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CULTURE
I heard some american characters names in non-american animations are so old or too common that American thinks it's funny.
Is it true?
If true, in what character did you feel this way?
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In real life:
I was wandering around in the Shinjuku neighborhood of Tokyo and in Japan it's normal for a restaurant/bar to have people out on the street trying to get you to visit their establishment.
Anyways this guys approaches me and starts trying to convince me (in a heavy African accent) to visit the "American bar" next door.
His name tag had the U.S flag, the Statue of Liberty and his name was Rockson Kennedy.
I politely declined.
This reminds of how poorly so many Chinese choose their "Western" names. "Rainy" is a cliche now, but at work I knew a "Royal Wang." We had to number the "Maggies" (Maggie 1, Maggie 2, Maggie 3). It was kind of cool to see a resurgence of traditional names no one uses in America anymore, like Agnes or George, though.
My wife, fortunately, has a normal name. You know, the kind you can find printed on amusement park souvenirs.
Your wife’s name is Bort?
My wife’s name is also Bort!
We need more Bort license plates in the gift shop
Came here for this, left satisfied.
You know, I can't decide, in my head, which would be more funny:
Someone naming themselves Royal Wang without knowing what this would sound like in English...
Or someone naming themselves Royal Wang with the full and complete knowledge of what this would sound like in English.... laaaaadies! :-)
I'm guessing that they chose the name Royal because Wang means "king."
Mine is more of a lesser noble
I do a lot of my shopping at a market called Hung Long and I always worry people are gonna think I’m making fun when I say things like “$5? it is half the price at the Hung Long; I’ll just wait to buy it next week.” I’m not..but maybe they know and are a little cheeky about it. I could only love them even more.
I remember from a book I used have that plenty of native speakers have been recorded abusing their kids with jokes that make phrases of their given name and surnames.
That's wild to me because around 20ish years ago a worked at an underprivileged kids sports camp with a very large cohort of Chinese kids and they (or their parents) all chose very typical American names. Tiffany, Steven, David, Andrea, etc and the parents didn't even choose names because they were still 100% Chinese in names, language, etc.
But one of the Chinese fathers at our kids' school is named River. Generational thing maybe?
Names like river are totally catching on now, he was just ahead of the times!
Well there was a character in a cult sci fi named river so maybe that's the reason (of course she was a half-mad girl rescued from an abusive psionic assassin school).
Iirc Liang means river. I could be wrong tho.
Reminds me of this: https://www.theonion.com/most-popular-u-s-baby-names-1819586596
Sometimes they just literally translate their names into English, which is why you often see Chinese women with names like Ruby or Crystal.
I worked with a Candy Ho once.
I was thinking of first generation Asian people immigrants giving their kids western names as well. They’re not always super out there but tend to seem dated or random, like Florence, Ethel or Diane. I’m sure if I immigrated to China and had to give my kids Chinese names I’d have no clue what to choose either, and would probably just go with what sounds nice.
Oh I got some to share! Iris, Anson, Peggy, Borse, Artic, Ivan, Denise, Rita, Rose
Met a Dorcas once. Poor choice.
Dork-ass? Or is Dors-as?
It’s biblical! But even Dorcas in the Bible went by Tabitha lol
Shout-out to Phyllis, Eunice, Enoch, Peggy, and Patty.
A Chinese national dorm-mate in college went by Homer…
Did he like The Odessy? Or a big fan of The Simpsons?
The philosopher …
I had a client once whose Americanized name was Galahad Dong.
Ah, old Dolly!
Uh…I know the US is big and there are regional differences…but George is a common name still; not as common as David or Matthew but up there. It’s not Agnes, for sure. Eugene is to me about the same level as Agnes.
Alice and Andrew seem common more than similar-ages peers…something more than “early in the book” must be at work as there are many names that start with “A.”
(I include variants of each name in the discussion of each, like Matteo for Matt and Alicia for Alice).
Maggie is more British I think.
Not first names, but one of my daughters has Agnes, an my middle name is George. In both cases honoring ancestors.
Rockson Kennedy sounds like a WWE wrestler
Those people were almost certainly trying to scam you. There’s seen some horror stories about these street guys luring people into certain bars where they drug the patron and steal their credit cards to charge insane prices to their cards while they’re incapacitated. I’ve heard people losing thousands of dollars like that, scary shit
With that said. There are a lot of Americans with strange/hilarious names.
For example: These are the legal names of real people. But you'd think they were fictional characters in a Japanese manga or something.
Dick Trickle
Rowdy Beer
Amillion Buggs
Guy Love Titman
Always Wright
Can’t believe you didn’t include General Booty and Pig Cage!
🫡 General Booty.
Dick Trickle was a race car driver. Come on now.
No idea who the rest of the guys are.
Legendary too. Pretty sure it was him who Tom Cruise portrayed in Days of Thunder.
He portrayed Cole Trickle, the character was based on Tim Richmond with a name to give a nod to Dick Trickle.
Legendary indeed. Dick Trickle won over one thousand races during his racing career.
And now, let’s meet the players from the West!
My favorite is the world-renowned surgeon named Claude Organ.
Don't forget former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger
There was a politician in Alabama named Luther Strange.
There is also one named Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh.
But the award goes to Young Boozer, the Alabama state treasurer.
Not sure where you got that these are all college football players. Some of them play other sports, like Trickle as another commenter mentioned. Some aren't even American. Jizz Hornkamp is Dutch and a soccer player.
Ok. Edited it.
That's how you end up drugged and wake up in an alley after spending every dime you had on things you don't remember happening.
Personally, I'd think that was pretty obvious, but I know someone it happened to. Their hook was naked girls, though. Definitely an African, too.
You almost met the real Bobson Dugnutt!
Rockson Kennedy sounds like a male stripper who does some sort of politician act.
You declined Rockson Kennedy? I'm ashamed. You might as well hand in your America card.
Lmao, was it a Japanese guy imitating an African accent or an African guy in Japan? And by African, you mean an accent from continental Africa, and not an African American accent?
African immigrant in Japan. Likely from Ghana or Nigeria.
For the record I'm of Asian descent so I assume he thought I was Japanese.
Japan has a lot of African dudes working as touts or promoters, trying to lure foreigners into shitty bars. And they can be pretty shady.
I still laugh at the Lidl brand for "American" cuisine: McEnnedy.
Someone tried way too hard.
The American peanut butter brands in many European markets are hilarious. Yes, Mcennedy, also Teddie, Bernie’s, Tex, Dr. Oetker funfoods, and America’s Style. Their packaging usually incorporates some kind of stars or stripes. Maybe a Statue of Liberty just to make sure you KNOW it’s American. (None of them taste anything like, say, JIF or Skippy. Usually very dry and bland.)
What I'm hearing from our European friends is that I need to move to Europe and start a company that mass markets American (actually American) style peanut butter and root beer.
Most Europeans I’ve known who try root beer think it’s disgusting so I’m not sure how well that part of your theoretical business would do.
My husband loves it - it's fairly similar to the British soda Dandelion and Burdock. They both taste medicinal to me, so I'm not a fan. I like Dr Pepper, though!
Hmmm... maybe I'll add authentic American Red Solo-ish cups.
I'm thinking their ice "allergy" is part of the problem. Warm root beer is disgusting. It needs to be cold. If you don't like your drinks cold, then root beer could be a problem.
And, yeah, I know they apparently use a related flavor for medicine. But still, ice in your drink isn't the devil!
just gotta get them started younger
i was in Italy last month and they had regular Skippy in the super market, small jars on the bottom shelf, but they had it.
I know it’s the opposite but Trader Joe’s Italian line being called Trader Giotto’s will never not make me laugh.
So you're the other person laughing in the Trader Joe's Italian aisle with me.
M'Kennedy
It goes the same for any national food
No, but I do laugh at the American characters in Chinese dramas that are clearly played by Russians.
In Latin American shows all the gringos are very obviously played by like slightly more fair-haired Colombians or Mexicans, maybe the occasional Spaniard lol
K-dramas also have this problem. Any type of unnecessary American-related stuff in k-dramas is always going to be comedy gold.
Amazon released a new German teen drama the other day. Started watching it because dramas like that are easier suspension of disbelief because you can't tell how good/bad the acting is as easily another language. Had to turn it off because it was supposed to be set in "England", but it was so clearly some German's horribly researched fantasy idea of England that I had to turn it off because it was so distracting.
Absolutely have to do the same whenever K-dramas try to do anything involving another country as well.
I think its fun. There was this old baseball video game with a bunch of American sounding names that were total gibberish
Bobson Dugnutt will forever live in my head rent free
Mike Truk
Edit: These names are all based off of real player names. Here's a good explanation.
https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/t1xx6g/why_bobson_and_why_dugnutt_a_deep_dive_into_why/
Those names came across as someone pulling foreign names from the back of their head but naturally having 1 consonant wrong each time 😅 Bonzalez, Sernandez, McDichael, Dustice, etc.... I'd say that's impressive to know enough about a country to get that close
It may have been intentional to avoid accidentally using someone's real name.
Whenever I use a fake name for something I always pull that screenshot up and use a name from that list
Mike Truk, Todd Bonzales, etc.
I remember I used to play this game with my brother where I’d have him guess if the names I’m giving him are real baseball players or not. Some old baseball player names sound pretty ridiculous to the point it’s funny, whether they’re nicknames or not. Names like Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, Oil Can Boyd, Coco Crisp, Gaylord Perry, Chili Davis, etc.
Here’s a link to the names! https://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/s/xiuhryDHGK
I can't think of an example in media, but we don't use the name "Nigel" that other English speaking cultures do. You can pretty confidently assume someone was born in the UK or Australia if they're named Nigel.
The girls' names Briony, Tamsyn, and Edwina are pretty thin on the ground here in the US as well.
There's a lot you can go into here!
Nigel, Tarquin, Alfie? British.
Graydon, Hunter, Jackson? American.
"Alfie" is particularly interesting because of the American penchant for nicknames. We'd never name a son Alfie, but we might name him Alfred and nickname him Alfie. In many ways, we use nicknames regularly so that someone can change their name to suit their outward presentation without changing their official name.
This would have been the norm in the UK until quite recently so think it is a bit of a trend. Freddie, Archie, Charlie and Alfie are all in the top 10 boys lists in England - just as they are. Does seem a little short sighted, although "Archibald" is a particularly ugly name
Hmm, let's name him Archer instead. Oh, there's that cartoon. Arthur will work in a pinch.
Please don't name him Archon.
“Tarquin” immediately makes me think of the Roman king, which is a great way to make me assume your kid is evil.
And I can’t hear the name “Alfie” without my mind going to “Alf”
That's subject to change.
At the turn of the millennium you'd have a hard time finding an Aidan who wasn't actually from Ireland, now it's the memetic stereotype Gen-Z male name.
There is so much that can be said about the rhymes-with-Aidan trend.
(I used to spend a lot of time in baby name circles a decade ago. Fascinating to watch trends rise and fall. Or how much people no longer want to understand where the name "Madison" came from.)
Aidan and Aiden are fundamentally different names to be fair, the latter just sometimes gets spelled with an A.
Sex and the City is probably the main culprit here.
I went to high school with a Nigel, but even then I though, "Isn't that a British name?"