Do you think that some first names are really strange?

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VOYAGER

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There are some first names that might be considered to be strange because of some particular meanings they have. For example the word "April" is mostly known as the fourth month in a year, however it is also used as a female name. April O'neil, April Stewart and April Hunter are a few of real female people having this first name. Another example is the word "dick" that may be used as a male first name. Unfortunately this word has some unpolite meanings given in some dictionaries, so I will not mention here. However Dick Chenney, Dick Clark and Dick Smith are a few of well-known people having this first name. I think the same case is true for other languages. For example the male name "Satılmış" in Turkish language is firstly understood as something that had been already sold in a far past. Therefore it is considered to be too strange as a female name and most Turkish people find this name strange and smile when they hear it and wonder why those person's parents could not have chosen a different name from this funny first name.

Do you think that there are really strange some female or male names in English? Can you share if you think so or explain if you don't think so that there is no such case in King's English.
 
These days, people call their kids just about anything. I think we've stopped being surprised!
 
Weirdness in names has been greatly toned down since the 17th century, when a man lived in Sussex with the name Kill Sin Pimple.


Also I recall a novel in which the husband of the Sandwich family proposed to name his newborn son Hamilton. His wife nearly agreed before realizing the potential abbreviation. 😀
 
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What does "already sold in a far past" mean?
 
I'm guessing it means: sold a very long time ago.
 
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emsr2d2 said:
If you really want to see some ridiculous British names, click HERE.
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My favorite is Paige Turner. (Poor kid.)

P.S. I know a young lady named Lyric (slightly).
 
probus said:
I'm guessing it means: sold a very long time ago.
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OK. If I sold something a long time ago why am I worried about it now?
 
I think it's a Turkish idiom, something along the lines of "long past its best-before date."
 
One thing parents can't fully be aware of is how utterly ridiculous their child's name may sound to speakers of other languages. I went to school with an Indian lad named Manshit. Poor boy didn't stand a chance.
 
jutfrank said:
One thing parents can't fully be aware of is how utterly ridiculous their child's name may sound to speakers of other languages. I went to school with an Indian lad named Manshit.
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Your friend's name's probably pronounced something like Munn-sheeth, and since the people to whom it's a native name know the right pronunciation, which often isn't the way a native English speaker would pronounce it, they don't think of how it might sound to English speakers.

I remember there was a furore a few years ago when a New Zealand TV presenter made jokes about an Indian politician with the surname Dikshit. It took a couple of seconds for me to realise why he found her name funny, because that name's pronounced Dheek-shith, and I automatically pronounced it correctly in my mind.

Similarly, there's an Indian sportsman called Hardik, who likes to add the word "always" after he introduces himself because he thinks it sounds funny. But his name isn't really pronounced like a combination of hard and dick. It's more like Harr-dhik.
 
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That reminds me of a model Skoda introduced in India called the Laura. Laura sounds a lot like a colloquial Hindi word for penis, which is often used as an adjective the way shit is, in English, as in It's a shit car. A running joke was that no one was going to buy a Laura car.
 
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Barque said:
That reminds me a model Skoda introduced in India called the Laura. Laura sounds a lot like a colloquial Hindi word for penis, which is often used as an adjective the way shit is, in English, as in It's a shit car. A running joke was that no one was going to buy a Laura car.
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I guess you're thinking of shitty, but as far as I know that's not used as a synonym for penis. (Not here anyway.)
 
Tarheel said:
I guess you're thinking of shitty, but as far as I know that's not used as a synonym for penis. (Not here anyway.)
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That is not what Barque was saying.
 
Tarheel said:
I guess you're thinking of shitty, but as far as I know that's not used as a synonym for penis. (Not here anyway.)
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No, maybe I didn't make myself clear. I meant that that Hindi collquialism for penis, though normally a noun, can also be used as an adjective. I referred to shit as an example of an English word that's also usually a noun but can be used as an adjective, just to explain how that Hindi word can be used.

I've heard shitty of course, but I believe shit is also used as an adjective. Maybe more in BE than in AE?
 
Barque said:
No, maybe I didn't make myself clear. I meant that that Hindi collquialism for penis, though normally a noun, can also be used as an adjective. I referred to shit as an example of an English word that's also usually a noun but can be used as an adjective, just to explain how that Hindi word can be used.

I've heard shitty of course, but I believe shit is also used as an adjective. Maybe more in BE than in AE?
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OK. Not as far as I know. (Of course, it's possible then it's used that way and I just hadn't heard it.)
 
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