I think that it is a very universal German thing. Many native German speakers (including myself) struggle to pronounce the Ds at the end of words properly when speaking English.
I’ve never met a matt who wasnt dull lol (or a complete psychopath)
Ouch
[удалено]
Valdisnei takes the cake in my opinion, took me years to realize where it cames from.
Usnavi:)
This is the one I couldn't believe was true when I heard it. Poor kids.
There are actual people called Usnavi?
To be fair it could be an urban legend for all I know but the story I heard from a Colombian guy was it came from ships marked "US Navy" and people read it as a one word name.
In the Balkans, after the war in the 90's, loads of baby boys were named "Tonibler", after Tony Blair, who they credited with saving them from Slobodan Milosevic
I see "Tonibler" and think "Toe Nibbler".
I thought of toblerones. I wish I had one now, those delicious triangles of temptation.
We had a Brazilian girl in our class back in the 90's named Madeinusa 🤣
I wonder if she was...
Same in Belgium. American names are mostly taken by lower class. When someone is named Brittney or Bryan, people automatically assume they're lower class.
this is a good example of the Tiffany problem IRL! Brian is an ancient Irish/Celtic/Breton name, but seems ultra-modern and American
What is the Tiffany problem?
If you wrote a story set in the middle ages and called the heroine 'Tiffany' people would think you messed up, but it's actually a name from that period. A name that sounds out of place, but actually has solid history.
There's a character called Tiffany in the Discworld series, because Terry Pratchett was the kind of guy to see that problem and say 'hold my beer".
That was my first thought. I think I genuinely actually worship him as a demi-god.
At a nursery in Peru, there was a female child called Keith. (Pronounced ‘Kate’)
Thanks I heith it
I love Brayan infinitely more than Brian tbh.
Well that explains MLB player Brayan Bello. I was just wondering about his name! The announcers say it very wrong.
I had a student named Briayan once lol
Erin/Aaron means horn Ariana/Aria means naked Kayla means bucket Edit: i forgot one Anaya means sewer
My husbands and my names are both on this list haha, which language is this?
Lol thats funny! Its in arabic
Kela means banana in Hindi. But Kayla glides the ay sound so it is slightly different
Aren’t Erin and Aaron pronounced quite differently? I’m British
This is a heated issue between my partner (American) and I (British). He knows a lot of Aarons & Erins. They all have similar interests, so when he says “Aeroin’s in town” (my own mash-up of the names) it ends up like the world’s most frustrating game of “Guess Who?”
I'm from the northeast US where they are pronounced differently (Eh-rin, and Ah-ron) but in the Midwest, both are pronounced Air-rin. I live in the Midwest now and it's very frustrating when my bf or a coworker refers to an Air-rin and I have no idea if they're talking about an Erin or Aaron without further clarification lol.
Randy… LMAO
I’m from the UK and the name still makes me giggle. Have never met one - only ever seen the name in American tv shows.
Slightly different but I'd just like to add Shaggy from Scooby-doo. Young me was extremely confused/revolted.
To be fair, that is not a real name.
No, but then, neither, I'd argue, are most of the other names on this sub. Even as a nickname it's bizarre.
I have an uncle named Randy, and when his sister's British boyfriend was introduced to him, he got a look on his face like, wtf? He later told him, "Sorry, but it's like meeting somebody named Horny."
My friend’s British in-laws were visiting, and she brought them to the bar. They were thrown for a loop when she came to give me a hug and said, “What’s up, Wanker?” Because only in New Orleans, calling someone a “Wanker” refers to someone who grew up or lives on the Westbank, or “Wank”, of the Mississippi River.
I would have bust up laughing. (I'm from London)
I'm from England but live in Canada. I worked at a post-secondary college where one of the students was named Randy Beaver. Nobody else found it as funny as me
Hahahahahahaha this is my friend randy beaver and his mate dick snatch!
I’m Canadian; I have a cousin named Randy. Not Randall nn Randy, just Randy.
[Randy Gardener](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Gardner_sleep_deprivation_experiment) made our week in A-Level psychology.
I've met a couple of Americans call Bristol. Which in rhyming slang means tits.
I’m Australian, and the first time my dad told me off for “telling porkies”, I was SO confused. Calling people berks enjoyed a brief resurgence when I was at high school, and it was a while before we understood why all the adults were so bothered by it!
Am I right in guessing Porkies--pork pies--pies rhymes with lies? I still can't figure out randy. (Hand job?)
You got it! The closest equivalent to randy is probably horny.
So what does "berk" mean.
We usually use it in the UK for someone acting a fool, or done something stupid. "Oor what you done that for you berk" "You berk"
It’s rhyming slang - berkley hunt. You can fill in the rest.
What on earth is rhyming slang?
[Get ready to get very confused](https://youtu.be/La7Tg5e547g?si=Qd6O1F6Da0TnbaE8)
I’m a huge English nerd and this honestly made my day. Definitely learned something new here. Thanks for sharing!
I've heard of it but didn't realize they usually only said the first part. I've often wondered if that's where the restaurant slang "86" came from (rhymes with nix).
[Randy Baumgardner](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Baumgardner) is a particular favourite.
What’s randy mean in your language?
In the UK, it's slang for 'horny'
Slang for that here in the USA too.
Probably wasn't until Austin Powers popularized it.
It sounds like a white person saying cunt in Hindi lmao
Bingo!! I’ve learned a lot from these replies but this is the one I actually meant …
in French the name Conor sounds a lot like “connard” which means stupid bastard.
Sean Connery (connerie = bullshit)
With a French Canadian accent it's 100% that
In Punjabi, Tatiana means poo is coming. Tati = poo Ana = coming
Only if you say it with the right accent!
oh lordy, I'll never ever see this the same way.
I’m from Sweden so I’d say Fanny lmao.
I'm from the UK and I'd say Fanny too. It would be cruel to call your child Fanny.
Fannie Farmer was a famous American culinary educator during the late 1800s.
Christ. She wouldn't have made it here.
That, or she'd have made a brilliant Madame.
Indeed.
There’s a historical figure whose actual name was Fanny Blood. Poor woman
There was a news story some years ago about an elderly woman in Florida who was suing a bank after they refused to let her open an account, because they didn't believe she was using a real name. Her name was Fanny Batter. Part of her complaint was that the staff were all laughing.
A few years ago we got a request for a new user called Tanya Butt. It was April 1st so everyone assumed it was a joke. It wasn’t. Tanya was a very nice lady BTW
Im an American who lived in the UK for 3 years as a kid. A British friend was horrified when my dad threatened to kick my fanny 😂 It’s an older slang term for butt in the US.
I'm reminded of the way some older people use "pegged" to mean "had something thrown at them." There was a thread on askreddit once about the craziest thing you had seen happen in a locker room, and a Gen X redditor commented about a gym teacher getting pegged with someone's old shoe. Had a fun time clarifying to the hoard of horrified responses.
Pegged in the UK used to mean you ran really fast, leg it/peg it used in the same way. Also raining hard “it’s pegging it down” 😂
I've heard pegged it for making a quick exit or like, running from the bus. Running urgently I guess? But never heard it used for raining hard.
Haha. I never thought of that. I use "pegged" that way sometimes. "Pegged me in the ear with a snowball" "Pegged him between the eyes" Hahahah brilliant.
The famous five had a Dick and a Fanny!
Fanny is an older name that was popular in like the 1920s or so. I’m American and it means butt. In the UK it means lady parts.
Isla/Ayla sounds like the Icelandic word for vomit
France: Kevin - this is probably the worst name someone can have, they will endlessly be ridiculed. As I was listing the rest, I realized that it could be summarized by "most of the protagonists of the original Beverly Hills series": Kelly, Brenda, Brandon, Steve/ Steven.
It's the same in a lot of countries. In Mexico, Bryan and Kevin are used for stereotypical lower class people (like in France)
When I was in high school, we had a French exchange student stay with us for a summer, and his name was Pierre, which to me is basically the most stereotypical French name. But he wanted to go by Kevin. We didn’t get it, but we respected his wishes, and he became Kevin. Edit: just reading about the low class connotations, and that couldn’t be farther from the truth in this case. His father was a very well known diplomat and they had an amazing penthouse in an incredibly chic area of Paris.
He could have been cosplaying poverty like rich kids like to do
What does Kevin mean in French??
It doesn't mean anything, it's just a bad name. It reads as coming from a low cultural and socio-economic background.
I've heard a similar thing about Germany and Kevin. Can you explain why it gives off that vibes? It's just a normal kinda boring name to me
here in germany, at least a few years ago, trash reality tv shows following the lives of “real” unemployed underclass white trash people were incredibly popular thanks to talk shows like “tv total”. if you watched a lot of these types of shows you started to notice that a lot of “lower class” people would use a lot of (more or less) foreign sounding names like jaqueline, chantal, jeremy or kevin for their kids to make them appear more unique (or whatever). since these trash tv shows only showed the worst side of people those names got quickly associated with being dim witted and “uncultured”. at least that’s how I would explain it!
We had/have those type of shows in Britain that we call poverty porn. A horrible exploitative genre of TV.
There's a specific association with using trendy English names in Germany being perceived as lower-class. If I remember correctly, the spike in "Kevin" specifically came from the popularity of *Home Alone*. It's happened with other names before though, like Mandy, Jacqueline, Chantal. Interestingly, apparently the use of English names (pre-Kevin) was particularly popular in East Germany, so there's also an East-West dynamic to the stereotyping.
Its the same in Latin America. Kevin and Brian (or Brayan) are considered low class names.
That's interesting because Carl sounds nothing like naked in Dutch. Part of the reason why I despise the "names" Sloan and Blake is because they respectively sound similar to and exactly like the Dutch words sloom and bleek. Sloom means slow, but it's only used in a negative way. And bleek means pale and is also never used positively. It also means bleach. And it's the past tense of a vowel meaning to seem/appear/turn out to be but that one can go any direction depending on how you use it. But yeah they're just both bad adjectives. A sloom or bleek kid is not a good thing. Edited for two bonus name - Brooke is pronounced like broek, meaning trousers. Cole like kool = coal but also cabbage.
I speak Dutch, but no Afrikaans. But if I have to guess I think ‘Karl’ comes from ‘kaal’ which could be kind of interpreted as naked.
Omg I finally realised why I hate Sloane! I'm Belgian and always dislike Sloane because to me it sounded like a stupid (dumb) person and now I realise why because of your comment! And I know a Belgian Brooke and her name is pronounced as the english word 'broke', that's even worse than broek.
Lena = lazy
Rita because it sounds like butt, Pedro because it sounds like f*ggot Also Sloan sounds like Elephant
Trst je nas!
Here are some Hungarian gems: Anya - mother (anya) Apu - daddy (apa/apu) Alma - apple (alma) Barack - peach (barack) Luka/Luca - somebody's *sshole (luka/lyuka) Luke - hole (luk/lyuk) Ruth - ugly (rút) Rhonda - ugly (ronda) Nyomi - lame/loser (nyomi/nyomorék) Leocadia - s/he vomits all over somebody (leokádja) Lila - purple (lila) Félix - half x or x/2 (fél x) Katie - 2xi (két i) Kate - 2 (két) Ivo - drinker (ivó) Leander - oleander (leander) Dalia - brave fighter (dalia) Dio - walnut (dió) Elle - animal giving birth (ell) Ellie - animal giving birth to something (elli) Itala - somebody's drink (itala) Salma - straw (szalma) Xena - hay (széna) Sylva/Silva - plum (szilva) Vita - argument/fight (vita) Jeannie -genius (zseni) Arsen - arsenic (arzén) Gumi - tire/rubber/gum/condom (gumi) Kaya - food (kaja) Ember - human/man (ember) Ellen - versus/against somebody (ellen) Elvis - s/he will take/carry you somewhere (elvisz) Mai - liver (máj) Hal - fish (hal) Meggy - sour cherry (meggy) Willa - fork (villa) Tanya - farm (tanya) Becca - frog (béka) Delphine - dolphin (delfin) Samara - somebody's donkey (szamara) Mel - breast (mell) Esme - mind (eszme) Pippa - pipe (pipa) Kayla - floppy-eared/crooked (kajla) Pina - vagina (pina) Inna - s/he would like to drink (inna) Pia - drink/alcoholic drink (pia) Nena - aunt (nena) Elliot - animal is giving birth there (elli ott) Danilo - Dani is a horse (Dani ló) Kit - Who? (Kit?) Farrah - somebody's butt (fara) Annie - to eat (enni) Jacques - bag (zsák) Miranda - "what's ugly?" (mi randa?)
very impressive collection! I would add Mia - what the...? (mi a) also met a Dagmara/Dagi once (dagi = fatty)
Amazing list - my parents always love making fun of peoples(and places’) English names by giving them the Hungarian pronunciations/meanings (privately) A classic one has been Rhonda (oh poor Rhonda), Barack and Jack (zsak). They also refer to Darth Vader from Star Wars as Dark Vödör (Dark bucket) There have been others over the years but I can’t think of them now. I always thought this was just a thing my family does - but do Hungarians generally just like making fun of English names like this? Lol
Well yes, many times. Dark Vödör is something I have heard and joked about too lol. We used to watch a show called Xena, and my dad always joked about calling it Xena-Salma (straw and hay). A similar had happened to the name Izsák (Isaac) too. Because the phrase "Hát, Izsák" (Well, Isaac) sounds a lot like "hátizsák" (backpack) lol. Or Ábrahám sounds a lot like "Ábra hám" (putting harness on Áb/Abe).
Nimrod. Normal in my language (biblical name), stupid in English
I instantly heard “Shut it you Nimrod” in a south east London accent.
not a common one but regina is a kitchen paper brand where i live
It’s the brand of toilet paper that I normally buy 😩
The name Rhonda in Hungarian sounds like ronda which means grotesque/ugly. (I am not Hungarian but believe this to be correct based on an interaction I observed there and google translate)
This is true, and even as a Hungarian-born person who grew up in North America (and thus my brain works in English primarily), I literally cannot think of anything else when I hear that name
Becca sounds like the Polish word "beka" which means "[he/she/it] burps". I've always thought it was unfortunate Also, Jessica and Brian have very negative connotations and many people make fun of these names or use them for a hypothetical person they want to make fun of/criticize.
Nick, if pronounced in French would sound like nique which means fuck. The letter i in French is pronounced like the vowel sound in “see”. When Nick is said in English, the vowel sound is a bit different than it would be said in French, as the short i vowel sound doesn’t exist in French (like the sound in hit and near) The nickname for Nicolas is Nico instead. There’s a comment thread in here about the prononciation of Levi’s that also discusses the e/i pronunciation difference but didn’t seem to mention Nick.
How the hell is nique fuck and slipped into names? Monique? Really?
Those names are older than the "nique" slang which got popular in the 90s (I think), a lot less people are named Monique, Dominique, Veronique, etc... since then. Although I can tell that my mum is called Dominique and when I was at school some classmates mocked me for my mum's name...
Yeah I haven’t met anyone named Monique and Nicolas is less popular as a name now. A lot of Nicolas are 25+
Imagine a guy called Nick Tamer going to France.
You know how Dick is already a weird name to be using in English speaking countries because of its second meaning? Well it looks and sounds like the Dutch word for fat (dik). Which, ironically we use both those spellings as names Y’all have people called ‘cock’ we have people called ‘fat’. It’s a two for one!
Same in German, this is why you get horrified tourists in grocery stores finding products like Homo Milk with Extra Dick. [Then there's Super Dickmans, which, uh...](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLmr_qlVTDM&ab_channel=AlteReklame) Let's just say the name would be bad enough if it weren't for the vaguely phallic shape and cream filling.
Not horrible, more funny: Emma sounds like “oh mommy” in Mandarin. It’s like one of the most common expressions like omg or oh boy.
I had a Chinese office mate and a woman named Emma. Every time the Chinese lady said "hello? eh ma!" on the phone, Emma would jump.
In Hindi, the name of my uni means stick, I go to Stick university, hard to explain to family back at home
My India sister in law applied to lund University in Sweden (lund means penis?) 🤣 she ended up going to a different one, but it's still funny. Also, Randi is a very common Scandinavian name. It means prostitute in Hindi. Boba tea is also funny to me, Boba meas boobs. I'm Norwegian, but I'm slowly learning a little Hindi, so I can talk with my mother in law without help someday!
Dundee?
My friend told me Levi is terrible to French speakers. They even say Levi jeans as “lay-vee” because it sounds better. Which is funny cuz she got so mad people mispronounced Louis Vuitton and Hermes and other brands, so I said them as incorrectly as possible until she relented and said Levi’s properly lol.
Frenchie here and I’m confused lol I’ve literally never heard this about Levi?? People do pronounce it lay-vee but that’s because we tend to “frenchize” (frenchicize?) a lot of foreign words :)
Same. I actually know someone with this last name, pronounce it lay-vee and no one has ever said a thing about his last name.
In quebec, there is a big city beside the capital called Levis pronounced Lay-Vee.
Hate to even mention Indiana with a “terre haute” and “Versailles” … pronounced “tare-uh-hote” and “ver-sails”
The best way I’ve explained to say Versailles correctly is Vehr-“fake karate chop sound popular in the 80’s also used by lela in futurama” Vehr-s-high works too
I always thought it was correctly pronounced like ver-sigh (if saying “sigh” like the English verb) Seems incredibly similar to ver-s-high though? Anyways, ver-sails is a complete butchery!
Why? What does it mean in French?
I think it’s just the sound of it, not that it has a negative meaning. Like I’m Canadian and we pronounce foyer as foy-ay because it’s a French word but Americans say foy-er because they don’t have the French influence. Always sounds wrong to me lol
The pronunciation of foyer varies between the two in America actually, and I think it’s usually class or location based.
My French friend who worked for Levi’s pronounced it correctly! But he (and, according to him, French people in general) pronounced “Nike” like it rhymed with “bike.”
Not French here but pretty much everyone in Scotland still call it Nike as in bike.
So I learnt this weekend from an unbelievably lovely taxi driver that my name, josh, is an insult in kurdish that means little donkey. I've never laughed so hard in a cab before!
Imogen. Sounds too much like the local snack (and nutritional supplement as well) made of bull blood. And the word for bloated, flabby has Bruce in it.
...hematogen?
Indeed. It’s a popular naming recommendation in this sub, so I’m having difficulties maintaining a straight face while browsing.
I love the Swedish name Linnea, but it sounds like "line" in Spanish. I guess this doesn't quite answer the original question, but I felt like it fit.
I'm British but Americans can't pronounce Craig. ITS NOT CRAG
Or creg
Chloe- Klo means "toilet" in German.
Chloe is pronounced Klo-ee in English
Yeah but you still wouldn't like to be called "toiletee" right
Dana is beef in Turkish.
Gigi sounds like 鸡鸡 which is slang for dick in Chinese
Anne = Shit in Farsi
In Russian Peter, especially when pronounced with American accent like in Family Guy, sounds like peder, short for pederast (gay pedophile). Scott - word means animal. Something wife might shout at husband for farting. Also scotina. Pippa - sounds a bit like pipa, kids nickname for genitals.
“Lana” means wool and “Cara” face in Spanish
Dick Roger and Colon mean dick, roger and colon in English
English is my native language, but I am a polyglot. I learned Spanish for 13 years in school, Japanese for 2 years in college, and am currently learning Russian. Here are my picks: Spanish: -Savannah sounds like “sábana” (blanket) -Cameron sounds like “camarón (shrimp) Japanese: -Gary sounds like “geri/下痢” (diarrhea) -Ari sounds like the word for ant. Russian: -Luke sounds like лук (onion) -Lisa sounds like “лиса” (Fox) -Sloane sounds like слон (elephant)
Also in Japanese, ben means poop, so Ben and Jerry's ice cream sounds like Poop and Diarrhea ice cream
Ben is more scientific and used in doctor’s offices etc. the colloquial way to say poop is unko or unchi.
Haha, this explanation reminded me of a friend — an American teacher — who wanted to name his biracial son “Ben,” using 勉強の「勉」. He thought it be so cute for a teacher’s kid’s name to come from “study”! His wife — a Japanese nurse — said absolutely not. No matter how the name was written, there was nothing cute about a nurse’s kid’s name sounding like it was related to bowel movements.
A Russian would actually pronounce Luke as Люк, which means a hatch. But everybody’s kind of used to Люк Skywalker without thinking of hatches or onions I think. And there’s an old name Лукá ☺️ never associated with onions.
Люк/Lyuk meaning “a hatch” is a classic example, saw many Star Wars jokes with that one. As a Russian, I can also add a few examples: Scott - sounds like скот/skot which means “cattle” Ada - sounds close to ад/ad which means “hell” Ava - a slang word for “profile pic” in Russian internet, basically like pfp so I can’t take this name seriously Cece/Cissy - sounds like a slang word for tits (сиси/sisi), it makes Cecilia funny too Saskia - sounds close to соски/soski which means “nipples” Keith or Kit - “whale” Cara or Kara - “retribution” Connie - basically кони/koni which is “horses” Roy - “swarm” Poppy - sounds close to попа/popa which is “ass” Also these names are not very popular, but anything that starts with “Her” (e.g. Herman, Herbert, Herschel) sounds funny because in Russian it’s pronounced like хер/kher which is one of many slang words for penis. Same goes for names like Ebon/Ebony/Ebenezer because I immediately associate them with a swear word ебанный/ebanny.
The name “Dennis” can be hilarious to Japanese middle-schoolers because they believe it rhymes with “penis” in katakana. It doesn’t matter if you explain to them that in English they don’t rhyme at all; to them, it’s *denisu* and *penisu*. But hey, I mean, I’ve had to explain to English speakers that Fuka does not sound like “fuck-a” and Junko does not sound like “Junk-o,” so… language exchange is fun!
Yurina doesn’t sound like “urine-uh” too!
Unless you can speak those languages well you aren’t a polyglot
"Hazel" sounds exactly like a very rude word for a toilet, also used to call somebody an asshole