Names you had never heard of before moving

[americaninoz]

yea actually now that you mention it Blushing
there are a few names of kids in my mother's group that I hadn't ever heard before
Freya (mother is swedish), Chiara (parents are austrian), Beau (mom is british)

[horseoutside]

When I first lived in Italy I was surprised by Nicola and Andrea for boys. And I knew one girl called Azzurrina (which means little blue) but that's not common at all as far as I know.

[ExpatFamily06]

May 25, 2012 3:31:36 GMT -5 allibally said:

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.

For the longest time I wanted to name my daughter Gisela. I love it and think it's beautiful. Dh totally vetoed that name

[fernane]

I can't even begin to pronounce the majority of Vietnamese names. Luckily, we are encouraged to give students English names to help us out!
When I lived in Nigeria, I knew someone with a name of each day of the week (it's common to name babies after the day they were born), an Ooooota, Ariteme, , Onwegnu....and Biblical names are very common

[allibally]

May 28, 2012 3:03:16 GMT -5 fernane said:

I can't even begin to pronounce the majority of Vietnamese names. Luckily, we are encouraged to give students English names to help us out!
When I lived in Nigeria, I knew someone with a name of each day of the week (it's common to name babies after the day they were born), an Ooooota, Ariteme, , Onwegnu....and Biblical names are very common

Some of the names of my college classmates from Malwai were very interesting. Including the names of their children back home.

Omega, Fabson, Frackson, and Foster are some I remember.

[allibally]

May 28, 2012 2:24:37 GMT -5 ExpatFamily06 said:

May 25, 2012 3:31:36 GMT -5 allibally said:

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.

For the longest time I wanted to name my daughter Gisela. I love it and think it's beautiful. Dh totally vetoed that name

I think it's pretty lovely name. But I imagine difficult to have in the US versus Germany.

[clickerish]

Actually, I think Giselle the supermodel made it all easier...

My weirdest experiences are often with my own name. It's not hard (in fact, it's Biblical), but in Spain they act as if it came from a plague and immediately translate it into the Spanish version. Nobody in the Netherlands will use my actual name--they keep making it Dutch, but I think they're just mad my father didn't name me something Dutch. In Latin America, they insist on trying to say it, but end up making it sound as if a cat were dying. I don't understand it.

[allibally]

May 28, 2012 8:20:25 GMT -5 clickerish said:

Actually, I think Giselle the supermodel made it all easier...

They don't sound the same even though the first few letters are the same. Gisela really makes the gizz sound like gizzard.

[clickerish]

So obviously I got it wrong and was thinking of it in the Spanish sounding way.

Oh and I forgot to say that the worst name I have ever heard is what my SIL calls me...She refers to me as "cherry" Why, we don't know. And it's totally a stripper name.

[irish]

Actually, I've just thought of the worst name EVER for a kid!!!
When I worked in London I was helping arrange the staff's kids Christmas party, putting labels on the gifts. One name caught my eye and I had to ask one of the others if it was right... It was and the explanation given was that the dad was an Arsenal football (soccer) fan... And their then longstanding goalkeeper was David Seaman...

The kid's first name was Seaman!!!!! (with some long winded African surname!)

[bugabean]

I had a co-worker in the States named Giesla. I thought it was cool! I also really like Vibeke (or the German version, Wiebke) and I didn't know that one until I came here.

[anna7602]

May 28, 2012 8:20:25 GMT -5 clickerish said:

Actually, I think Giselle the supermodel made it all easier...

My weirdest experiences are often with my own name. It's not hard (in fact, it's Biblical), but in Spain they act as if it came from a plague and immediately translate it into the Spanish version. Nobody in the Netherlands will use my actual name--they keep making it Dutch, but I think they're just mad my father didn't name me something Dutch. In Latin America, they insist on trying to say it, but end up making it sound as if a cat were dying. I don't understand it.

Now I am really curious about the name, but I respect that you probably want to remain anonymous.

Spanish-speakers always have a hard time with DH's super uncommon, Scots-Irish name. My grandmother, until she passed, never actually said it, preferring instead to refer to him as my "media naranja" or some other term that made it clear she meant my boyfriend. One of my uncles in Spain was obsessed with the idea of finding the Spanish or ancient Roman equivalent of DH's name, even though there is no direct translation. To simplify things, when we travel in Spanish speaking countries, he just uses the Spanish version of his middle name if he has to give his name to strangers.

[lin]

Another UK name I like that I think most Americans would never have heard of (or know how to pronounce) is Nicola. My guess is most would pronounce is Ni-CO-le-a whereas it's actually pronounced NI-cuh-luh.
Having lived and taught in Asia for years there are tons of unusual names I've had, often "English" versions of the student's Asian name. I had an "Atto" one year and a "Teety" another, not sure where they got those from or why they thought those would make great English names. I've had a Humza (Pakistani).
The Korean names can be tricky but you do get used to them, though I still have absolutely no idea how to tell if it's a male or female name and I can't seem to see any general rule to distinguish them. Hwang Hah was probably the trickiest of those I had to pronounce. Also In Jun (pronounced In-JOON though of course I kept thinking "Injun" as in "Look out for the injuns in them thar hills!") A kid in another class was Dong Won which of course made us all laugh because you pretty much pronounce it the same as Don Juan, so we decided that must be the Korean equivalent. It can get confusing as well because you might have a Young Jin and a Jin Young. And they pretty much all have the last name of Kim, Lee, or Park so it's not unusual to have several kids at the same school who have the exact same name and that can get tricky!

[Cheesecake]

The absolute worst names I ever heard were not hard to pronounce or anything, but naming your (Dutch) twin boys Boy and Guy has to be the klassiest thing ever!

Oh, and I had a classmate once, a girl who's parents were immigrants from Vietnam, her name was Boi. Yes, pronounced Boy. Officially it was Boi - Boi, but she shortened it to Boi herself. That's just painful, a girl/woman having to introduce herself "Hi, I'm, Boy".

[bugabean]

Is Nicola a 'UK name'? I feel like I've seen it plenty in America, pronounced the same way, though it's not as common as Nicole. I remember the first time I saw it, I thought it was weird on a girl since I'd only ever heard of Nikola Tesla. But now I've met a bunch of them.

[Wanderista]

Well, I haven't moved but from SO and friends from the region, I have learned a fair number of Croatian names that I had never heard of before and that often are variants on more familiar names. For example, Ksenija which is a version of Xenia, Marija is Maria, Jadranka is Adriana, Mirko or Miroslav, Zvonimir, Ante or Anthony, Juraj for George, etc. A lot of names have a strong religious/Catholic aspect.

The other thing that I've learned is that like in Russian, people in that region will have several nicknames that are used in different contexts and that show varying degrees of intimacy. People will have nicknames that are specific to a particular person and that signify the degree of closeness of the relationship, so there are lots of diminutives. People will use nicknames in English of course, but not with so much structure and custom. Calling someone by their given first name is very formal. I now have several diminutive versions of my name, hehe.

[tktravels]

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

Here in Germany I'm wondering about the name Malgorzata (what kind of name is this) and Florian.

Malgorzata is a feminine Polish name! I have a few students named this, but they all go by Gosia. [GO-shuh] I really, really like the nickname.

I arrived in country last year, and in first meeting my students and trying to figure out spelling and pronunciation of their names, really had my work cut out for me.

My favorite is the masculine name Przemyslaw (with a Polish "L" that sounds like a "w"), but is often nicknamed as Przemek.

[bugabean]

I had a Przemek in my Danish (for foreigners) class. I didn't know it was a nickname.

[Deleted]

The ugliest names I've ever heard are all Italian. Crocifisso being the all time winner. It's the word for crucifix and people actually name their child that.

Nicola is a boy's name in Italy and a friend of mine kept addressing his Italian pen friend named Nicola with a she, until I told him that he was a he.

One of my directors is named Knighton, which I think is made up.