# Ethnic names that don't seem to match the ethnic group **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 12, 2006, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163 "2006-07-12T12:41:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 12:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/1 "2006-07-12T12:41:35Z")
Cecil once wrote about [Irish names that sound Spanish](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_111.html), like Costello and Spain. I’m curious about this phnomenon in other ethnic groups, too - names that don’t seem to match up with the ethnic group they’re normally associated with. A few I can think of off the top of my head: Rothschild - Ashkenazi Jewish Martin - in New Mexico, it’s a Hispanic name Smith - in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the vast majority of Smiths I encounterd were Hispanic Park - Korean Any others that you can think of? ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/2 "2006-07-12T12:49:18Z")
There are a buttload of Irish Costellos. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/3 "2006-07-12T12:57:43Z")
:smack: Hey y’know **Doug** , sometimes people DO read Cecil’s columns before posting… …lemme think here…I got something…unh…I know! A lot of folks in Panama have English-sounding names. Oh yeah, and Dutch Jews sometimes have Spanish or Portuguese-sounding names, because a lot of them emigrated there during the days of the Inquisition. ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/4 "2006-07-12T13:09:54Z")
My kids had a pediatrician for a while whose name was Rosario Gonzaga (or “Dr. Rosie”). She was Taiwanese. ---
**Author:** ![Scribble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scribble/32/3317_2.png) [@Scribble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scribble)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/5 "2006-07-12T13:18:53Z")
There are lots of people from India (or whose folks were from India) who have Portuguese surnames. I assume that’s from the Portuguese colonization of Goa. ---
**Author:** ![jali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecae2f/32.png) [@jali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jali)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/6 "2006-07-12T14:14:51Z")
My grandmother’s name was Rosario Juandaquile. She was Filipino. My grandfather was AA and their kids were named Estella, Clara, Rosario, Jose, Rodrigo, Kyle (after granddad), Malcolm and Marshall. Not many 1/2 black 1/2 Filipio kids with names like that back in the 1940’s and 50’s. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/7 "2006-07-12T14:50:13Z")
[QUOTE=elmwood] Park - Korean [/QUOTE] You realize that transliteration can be difficult? Korean “Park” is also rendered as “Pak.” And “Lee” can come out as “Rhee.” ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/8 "2006-07-12T15:33:22Z")
A lot of African Americans have Welsh names, like Jones, Evans, Williams, and Thomas. Some of them are slave names, but all of them? I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/9 "2006-07-12T16:46:23Z")
[QUOTE=elmwood] Martin - in New Mexico, it’s a Hispanic name [/QUOTE] Maybe because of St. Martin de Porres, a black/Spanish guy from Peru? My friend laughed at a Spanish guy being named Hector, because all she thought of was the Greek guy, but Hector’s pretty popular among Spanish folks. And yeah, Philippino or Indian folks with Spanish names is not too unusual. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/10 "2006-07-12T17:08:25Z")
[QUOTE=elmwood] Martin - in New Mexico, it’s a Hispanic name [/QUOTE] Isn’t the Spanish version of _Martin_ simply _Martin_ if you leave out the accent mark, which most American styles do (_Martín_)? ---
**Author:** ![FlyingRamenMonster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@FlyingRamenMonster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlyingRamenMonster)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/11 "2006-07-12T17:25:49Z")
My mother is Chinese and her name is Juan. Every other letter she gets addresses her as a man. ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/12 "2006-07-12T17:32:12Z")
Certain groups of Maharashtrians have names that look really American-mostly the Konkanasths. A clear sign of being Marathi is if your last name ends in a syllable pronounced “eh”-however, this often results in names like Kane, Dane, Gore etc. We would pronounce it “Kah-nayyyy” “Dah-nayyyyy” and “Go-rayyyy” but they look like standard American last names. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/13 "2006-07-12T18:01:23Z")
I think I’ve mentioned about the devout Catholic Patrick Ohara – who was full-blooded Japanese, from Nagasaki. It’s important to remember that Latin America is nearly as much a melting pot as Anglo-America. The founder of Chile was Bernardo O’Higgins. Heinlein told in his travel book _Tramp Royale_, and later made it a minor incident in one of his novels, encountering a young lady in Peru who stated her surname as “HONE-ace” – spelled J-O-N-E-S. There was a large Welsh colony in Argentina (which a few years ago was the nation with the second-largest Welsh-speaking population, after the U.K. and with numbers in the five digits), many German emigrants settled in Brazil and Paraguay, and I’m personally e-acquainted with a chemical engineer working in Brazil whose family is of Italian extraction.\* Several countries you would not at first think of have Tamil minorities of significant size; I recall Trinidad and Tobago as one. Don’t forget that the Philippines were a stable Spanish colony for 300 years; I’d make a top-of-head guess that Spanish-derived names are used by about 10% of the population. - Amusingly, a mutual friend I met through him is called “Kike” – not the English-language vulgar insult for Jew, but KEE-kay, a nickname for his baptismal name Enrique. ---
**Author:** ![sjc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e5b9ba/32.png) [@sjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjc)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/14 "2006-07-12T20:25:20Z")
[QUOTE=elmwood] Cecil once wrote about [Irish names that sound Spanish](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_111.html), like Costello and Spain. I’m curious about this phnomenon in other ethnic groups, too - names that don’t seem to match up with the ethnic group they’re normally associated with. A few I can think of off the top of my head: Rothschild - Ashkenazi Jewish Martin - in New Mexico, it’s a Hispanic name Smith - in Las Cruces, New Mexico, the vast majority of Smiths I encounterd were Hispanic Park - Korean Any others that you can think of? [/QUOTE] Others have explained Martin and Park, I don’t know about Smith, but Rothschild comes from the German for “Red Sheild”, if I’m not mistaken. ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/15 "2006-07-12T21:05:26Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray] You realize that transliteration can be difficult? Korean “Park” is also rendered as “Pak.” And “Lee” can come out as “Rhee.” [/QUOTE] I’ve seen it spelled “Pak” and “Paak”, but it’s usually spelled as “Park” in my experience. The R was apparently inserted by British translators, who are also responsible for the Rs in “Burma” and “Myanmar”; since British speakers don’t pronounce Rs at the ends of syllables, there’s no confusion for them. But it ends up causing Americans to mispronounce those words, since there’s no R sound in the original words nor in the British pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/16 "2006-07-12T21:26:33Z")
[QUOTE=sjc] Others have explained Martin and Park, I don’t know about Smith, but Rothschild comes from the German for “Red Sheild”, if I’m not mistaken. [/QUOTE] And I don’t know why the OP considers it strange that it’s associated with a Jewish family. The majority of American Jews are Ashkenazi and the family names that are generally considered stereotypically Jewish here are mostly German-origin names – Fleischman, Silberberg, Goldstein, Rosenbaum, Seinfeld, Neumann, Feinblatt, Rothkopf … ---
**Author:** ![Autumn\_Almanac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d26b3c/32.png) [@Autumn\_Almanac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autumn_Almanac)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/17 "2006-07-12T21:31:48Z")
[QUOTE=acsenray] You realize that transliteration can be difficult? Korean “Park” is also rendered as “Pak.” [/QUOTE] I watched an entire season of _Battlestar Galactica_ thinking that Grace Park’s name was Grace Pak. Somehow my mind just removed the R every time I saw her name in print. I was flabbergasted when I finally realized it was Park. ---
**Author:** ![Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Alive\_At\_Both\_Ends](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alive_At_Both_Ends)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/18 "2006-07-12T21:59:48Z")
No mention yet of the “Liberator of Chile”, Bernardo O’Higgins? When Ifirst heard this name as a kid I assumed it was a joke. ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/19 "2006-07-12T22:04:04Z")
[QUOTE=Alive At Both Ends] No mention yet of the “Liberator of Chile”, Bernardo O’Higgins? When Ifirst heard this name as a kid I assumed it was a joke. [/QUOTE] Oh, I believe **Polycarp** mentioned him just a bit ago… ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2006, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163/20 "2006-07-12T22:07:08Z")
I’m always privately amused when names seem to have an ethnic mismatch, such as: Consuela McCarthy Heidi Rodriguez Bernard Phouksounh I suppose many are the result of marriages and many names are changed or modified in an effort to sound American or to make it easier for Americans to learn to say the names, but some of the combinations can be pretty unusual-sounding. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ethnic-names-that-dont-seem-to-match-the-ethnic-group/364163.md?page=2)