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Strange surnames if translated

  Tags: Names | Translation
 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages Post Reply
31 messages over 4 pages: 1 24  Next >>
embici
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 Message 17 of 31
13 July 2013 at 2:24pm | IP Logged 
In this BBC article the Canadian-
American writer, Adam Gopnik writes about how his surname is an "an almost obscenely
derogatory expression" in Russian.
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Fuenf_Katzen
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notjustajd.wordpress
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 Message 18 of 31
14 July 2013 at 7:22pm | IP Logged 
I met someone with the last name of Pfannkuchen at one point.
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Oleg Stepanov
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 Message 19 of 31
19 July 2013 at 8:57am | IP Logged 
embici wrote:
In this BBC article the Canadian-American writer, Adam Gopnik ....
Super!!!! :-)))
Famous Ukrainian writer Grigory Skovoroda (griddle).
Elena Solovey (nightingale) famous Russian actrеss.

P.S. My teacher on chess was Petrovich.
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Dragon27
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 Message 20 of 31
19 July 2013 at 11:57am | IP Logged 
There is a man with a surname "Чмырь" in our city's phone book. It's a pejorative word today, and this surname sounds very hilarious to natives.
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Jarel
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 Message 21 of 31
21 August 2013 at 2:35pm | IP Logged 
My surname is "Dolar". It's the Turkish pronunciation of currency "dollar" as in US Dollar. As long as i know, my family took this surname in 1939 because they thought naming themselves after American currency would bring them luck and fortune.
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Cavesa
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 Message 22 of 31
21 August 2013 at 5:47pm | IP Logged 
Yes, some names are funny in combination with some jobs. We had a prime minister Nečas (bad weather) while the slovaks had Slota at the same time (horrible weather).

Recently I heard someone mentioning visit at some kind of ecology office with people named Kořínek (small root) and another one like that.

Great was our hockey representation on World Championship in 2011 (had to google to be precise) including Tenkrát, Mojžíš, Nakládal, Koukal and a few normal ones. Sounds like a story. Tenkrát: back than, Mojžíš-Moses, Nakládal-loaded, Koukal-watched.

And the Russians once had a team that sounded like a farm.

By the way N'guyen got on the list of most common czech surnames. I wonder what does it originally mean. :-)
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zografialep
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 Message 23 of 31
02 September 2013 at 8:48am | IP Logged 
Like someone previously posted, all greek surnames have a meaning.
Among others I had a friend named
''Paputsaki'' = little shoe
''Luludaki'' = little flower
''Papadimitriu''= priest Dimitrius (really. there are many with priest-)
   '' Panigiraki'' = the one who makes big fiests
                                                     
there are countless others :P
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nicozerpa
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 Message 24 of 31
02 September 2013 at 3:47pm | IP Logged 
One day, I met a guy whose last name is Dellacasagrande, "From the big house" in Italian.
Also, I work with a woman whose family name is Incógnito, "Unknown" in Spanish.



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