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Strange surnames if translated | ||
Tags: Names | Translation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4648 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 1 of 31 10 July 2013 at 3:34pm | IP Logged |
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The other day my wife and I discussed how strange many Spanish surnames would sound if translated into English. Many surnames are also common nouns or adjectives, and translated to a different language it can sound weird. Here are some examples from Spanish:
Mayor Oreja: Bigger Ear - (e.g. Jaime Mayor Oreja, Spanish politician) Caballero: Gentleman - (e.g. Willy Caballero, Argentine football player) Delgado: Thin (or slim) - (e.g. Matías Emilio Delgado, Argentine football player) Fuentes: Sources - (e.g. Carlos Fuentes, Mexican novelist) Rosales: Rosebushes - (e.g Mauro Rosales, yet another Argentine football player) Other languages I know also have surnames with a common noun/adjective meaning as well, like English (Mr. Brown, Ms. Winter, etc.) Do you have examples from other languages you know, or your native language? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4712 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian | Message 2 of 31 10 July 2013 at 10:18pm | IP Logged |
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I had a teacher named Koen Doodeman. "Brave Dead Man".
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| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7165 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 3 of 31 10 July 2013 at 11:28pm | IP Logged |
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I've met a Slovak whose family name is Geci. In Hungarian, geci is a vulgar term for semen or a contemptible person (in addition to being a nickname of Gergely (Gregory)). The word is pronounced the same in both languages.
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| Sizen Diglot Senior Member Canada Joined 4348 days ago 165 posts - 347 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Catalan, Spanish, Japanese, Ukrainian, German | Message 4 of 31 11 July 2013 at 7:17am | IP Logged |
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Japanese names can be somewhat odd since you can choose from a core of 2997 characters
to create one same name using many different combinations of characters. Many names use characters with positive meanings like 美 (Beauty), 智 (wisdom), 咲 (blooming [flower]), 望 (desire/wish), but others are fairly plain: 原 (field), 岬 (cape [by the water]), 見 (to see). Starting with some common names: 鈴木 (Suzuki) is bell tree. The kind of bell you ring, not the shape. 山田 (Yamada) means mountain rice field. Nothing wrong with that. 優矢 (Yuuya) is a pretty good one in my opinion. "Gentle arrow". No. I'm not putting an apple on my head and it doesn't matter how gentle the arrow is. Some are a little more out there, though: 大庭 (Ooba) means big garden. Yup. 大学 (Daigaku) Being called "University" isn't really my thing. To be fair, as a name it probably means something like "great erudition", but it's the exact same as the word for university. 山家 (Yanbe) is especially good if you own a mountain villa, since that's exactly what it means. And some, I just don't get: 鼻毛 (Hanage) Yeah! I wanna be Mr. Nose-Hair, too! 馬鹿 (Mashika) To be fair, this one sounds normal, but the characters... Literally horse and deer, they mean "idiot". This is the kind of name you just can't live down. 日日日 (Akira) This is a common name, but is usually written with other characters that generally have something to do with light. Seriously though, I don't think I have to even point this out: it's the same character three times in a row. Sun-Sun-Sun. I guess it follows with the light theme, but it seems a little... overkill? I'm sure there are even stranger, but these are the best I know. Edited by Sizen on 11 July 2013 at 9:30pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4853 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 5 of 31 11 July 2013 at 1:31pm | IP Logged |
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I knew a guy at university whose surname was Fick. If you translate it to English, it's - well: f*ck.
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| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5018 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 6 of 31 11 July 2013 at 7:04pm | IP Logged |
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Probably the funniest Czech surname: Skočdopole. It means "Jump into the field." There are a few vulgar ones as well, like Blbec (=moron) and of course some really vulgar ones.
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| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4367 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 7 of 31 12 July 2013 at 7:36am | IP Logged |
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All greek surnames (an names actually), mean something.
Many funny ones, too. Our prime minister before this one was called Πικραμένος, someone who has felt the sad bitterness of life that is. You can imagine the jokes. Our current financial minister, mr Στουρνάρας, reminds people of στουρνάρι, which has two meanings: a large stone and/or a not so sharp person... You can imagine these jokes as well. Our current prime minister, mr Σαμαράς, means someone who makes saddles for donkeys or mules. Another member of the parliament, mr Πεταλωτής, is someone who makes horse shoes. So, here is a joke that circulated after the last elections: Our new parliament (300 members), has one saddle maker, one horse shoe maker, and 298 asses. Edited by renaissancemedi on 12 July 2013 at 7:37am 9 persons have voted this message useful | |
| tibbles Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5200 days ago 245 posts - 422 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Korean | Message 8 of 31 12 July 2013 at 8:47am | IP Logged |
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Speaking of Japanese, the surname 北澤 (Kitazawa) translates into Chinese roughly as "north swamp" (pronounced bei3 ze2 in Mandarin).
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