What name is an insult in two languages?

[mbh]

from Dear Abby, August 13, 2008

My husband and I are expecting our first child and selected names some time ago. If it’s a boy, we’ll name him Ethan; if it’s a girl, we’ll call her Ardith.

My father sent us a nasty e-mail telling us he’s praying we have a boy because he couldn’t imagine “saddling a child with a name like Ardith.” This from a man who named his son “Seymour Herbert” and stuck with a last name that is an insult in two languages. (My brother and I grew so sick of being reminded of it that we changed our last name.) It wasn’t even our original family name, but a badly Americanized name-gone-wrong that was laid on our grandfather when he came to this country.

Anyone have any idea what surname this could be?

[Roderick_Femm]

No idea, but I thought it was mildly interesting that all that part about the surname was edited out of our paper. For space, probably (poor Abby only gets a small space every day).
Roddy

[vetbridge]

Douchebag?

[Leaffan]

The given names of the grandfather’s son suggest an English (British) heritage, at least to me. Apart from that, I got nothin’.

[pravnik]

Maybe Raper?

[whole_bean]

cox?

dix?

wiener?

butts?

cumstien?

focker?

I’m out.

[pravnik]

Glasscock?

[Punoqllads]

I knew a guy with a last name of Fink. Is fink an insult in a language other than English?

[hajario]

I met someone with the last name Putz. Could that be it?

[Kuboydal]

Bush.

[Swallowed_My_Cellphone]

Kuntz?

[Kuboydal]

Same thing.

[Terminus_Est]

Lipschitz

[Larry_Mudd]

[QUOTE=Leaffan]
The given names of the grandfather’s son suggest an English (British) heritage, at least to me. Apart from that, I got nothin’.
[/QUOTE]
How about “Dick”?

“Dick” is an anglicized version of “Disch,” which is “fat” in German.

A bit of a stretch, but it’s a common English name and I would be surprised if it doesn’t have a negative connotation in at least one other language.

[Litoris]

My first thought was Pratt, but English and American English are both still English. I am betting it is a Jewish name that’s been mauled, Putz or Schlitz or something.

[Sternvogel]

[QUOTE=Litoris]
I am betting it is a Jewish name that’s been mauled, Putz or Schlitz or something.
[/QUOTE]

Or perhaps Schmuck. Poor Peter’s surname is so “offensive to public decency” that he can’t sport it on a vanity plate!

[ignis_glaciesque]

[QUOTE=Larry Mudd]
How about “Dick”?

“Dick” is an anglicized version of “Disch,” which is “fat” in German.

A bit of a stretch, but it’s a common English name and I would be surprised if it doesn’t have a negative connotation in at least one other language.
[/QUOTE]

The word in German is actually ‘dick’. There is no word ‘Disch’ in German.

[Walpurgis]

[QUOTE=Punoqllads]
I knew a guy with a last name of Fink. Is fink an insult in a language other than English?
[/QUOTE]

It’s a small bird in Swedish.

[Svejk_1]

[QUOTE=vetbridge]
Douchebag?
[/QUOTE]

actually, the verb ‘douchen’ means to take a shower in Dutch…

Dick - spelled ‘dik’ means fat in Dutch. Not very nice.

[Paul_in_Qatar]

It is a finch in German. Steve Allen claimed credit for making fink and ratfink into funny words.