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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 2 3 4  Next >>
Ogrim
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France
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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 
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?



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Hekje
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United States
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 Message 2 of 31
10 July 2013 at 10:18pm | IP Logged 
I had a teacher named Koen Doodeman. "Brave Dead Man".
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Chung
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 Message 3 of 31
10 July 2013 at 11:28pm | IP Logged 
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
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Canada
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 Message 4 of 31
11 July 2013 at 7:17am | IP Logged 
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

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Josquin
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Germany
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 Message 5 of 31
11 July 2013 at 1:31pm | IP Logged 
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
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Czech Republic
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 Message 6 of 31
11 July 2013 at 7:04pm | IP Logged 
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
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Greece
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 Message 7 of 31
12 July 2013 at 7:36am | IP Logged 
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

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tibbles
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United States
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Studies: Korean

 
 Message 8 of 31
12 July 2013 at 8:47am | IP Logged 
Speaking of Japanese, the surname 北澤 (Kitazawa) translates into Chinese roughly as "north swamp" (pronounced bei3 ze2 in Mandarin).


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