Does It Really Smell As Sweet?

This blog post will be little more than a list, but I just thought I should share some of my students’ “English names” with you.  Some are hilarious.  Some (though not particularly funny) are unexpectedly popular.  And others are just plain bizarre or even cool.  Chinese people typically have 3 names.  The last name (surname) is listed first, followed by the first and middle name.  And most now have an unofficial English name that is sometimes changed frequently.  So a student named Wong Sze Man with an English name of Kim becomes Kim Wong.  It should be noted that Sze Man is pronounced “semen” and is a very popular Chinese name that I can’t say without blushing.  Oh, my western sensitivities…

Ok, here’s the list:

Kinda Cool

-Rix
-Neo
-Bosco

-Nash

Strangely Popular

-Enoch
-Dick
-Apple
-Cherry
-Esther

Just Odd

-Pinky, Winky and Minky (sisters)
-Yoyo (at least it’s not YOLO?  Give it a few years…)
-Wammy
-Medy
-Anner
-Cardi
-Carwan
-So-So
-Andfield
-Isaddei
-Elodie
-Packo and Parko (I think one is a mispronunciation of the other)
-Hendry
-Noddy
-Sily

Random Spanglishese (?!)

-Lolita (who is pretty much the cutest kid ever)
-Hugo
-Sonia Santana Alamo (Well, that's a mouthful!)

Misspellings and Misunderstandings

-Arron (Aaron)
-Cocoa/Seventeen (As if Cocoa isn’t already an unfortunate name for a 12 year old, somewhere along the line, her student number -17- got placed in the name column on a list and now all the teachers call her that.  She’s too shy to correct them.)
-Candy (This is a boy.  I convinced him to change it to Kenny.)
-Merlin (This is a girl.  I convinced her to change it to Marilyn last year, but now she is going by Merlyn again, this time with a ‘y’, at least.)
-Twinkle (A boy… but he is very young so it’s still cute.  I’ll talk to him about a name change in a few years.)