Names you had never heard of before moving

[popcorn]

Or what you might consider odd names since you've never heard them.

Here in Germany I'm wondering about the name Malgorzata (what kind of name is this) and Florian. Malgorzata is ok...I had just never heard of it. Florian seems to be a common man's name, but I always think of floral hawaiin shirts when I hear it.

In Spain my favorite was Concepcion. Though the nickname Conchi was nice.

What about where you are? What are the names like?

[bugabean]

There are a lot of 'normal' or close to normal names here, but some still seem strange to me. Bodil (BO-deel) is a woman's name and it still sounds silly to me. Troels (I have no idea how to make that phonetic!) and Terkel (TAIR-kel) are weird men's names. There are also a lot of doubled up names. Everyone knows Hans Christian Andersen, but I didn't realize until I moved here that his first name wasn't just Hans. It's Hans Christian and you'd never, ever just say Hans. My FIL is Poul Erik, and it's the same thing.

[anna7602]

Well, the Spanish name Florentino makes me think of floral shirts as well. And while I generally love uber-Catholic Spanish names, Concepcion is one I don't care for at all. (Angustias is another one, yikes!)

Here in France, I sometimes have a hard time distinguishing between male and female names. I could have sworn Laurence would be a man, but no, when I finally met Laurence, she was a woman. Ditto with Dominique. Apparently, it's spelled the same way for men and women. Or maybe we only use it for women in English? I don't know. But my male landlord is named Dominique.

I'm trying to think of names I truly never heard of before coming here and am drawing a blank. I'm sure there's something, but since DD goes to an international school, most of the kids there have names that aren't typically French- Carlota, Elias, Cristobal, Benjamin, etc.

[allibally]

Ah yes Florian. It gets shorten to Flo too. Which reminds me of Aunt Flo.

Gisela. I think of gizzards when I hear it. I'm a terrible person.

The names Manuela and Margarita in Germany. Because I associate them to a Spanish speaking country.

[mrsukyankee]

I just don't know how to pronounce the Irish or Gaelic names I come across here.

[violetsmommy]

Someone mentioned Gisela, that's H grandmothers name. Id never heard of it till him. We call her Lala though (abuela). Other than that I can't think of one.

[Cheesecake]

My aunt's name is Joke (pronounced Yo-kuh) which is a very common Dutch name. I love how she "gets in trouble" in the US, where sometimes people will tell her that she really needs to take application X or form Y seriously, it's not a joke. "I know", she'll say, "I AM filling it out." To which she gets replied "Well, then why are you starting with writing down that you think this is a joke."

Needless to say she's changed the informal spelling to Yoke or Yoka even maybe. She didn't like all the jokes! (Tee-hee, I made a funny :-) )

A lot of typical Dutch names aren't heard anywhere but Germanic countries, I think. Especially the Frisian names are "unique".

Oh, and we have the same double-name thingie that bugabean has. Jan-Willem and Willem-Jan are very common. I once knew a Klaas-Bert (he made his friends just call him Bert I think, or Klaas) so I once called him and his mom answered. She gave me (and later him) soooo much crap for not using his name.

The Dutch are also known for burtchering beautiful foreign names. Not changing it to Dutch form, which is fine with me, but totally mispronouncing it.
For instance Valerie = FELL-uh-reey Viggo = Fee-KOW Catherine = CAT-tuh-rin

[popcorn]

May 25, 2012 3:27:00 GMT -5 bugabean said:

There are a lot of 'normal' or close to normal names here, but some still seem strange to me. Bodil (BO-deel) is a woman's name and it still sounds silly to me. Troels (I have no idea how to make that phonetic!) and Terkel (TAIR-kel) are weird men's names. There are also a lot of doubled up names. Everyone knows Hans Christian Andersen, but I didn't realize until I moved here that his first name wasn't just Hans. It's Hans Christian and you'd never, ever just say Hans. My FIL is Poul Erik, and it's the same thing.

Since you couldn't make Troels phonetic I am just imagining a bunch of people named Trolls. The Hans Christian thing makes sense. It's like a lot of Spanish names that are two, but really just one. Like Maria Jesus or Jose Ramon. Can't just say one part of the name!

[popcorn]

May 25, 2012 4:21:57 GMT -5 Cheesecake said:

The Dutch are also known for burtchering beautiful foreign names. Not changing it to Dutch form, which is fine with me, but totally mispronouncing it.
For instance Valerie = FELL-uh-reey Viggo = Fee-KOW Catherine = CAT-tuh-rin

In a similar vein, the way famous people's names are sometimes pronounced in Spain just killed me.

For example, Patrick Swayze was Patrick (fine) Shwize. Long I.

There were many others, but I can't think of them right now.

[allibally]

May 25, 2012 4:18:31 GMT -5 violetsmommy said:

Someone mentioned Gisela, that's H grandmothers name. Id never heard of it till him. We call her Lala though (abuela). Other than that I can't think of one.

DH's aunt is Gisela. It gets nicknamed to Gizzy.

[popcorn]

May 25, 2012 5:37:52 GMT -5 allibally said:

May 25, 2012 4:18:31 GMT -5 violetsmommy said:

Someone mentioned Gisela, that's H grandmothers name. Id never heard of it till him. We call her Lala though (abuela). Other than that I can't think of one.

DH's aunt is Gisela. It gets nicknamed to Gizzy.

Pronounced Jizzy? Please say yes.

[allibally]

May 25, 2012 5:40:00 GMT -5 popcorn said:

May 25, 2012 5:37:52 GMT -5 allibally said:

DH's aunt is Gisela. It gets nicknamed to Gizzy.

Pronounced Jizzy? Please say yes.

Haha. No. Rhymes with gizzard. Gei-zzy

[popcorn]

Ok, now I feel silly.

[wise_rita]

May 25, 2012 3:27:00 GMT -5 bugabean said:

Troels (I have no idea how to make that phonetic!)

If it's the Danish equivalent of the Norwegian name, it's spelled Truls. Which is pronounced pretty phonetically.

I could write a book on the names I hadn't heard before moving to Norway. Beate, Einar, Stian, Wenche, Terje, Hege, Berit, Nils, Simen (pronounced - you guessed it - semen). That one is particularly painful.

[anna7602]

May 25, 2012 4:27:24 GMT -5 popcorn said:

May 25, 2012 4:21:57 GMT -5 Cheesecake said:

The Dutch are also known for burtchering beautiful foreign names. Not changing it to Dutch form, which is fine with me, but totally mispronouncing it.
For instance Valerie = FELL-uh-reey Viggo = Fee-KOW Catherine = CAT-tuh-rin

In a similar vein, the way famous people's names are sometimes pronounced in Spain just killed me.

For example, Patrick Swayze was Patrick (fine) Shwize. Long I.

There were many others, but I can't think of them right now.

What kills me is the way a lot of Spanish-language media Hispanicize foreign names. For example, when I was living in Spain the first time, Bill Clinton was president. On the TV news and in local newspapers, he was always referred to as "Guillermo Clinton." Ditto with Queen Elizabeth II- la Reina Isabel. I was just reading a copy of "Vanidades" magazine with all the hoopla about the jubilee and thinking, "Eh, no, there is no Queen Isabel in England right now, and the existing Queen certainly doesn't have a son named Carlos."

[ktkl09]

Some of my kids' names at school I've never heard of and have difficulty pronouncing, like Nael. Though most of the names are similar to English names, just with a different way of saying it.

There are a lot of two first names, like MIL, Anne-Marie and a little girl in my class, Ema Klara. It's necessary to say both names.

[irish]

May 25, 2012 3:17:12 GMT -5 popcorn said:

I'm wondering about the name Malgorzata (what kind of name is this)

Polish version of Margaret...

May 25, 2012 3:29:09 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

I could have sworn Laurence would be a man, but no, when I finally met Laurence, she was a woman. Ditto with Dominique. Apparently, it's spelled the same way for men and women. Or maybe we only use it for women in English? I don't know. But my male landlord is named Dominique.

I worked with a French man once who thought it was just wrong that Laurence was the male version in English! His name was Laurent and very macho, so didn't want to think that his name was in any way associated with something feminine!

English version of Dominique (male) is Dominic

May 25, 2012 4:05:48 GMT -5 mrsukyankee said:

I just don't know how to pronounce the Irish or Gaelic names I come across here.

You'd be in trouble with my family's first names!!! Including cousins we've got Donnchadh (m), Grainne (f), Triona (f), Fionnuala (f), Fiachra (m), Eoghan (m), Maedhbh (F), Niamh (f), Ailbhe (f), Laoise (f), Cian (m), Darragh (m)....

[bugabean]

May 25, 2012 6:08:21 GMT -5 wise_rita said:

May 25, 2012 3:27:00 GMT -5 bugabean said:

Troels (I have no idea how to make that phonetic!)

If it's the Danish equivalent of the Norwegian name, it's spelled Truls. Which is pronounced pretty phonetically.

Yeah, it's closer to Truls than Trolls, but the Danish r is not something I can write down. And there's a glottal stop in it, at least when I say it. But maybe that's just because I learned Danish from Nordsjællanders. We do love our glottal stops.

Other names I've thought of… (men) Vagn [rhymes with 'down'] and Ib… and I'd seen the name Anders before, but I didn't know it was pronounced more like Ennis.

[potatopie]

May 25, 2012 6:40:55 GMT -5 irish said:

You'd be in trouble with my family's first names!!! Including cousins we've got Donnchadh (m), Grainne (f), Triona (f), Fionnuala (f), Fiachra (m), Eoghan (m), Maedhbh (F), Niamh (f), Ailbhe (f), Laoise (f), Cian (m), Darragh (m)....

Holy cow, irish! I couldn't even begin to pronounce those. My sister's roommate this year was Irish American and named Shelagh (Shay-La).

Here are my five coworkers from the library:
Noziphiwo
Simphiwe
Ntoitsa
Nkukuleko (it means 'freedom' in Zulu)
Sokhaya

[clogged]

Dude. All of them. Have you heard Dutch names!?!?!

[crimsonandclover]

I can't say the German names have thrown me all too much, although at first it took me a long time to recognize them because they're pronounced so differently. The two that took me the longest to recognized were Michael (pronounced MEE-chai-el, with the German ch in the middle) and Jonathan (YO-nah-tahn).

[Cheesecake]

Oh, I once hung out at a music festival with a Norwegian guy named Kjell Rune. I still, for the life of me, cannot properly pronounce it. He just kept correcting me on the Kje part.

[dpdw]

May 25, 2012 6:40:55 GMT -5 irish said:

You'd be in trouble with my family's first names!!! Including cousins we've got Donnchadh (m), Grainne (f), Triona (f), Fionnuala (f), Fiachra (m), Eoghan (m), Maedhbh (F), Niamh (f), Ailbhe (f), Laoise (f), Cian (m), Darragh (m)....

Sounds like my cousins and friends! Grainne and Maedhbh were on our short list for names for our DD. But, I don't know Donnchadh -- how is that pronounced?

In Hong Kong I giggle at the English names the Chinese choose for themselves. I know 3 Rainbows, a Sunshine, a Sapphire, and an Antigone, the lady at Starbucks is Gayee, the guy at the bank is Jackie Chan; I've also seen Happy & Bunny at other stores.

[GilliC]

I met a Terje back in Beijing. I've known him for 6 years now, and I still can't pronounce it to his (Stavanger-accented) liking. He used to be DBF's boss for a while, and the Brazilians just gave up immediately and call him 'tair-jee.'

I shared an office with Torbjørn for 5 years, and while I think I come pretty close to pronouncing it (a heck of a lot closer than most other Americans' "TORR-byorn") he still says, "No, that's not right." It's closer to TOO-r-byurn, but I still don't know how to pronounce it quite right, let alone spell it phonetically!

[elenetxu]

May 25, 2012 3:29:09 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

Well, the Spanish name Florentino makes me think of floral shirts as well. And while I generally love uber-Catholic Spanish names, Concepcion is one I don't care for at all. (Angustias is another one, yikes!)

Angustias, Concepcion, Dolores, Socorro...
María del Puerto was a popular name where I worked last year.

All the Basque names trip me up.

[irish]

May 25, 2012 10:21:50 GMT -5 dpdw said:

May 25, 2012 6:40:55 GMT -5 irish said:

You'd be in trouble with my family's first names!!! Including cousins we've got Donnchadh (m), Grainne (f), Triona (f), Fionnuala (f), Fiachra (m), Eoghan (m), Maedhbh (F), Niamh (f), Ailbhe (f), Laoise (f), Cian (m), Darragh (m)....

Sounds like my cousins and friends! Grainne and Maedhbh were on our short list for names for our DD. But, I don't know Donnchadh -- how is that pronounced?

It is pronounced THUN a ka (think about saying 'the'). And for those wondering Maedhbh is pronounced May-v! And Eoghan is like Owen and pronounced roughly the same

[cupcakes]

I moved to London thinking I would teach children with nice easy English names and I was so so wrong.

I had a Thaneeyanah- (Tanya) no kidding.

[americaninoz]

yea we met a guy on our travel names Troels from Holland! We just said it like Trolls - but I'm sure that wasn't the correct way!

when I moved to the UK I had 2 girls I worked with named Aileen - had never heard that name before!
Our good friends named their little girl Clara (CLAW RAH) - which my US family always finds SO hard to pronouce (or to remember it's said that way)

[wise_rita]

Speaking of British names: I had never heard the name Verity before living in the UK. I flagged down a classmate to tell her how awesome her name is, and she said that's a normal British name. Love it!

I also hadn't heard Tamsen before reading it in a book. That's a nifty name.

Both of these are female.

[blushing]

I had a Swedish friend call her son Sixten, I had never heard that before. And Freya was also a new name for me. A little girl in SA called Freya would be teased a lot. In Afrikaans to 'Frey' is to snog and the a at the end has a her sound...