# Do any common American names have unfortunate translations? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 21, 2014, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-common-american-names-have-unfortunate-translations/686602 "2014-04-21T12:52:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-common-american-names-have-unfortunate-translations/686602/101 "2014-04-28T11:40:05Z")
The English name Bobby sounds like the Malay word _babi_, which means ‘pig’. ---
**Author:** ![Klytus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Klytus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klytus)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-common-american-names-have-unfortunate-translations/686602/102 "2014-04-28T11:54:36Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > Peter is the infinitive form of the French verb “to pass wind.” > > I once heard a story about a Welshman named Clive Owen Jones, who never thought there was anything wrong with his name until Spanish customs officials questioned the \*COJONES \*monogram on his suitcase. With apologies to your friend, THAT is awesome 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Klytus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Klytus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klytus)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-common-american-names-have-unfortunate-translations/686602/103 "2014-04-28T12:01:10Z")
And in the spirit of this thread, what could possible be more in/appropriate than… [Dr. Harry Beaver/OBGYN](http://www.wellness.com/dir/2471590/obgyn/va/fairfax/harry-beaver-md) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-common-american-names-have-unfortunate-translations/686602/104 "2014-04-28T12:05:36Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > As for John Thomas, having had it explained I can see a mild humor in how that might be funny, but it isn’t as inherently funny to me as a guy named _Dick Butkus_\* or _Chin Wang_\*\*. Reminds me of this place in my home town. In Spain it used to be very common for restaurants and BnBs to be “Casa [owner’s name]”, like the French Chez whatever. Places with that kind of names tend to home-style cooking. There’s a restaurant whose owner, having already lived in Spain for several years, decided to go with a traditional Spanish name. Visitors to the town and people who just moved there usually take several attempts to understand that there is a restaurant called Casa Wang (/guan/ or /guang/), not Casa Juan (/xuan/), and that yes it is a Chinese place. Not an “unfortunate translation”, but certainly a source of confusion. (Considering how many Wangs there are, don’t tell me that’s not an American name - you’d have to kick a bunch of citizens out ;)) ETA: I’ve made a purpose to use the phonetic alphabet more or less properly (should I put stress markers on monosyllabic words?), let’s see how long it lasts… ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-common-american-names-have-unfortunate-translations/686602/105 "2014-04-28T12:36:13Z")
> [@Weedy](#): > > t/d is alveolar, not dental for most English speakers. The tongue is not at the teeth but slightly behind them. Put your tongue in place as if you are about to say a ‘t’. You will still have room to move it forward a little bit to where it actually touches the back of your teeth (where they meet the roof of your mouth). It’s a small difference, but it changes the sound. It’s still a lot closer to a t (or d, if voiced) than a th. The th sound is made by putting your tongue a little between your teeth. Not on your teeth, not behind, not anywhere else - between. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-common-american-names-have-unfortunate-translations/686602/106 "2014-04-28T12:46:01Z")
> [@Klytus](#): > > With apologies to your friend, THAT is awesome 😃 To clarify, NOT a friend of mine. I do not know the people involved, its something I only heard about. It’s possibly an urban legend, but a highly plausible one. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-common-american-names-have-unfortunate-translations/686602/107 "2014-04-28T14:06:52Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > As for John Thomas, having had it explained I can see a mild humor in how that might be funny, but it isn’t as inherently funny to me as a guy named _Dick Butkus_\* or \*Chin Wang[/I Yes of course, names that are euphemisms for penis are only _inherently_ funny if they involve _American_ euphemisms.:rolleyes: :actual rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-common-american-names-have-unfortunate-translations/686602/108 "2014-04-28T15:49:14Z")
> [@Klytus](#): > > And in the spirit of this thread, what could possible be more in/appropriate than… > > [Dr. Harry Beaver/OBGYN](http://www.wellness.com/dir/2471590/obgyn/va/fairfax/harry-beaver-md) Surely he did that on purpose. “Beaver” he can’t help, but he could have gone with Harold or Harrison. I suspect there’s a little twinkle in his eye, because he knows that will be good for business. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-common-american-names-have-unfortunate-translations/686602/109 "2014-04-28T17:06:22Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > There’s the Vietnamese name Phuc, and thanks to the tsunami, we do know now how to pronounce the Thai city Phuket. My mother was a high-school teacher during the era of the great Vietnamese influx, and the teachers and counselors had an ongoing headache trying to convince these families to adopt the pronunciation “fook.” Many instances, with predictable consequences, of: Teacher calling roll: “Anh Fook?” Angry student: “No! Anh FUCK!” ---
**Author:** ![Klytus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Klytus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Klytus)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-common-american-names-have-unfortunate-translations/686602/110 "2014-04-28T17:17:06Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Surely he did that on purpose. “Beaver” he can’t help, but he could have gone with Harold or Harrison. I suspect there’s a little twinkle in his eye, because he knows that will be good for business. One is left to wonder if he felt a sense of “destiny” to enter medicine and/or become an OBGYN specialist because of his name. ---
**Author:** ![cwthree](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de0a6/32.png) [@cwthree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwthree)\ **Post date:** [April 28, 2014, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-common-american-names-have-unfortunate-translations/686602/111 "2014-04-28T18:01:55Z")
> [@Yarster](#): > > I can also remember growing up in the 1980s, there was a popular boxer named Gerry Cooney who was in the news quite a bit, which was also a source of great humor with some Iranian friends who explained that the word ‘Cooney’ translated to ‘Asshole’ in Farsi. I had a similar conversation with a couple of Iranian friends who asserted that is also means “buttfucker,” \*kun \*being a vulgar word for “ass” and _kuni_, by extension, being someone who likes (or is associated with) ass. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2014, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-common-american-names-have-unfortunate-translations/686602/112 "2014-04-29T03:13:43Z")
> [@Klytus](#): > > And in the spirit of this thread, what could possible be more in/appropriate than… > > [Dr. Harry Beaver/OBGYN](http://www.wellness.com/dir/2471590/obgyn/va/fairfax/harry-beaver-md) > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Surely he did that on purpose. “Beaver” he can’t help, but he could have gone with Harold or Harrison. I suspect there’s a little twinkle in his eye, because he knows that will be good for business. > [@Klytus](#): > > One is left to wonder if he felt a sense of “destiny” to enter medicine and/or become an OBGYN specialist because of his name. He was born for the job. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2014, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-common-american-names-have-unfortunate-translations/686602/113 "2014-04-29T06:05:57Z")
> [@njtt](#): > > Yes of course, names that are euphemisms for penis are only _inherently_ funny if they involve _American_ euphemisms.:rolleyes: :actual rolleyes: I did explicitly say “to me”, so :rolleyes: back at ya’. That is the essence of this thread - the names are only funny do to unfortunate similarities, not intentionally. That is why a name is funny in a language other than its own. Sometimes, names are funny in their own language, too. Like the girl I knew in Jr High with the last name of “Titsworth”. Just about the time that girls start growing them and boys are becoming preoccupied with them, she has to live down a moniker drawing attention to hers and proclaiming their value. ---
**Author:** ![syncrolecyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f08c70/32.png) [@syncrolecyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/syncrolecyne)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2014, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-common-american-names-have-unfortunate-translations/686602/114 "2014-05-01T04:03:49Z")
Huey in print looks like the Mexican slang term huey or güey (pronounced like way). It means idiot, dummy, or, among many teens, just dude or fellow. ---
**Author:** ![bowlweevils](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e5b9ba/32.png) [@bowlweevils](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bowlweevils)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-common-american-names-have-unfortunate-translations/686602/115 "2014-05-02T11:22:29Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > Walter Cronkite’s last name was an anglicized version of the Dutch name _Krankheyt_, which means sickness. Since we’re all being technical here, as a distant relative of Mr Cronkite and a speaker of nederlands, “krankheyt” is archaic. You could go with “krank” for sick, but the “heyt” is not used in standard Dutch anymore. It was replaced with “-ijt”. But that can’t follow an “h” (“-ij” can, as in “hij” (he/him/it depending on context). “Krank” still means sick, but is old-fashioned and makes you sound like a German (and “Krankheit” definitely will, though “Geschmacklosigkeit” sounds much more awesome). Use “ziek”. If you want to say sickness, go with “ziekte” (or “het ziekte”, “een ziekte”. If you want to say you are just a bit sick, use “ziekje”. A minor sickness might be a “ziektje” (definitely “een ziektje” not “het ziektje”). The Dutch love diminutives. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2014, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-common-american-names-have-unfortunate-translations/686602/116 "2014-05-02T13:50:02Z")
> [@bowlweevils](#): > > “Krank” still means sick, but is old-fashioned and makes you sound like a German (and “Krankheit” definitely will, though “Geschmacklosigkeit” sounds much more awesome). Use “ziek”. , So, if good ol’ Walt had a grandson (or grandfather) called Ezekiel, you’d have Zeke Cronkite. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-any-common-american-names-have-unfortunate-translations/686602.md?page=5)