# English names that sound funny in other languages **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 15, 2009, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236 "2009-09-15T21:42:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Walpurgis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Walpurgis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walpurgis)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/21 "2009-09-17T09:05:19Z")
**Pitt** means **dick** in Swedish. There was an awesome TV ad a few years back for a weekend of Brad Pitt movies, with taglines like: “Are you insatiable for Pitt?” and “More Pitt than you can handle”. Hur hur. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/22 "2009-09-17T09:16:03Z")
O’Connor sounds a bit like “Oh, connard” (Hey, asshole) in French ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/23 "2009-09-17T14:07:38Z")
> [@](#): > > I knew a woman whose first name was Hannah and last name was Hotchkiss. Her Japanese students thought this was hilarious, since “Hannah” sounds like “nose”, and “Hotchkiss” is a generic word for stapler. Isn’t “hana” = “flower” in Japanese? The way I’ve heard it pronounced sounds very much like the name “Hannah”, so I would’ve thought her name became “Flower stapler”. > [@](#): > > Pitt means dick in Swedish. There was an awesome TV ad a few years back for a weekend of Brad Pitt movies, with taglines like: “Are you insatiable for Pitt?” and “More Pitt than you can handle”. Hur hur. So Clive Cussler’s hero _Dirk Pitt_ sounds like One Tough Dude in Swedish, then? ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/24 "2009-09-17T15:04:33Z")
> [@tschild](#): > > [This business](http://www.tripperbus.com/) and similarly named ones sound a bit risky to a German ear as _Tripper_ means gonorrhea in German. I would go see a band called Gonorrhea Bus. > [@Chronos](#): > > It probably wouldn’t get a laugh all by itself, except from immature dweebs who laugh at anything remotely resembling anything naughty. Hey! I resemble that remark. :mad: > [@CalMeacham](#): > > Isn’t “hana” = “flower” in Japanese? 花 (_hana_) is flower. 鼻 (_hana_) is nose. There are a lot of words in Japanese that use different kanji (and usually different pitch-accent) but are spelled the same in kana or romaji (roman letters). ---
**Author:** ![Walpurgis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Walpurgis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walpurgis)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/25 "2009-09-17T16:46:18Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > So Clive Cussler’s hero _Dirk Pitt_ sounds like One Tough Dude in Swedish, then? Yeah, or one horny dude at least. 😃 Speaking of tough names, I’ll offer you this in exchange: a common name among Swedish women born in the 1940’s is **Gun**. ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/26 "2009-09-17T21:09:53Z")
The Indonesian word “babi” sounds like my childhood name, “Bobby”. Unfortunately, “babi” means “pig”. Approximately 5 minutes after moving to Indonesia, my dad forgot that I was supposed to be called, “Bob” and he hollered for me. The Indonesian kids thought it was quite amazing to hear a man calling his son a pig. And it was an overwhelmingly Muslim neighborhood, too. Good times, good times. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/27 "2009-09-17T22:55:10Z")
Not a personal name, and not even English, but I just had to throw it out there: There is a winery in New Zealand called **Te Mata** – it’s Maori for something or other. In Spanish, this means “It kills you”! ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2009, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/28 "2009-09-17T23:07:13Z")
> [@DarrenS](#): > > Sean Connery, in French. > > “une connerie” = dumb act, bullshit. “Pepitone” supposedly entered the Japanese vernacular as meaning “goof off”, due to [Joe Pepitone’s (lack of) performance for the Yakult Atoms](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Pepitone). ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/29 "2009-09-18T05:24:24Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > When I was in Japan, my Scottish friend has to make sure to pronounce his name, Gary, as “GAH-ree,” because the typical pronunciation of it sounds like the Japanese word for diarrhea, 下痢 (_geri_). In most films I recall with Japanese subtitles, the name “Gary” is often transcribed as “ゲアリー” or “GEH-ah-ree.” I haven’t seen a “GAH-ree” in subtitles. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/30 "2009-09-18T06:53:46Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > Not a personal name, and not even English, but I just had to throw it out there: There is a winery in New Zealand called **Te Mata** – it’s Maori for something or other. In Spanish, this means “It kills you”! Which can actually be a good thing to say about something; we just like making things mean the opposite of what they theoretically should. Cf. the official slogan “¡Madrid me mata!” (Madrid kills me) from the 1980s, which is both an example of that and a continuation of the old sentence “de Madrid al Cielo” (from Madrid to Heaven), meaning once you’ve seen Madrid you’re done, there’s nothing else you need to do before you can say you’ve led a full life - conceited? Noooooooooo! Direct translations of English names (Blizzard et al, I’m looking at you) tend to sound like shit in Spanish, but I can’t come up with any English words that directly sound bad or funny in Spanish. We sort of have too many different phonemes for that to happen a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/31 "2009-09-18T16:38:38Z")
> [@JpnDude](#): > > In most films I recall with Japanese subtitles, the name “Gary” is often transcribed as “ゲアリー” or “GEH-ah-ree.” I haven’t seen a “GAH-ree” in subtitles. I don’t remember every seeing the name in subtitles, but ガリ (_Gari_) is what I recally Gary using, per the instruction of the first Japanese teacher. WWWJDIC gives ゲイリー (_Geiri_) for Gary by itself, and lists ゲーリー (_Geerii_) ギャリー (_Gyarii_) ゲイリー (_Geirii_) for the given names of various famous Garys. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/32 "2009-09-18T16:54:07Z")
> [@Svejk\_1](#): > > Also, we had a long running detective show centered around a detective whose name was De Cock. “De Cock: Private Dick” 🙂 ---
**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:** [October 7, 2019, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/33 "2019-10-07T15:19:13Z")
If your name is Nick, be careful introducing yourself to Arabs. _Nik_ is Arabic for fuck. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2019, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/34 "2019-10-07T17:07:19Z")
This is not even in a foreign language, but another variety of English. I have friends named Ralph and Randi. When visiting Australia, they learned that these are not common names down there, and the primary meanings that immediately come to most people’s minds are “Vomit” and “Horny”. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2019, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/35 "2019-10-07T19:55:53Z")
^^^OMG!^^^ **BECKY!** Did you see Ralph and Randi? ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2019, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/36 "2019-10-07T20:05:46Z")
In Urdu/Hindi Laura means penis. When my mother started teaching first grade English in Pakistan, she couldn’t figure out why the kids wouldn’t stop laughing, when the primer they used had Laura as the protagonist in every story. My mother didn’t speak any Urdu at the time. Apparently neither did the Irish and Dutch priests who ran the school. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2019, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/37 "2019-10-07T20:22:20Z")
This thread reminded me of a joke from _Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt_ that claimed that in Vietnamese Kimmy means penis (The joke comes from the fact that this was said by a Vietnamese man named Dong). I have never been sure if that’s actually true, or if the writers just made that up for the sake of the joke. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2019, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/38 "2019-10-07T20:38:54Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > This is not even in a foreign language, but another variety of English. I have friends named Ralph and Randi. When visiting Australia, they learned that these are not common names down there, and the primary meanings that immediately come to most people’s minds are “Vomit” and “Horny”. Can confirm! Ralph is not so bad and is occasionally used (mostly in the over-70s) but there are zero Randy’s and that name would always be good for a giggle ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2019, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/39 "2019-10-07T20:40:22Z")
Not a name but the mathematically unimpeachable term coproduct has some meaning like shit in Spanish. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [October 7, 2019, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236/40 "2019-10-07T22:50:37Z")
> [@Aspidistra](#): > > Can confirm! Ralph is not so bad and is occasionally used (mostly in the over-70s) but there are zero Randy’s and that name would always be good for a giggle Just curious – is the male name Randall used in Australia? In the US it is commonly shortened to Randy; is Randall not used or is it just the nickname that doesn’t occur? My friend did quickly learn not to introduce herself to new people by saying “Hi, I’m Randi.” :eek: [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/english-names-that-sound-funny-in-other-languages/510236.md?page=3)