QiuJP Triglot Senior Member Singapore Joined 5855 days ago 428 posts - 597 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Czech, GermanB1, Russian, Japanese
| Message 113 of 140 08 March 2010 at 6:55pm | IP Logged |
Pyx wrote:
QiuJP wrote:
Anyone with the surname of "吴" (wu) will have to name their chilren with great care since it rhymns with "无" which means not, void, empty or in some cases anti-.
For example, I have met a person whose name is 吴俊杰 which actually sounds like "a person who is neither handsome (俊) nor heroic (杰)". |
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Haha :D I'm also always feeling a bit sorry for the 朱s of this world! (Means 'vermillion/bright red', but sounds like 'pig' ) |
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the worse one should be "史" which rhymns with "屎" which I think you should know....
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ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5335 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French
| Message 114 of 140 06 September 2010 at 4:59pm | IP Logged |
When Napoleon first introduced surnames in the Netherlands many people thought it would be temporary and decided to fool the French clerks, who often did not speak Dutch, into naming them:
Naaktgeboren (Born naked)
De Manvanvelen (The husband of many)
Zeurniet (Don't complain)
Bosjesvrijer (Bush f*cker)
Zeldenthuis (Rarely at home)
I've also heard of people called Sytse Vliegen ("Is crazy") and K. Bouter ("gnome") and of course we have our former prime minister Wim Kok and football coach Dick Advocaat. There's also a common Dutch name Floor (from Floris or Flora) and I still chuckle when I hear the name Christopher being shortened to "Kip" which means chicken in Dutch.
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tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5866 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish
| Message 115 of 140 06 September 2010 at 10:45pm | IP Logged |
ReneeMona wrote:
When Napoleon first introduced surnames in the Netherlands many people thought it would be temporary and decided to fool the French clerks, who often did not speak Dutch |
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The Dutch, of course, use "van" to indicate someone is "from" somewhere. I don't know if it was Napoleon who inspired these, but my two most favourite Dutch surnames are both "van" related.
van der Berg ("from the mountain". Which Dutch mountain?)
Zondervan ("without van", obviously a revolt against all the "van" surnames)
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koba Heptaglot Senior Member AustriaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5868 days ago 118 posts - 201 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Hungarian, French
| Message 116 of 140 24 September 2010 at 5:32pm | IP Logged |
I myself have a very unusual last name: "Bexiga", which means "balloon" in Portuguese :D
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Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian
| Message 117 of 140 24 September 2010 at 5:43pm | IP Logged |
How about Yvan Leboeuf-Haché?
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LorenzoGuapo Triglot Groupie United States Joined 6444 days ago 79 posts - 94 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: French
| Message 118 of 140 25 September 2010 at 2:48am | IP Logged |
Argentine soccer player Walter Fabian Assmann
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maydayayday Pentaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5219 days ago 564 posts - 839 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, SpanishB2, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese Studies: Urdu
| Message 119 of 140 27 September 2010 at 10:07pm | IP Logged |
My friend recently received a cheque (check) from a very elderly customer Mr Quentin Cumberpatch. The name on the cheque read Q.Cumberpatch
She let him off for the small fee for tidying his garden as that was her biggest laugh all week and probably my month!
qcumber patch: a piece of land where you would grow cucumbers....
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Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5381 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian
| Message 120 of 140 27 September 2010 at 10:24pm | IP Logged |
When I was in university, I worked evenings at a bank, and we handled cashed-in cheques. One night, we stumbled upon a cheque with an odd name. We couldn't believe it when we first heard it, but we all saw it.
The name was "Hitler Dieudonné".
Now, not only is Dieudonné a Haitian name, but it means God-given. Odd choice of name, to say the least.
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