Scooter slogans

I know what you mean with those names. Not long ago I was introduced to someone called “Panda”. :smiley:

My favorites are the ones named after inanimate objects: like Piano, Rainbow, and Fruitcake. OK, that last one is my addition. But it is beautiful.

I know a couple of guys here called: Dinosaur, Superman, Shark

Or what about pet names: naming a dog small enough to fit into your back pocket Prada or Gucci. Which I suppose is a step up from Bai Bai, or Xiao Hei.

You gotta love this country.

What’s your favorite bizarre English name? I run into local people all the time with names they must have made up themselves or grabbed off the back of a cereal box. Either that, or some twisted English teacher gave it to them…

My picks:

Raid (male)

Facial (female)

snoopy, cinderrela, lavar (I was told short for lavernder)

Well, I know of one female calling herself for Vira (short for Victoria). I got her to change that into Vear rather quickly.

Tig’r (Tiger??), Mars, Apple, Venus and Mellow are other favorites.

Miller - as a first name

Learning - still or changed name to Educated?

Cash - didn’t get any business from us

Some of my favorites:

Modem (yup he worked in a computer company)
Brand
Sissy
Katz
BM
Winnie (named after the Pooh)

Modem and Brand, for example, are not English names. This is something that I used to point out to morons that chose to call themselves something absurd. Only an idiot picks an idiotic name.

Male: Stew, Liquid
Female: Care, Whiney

That’s funny, I could have sworn that Modem and Brand were English language words. What is it exactly that makes a word a name. . . what was it again. . . Dog. . . Cat. . . oh yeah, Wolf?

I guess Wolf refers to the fact that Modem is a) an abbreviation (Modulator-Demodulator) and b) based on Latin, yet it’s commonly used as it is in English but also e.g. in German where the experts are yet undecided if the gender is actually male or neutral …

And why is it that Brandy qualifies as a name but Brand does not, and Whitney qualifies but Whiney does not? What’s the rule?

Names in English (as opposed to those from another language like Wolf) are usually easy to spot. Likewise, designations that are not names are easy to spot.
Sure, you can call your kid Rainbow (people in the late 60s did), but there are downsides.
Can you really respect someone named “Liquid,” for example? Can you actually call them by name without cringing?
I once knew a girl called “Weenie.” I never called on her in class by name – what a joke!

Ooooh, so Modem and Brand are English names after all, it’s just that they’re stupid ones. Well that makes more sense. After all, Dweezil and Moon Unit are names, why can’t Modem and Brand be names, albeit stupid ones? That being said, I once knew a man named Dick Head. True.

I know a girl named Pancake and a guy named Pizza.

My favourites are the guy who introduced himself as Fox Mulder and the young artist named Ocean.

I heard about two young women (although I think they were Japanese, not Taiwanese) who took a trip to the US together. They found it odd that people would always burst out laughing when they introduced themselves.

“Hi! I’m Apple”
Apple? Okey Dokey. And your name?
“Orange.”
Well! Nice to meet u Apple and Orange! [barely concealed laughter!!] :laughing:

Names on business cards

Tarzan, Pual, Melody, Mujung, Jackson, Y.Y., Sunny, Super, Samson, T.Y., Alfa, Cadmus, Kaerrow, Lisu, Taster, Ester, Emy, Linco, Sering, Mank, Hairess, Rio, Trace, Bensen, C.T., Ligo, Francy, Shanna, Bamboo, Duh (last name), Ring.

That’s about it.

If you check any Baby Name book you’ll notice that names usually have some meaning in another language. For instance, AMANDA was created in the 17th century by the playwright Colley Cibber. He based it on Latin “amanda” meaning “lovable”. It’s just that because of changes in spelling and pronounciation, and the fact that they are words from another language, the meaning has been lost.

So, words like “modem” and “brand” could ultimately be names. It is just that they seem unusual to English speakers, because they are words that usually refer to everyday items, not people. However, Brenda is taken from the Old Norse word “brendr” meaning sword. Now, there is something to be named after…

That being said, my favorite are: Victory, Bright, Rasheed, Ovid, Zero, Lion King, Jungle King, Boy, Spawn, Jones, Aussin, Poison, Pes, Young, Beevis, Lord, Easson, Weeky, Merlin, Dragon, Crystal (for a man), Linus, and (a mispelling of Linus) Nilus.

By the way, Taiwanese are not the only ones that pick odd names for their kids. An article in the PHILADELPHIA magazine a few years ago listed the following for babies born in the Philly area:

Shithead (pronounced Sha-theed)
King A and King B (twins)
Devil (pronounced Di-veel)
Semaj (the father’s name, James, backwards)

Cheers,

Just Plain Jonathan

Have two kids in one class both named Lion. Also have Zo Zo and Zigga. New kid today, Howud, not Howard. Would love to know who taught him before me, but he’s only a knacker.

I almost forgot. I have a student whose name is pronounced Joe, but spelled Joexie. When I asked why, he said there was already a Joe at his company, so he decided to add the “xie” to make it different. I asked why those letters, he just said he didn’t know. He just liked the way it looked.

Sigh…