Alright guys, here's my problem:
I need interesting English names given to children in your hakwons. my main character is going to be named Balthazar, not because I've had a Balt before, but because I could imagine it from some super Catholic family... searching for the most obscure name in the bible possible.
For example, I had a student years ago whose name was going to be Lindsy, but the Korean teacher that wrote down her name couldn't guess the correct pronunciation since everyone was using Konglish, and instead wrote Lingy. And from then on, Lingy was her name. (As a side note, I think the misspelling fit her unique personality perfectly).
Anyone else with interesting naming stories, please tell us here, and if I like it, it will be one of the forty or so students at my imaginary Hakwon.
Thanks for any help.
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13,054 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 07 17
I have three students called Esther. I think it's a horribly old-fashioned name, but it's weirdly popular in my Hakwon.
I have a kinder student called Ashely, I'm assuming because that's the way they pronounced it, so the teacher wrote it down that way, but it was before I got to the school.
I have another student who insists on spelling his name Jorden rather than Jordan.
In one class, I had two students named "Michael" and "Jackson" - I didn't name them, I swear!
The names Alice and Robert are popular in my kinder class - I have a "big Alice" and a "small Alice", a "big Robert" and a "small Robert".
One girl in the school (not in my class) insists that her name is "Horry" - we're guessing that it's supposed to be "Holly", but she will only answer to "Horry" and writes her name that way too.
Oddly, in one of my older classes (15 and 16 year olds) I have a student named Frizeroe. Apparently it's a German name and he's interested in all things European, but it's bloody hard to pronounce!
I have a Nick and a Warrick in one of my classes because the person who taught them before me was a CSI fan. There was also a Greg, but he's no longer at the school.
We also have a "Cherry", a "Sunny", and a "July". July's birthday is in, you guessed it, July.
Hope some of this helps!
40,323 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 07 25
I had some older students come to me with...interesting...names:
Forum
Hey
Milan
Kitty
Cailyn
Many of my younger students take their cue from K-pop: I have a Top and a Tableau. One of mine wanted to be Yoda but I nixed it because I couldn't call him that without laughing.
I've also heard of Angel, Cherry, Beckham. At one point I had an Adolf.
15,733 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 08 12
Hmm. Well let's see. The most "interesting" one I've got is a girl who goes by Jerry (not even her Korean name; I have no idea why she picked this). The funniest is that I've got a Mike whom the other students call "Angel" because he's like Michelangelo or something - and because a girl in the class is Deborah -> "Devil". (The nickname fits for "Angel", not so much for "Devil".)
I have a girl named Joan. That's not "Jone" but "Jo-an", two syllables. She wanted the name already, but wouldn't let me spell it correctly.
I also have an Ethan who insists on the konglish "Edan" pronunciation. I had an Ashleey for awhile, but her I actually persuaded to take the extra e out.
I don't know if this qualifies, but as I'm Jonathan, while I go by Jon normally a number of the students have taken to calling me Nadan-teacher.
Some of the other interesting ones that aren't my fault in any way, shape, or form:
We've got a Ruy. Not Roy, but Ru-y, two syllables again.
----------We have a Raphael. We don't know whether it's for the turtle or the painter anymore, he's been around for awhile.
Unusual names: Elia, Irene, Buddy, Christina, Juliet (am I a bad person since I keep hoping for a Romeo?), Justin.
“When you absolutely don't know what to do anymore, it is time to panic”
- John van der Wiel
76,168 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 08 50
I named one of my classes after characters in Gone With The Wind one time - Rhett, Scarlett, Gerald and Ellen. Also used to name girls after Disney princesses (Aurora, Belle, Jasmine etc)
Interesting names at my current school: Kipper, Dinosaur and Green (all boys), Candy, Elin and Jaclyn (girls, just odd spelling).
72,774 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 12 26
Some of my students were:
Lina
Tera
Leo (Who pronounced it Lay-oh versus Lee-oh)
Alise (Alice, and whenever I spelled it Alice she corrected it Alise, and when I spelled it Alise she corrected it to Alice)
Ankia (Which was funny because I'm Anica, so I kept feeling like I was mispronouncing my own name)
Kin-J (Kin and then say the letter J)
Doogie
And my personal favorite: Home
I also had a ton of Kellys, Sallys, and Emmas, which is funny because I don't think I've ever met an Emma or Sally outside of Korea.
I sadly never got to name a child. :(
----------2008: An Initial Love; 50,048 words; Region: Seoul, South Korea
2009:???; Goal of 100,000 words; Region: Las Vegas, Nevada
36,480 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 17 27
My friend always gave students sets of names:
Frodo, Samwise, Merriweather
Michael, Tito, Jermaine, etc
I had one adult class where the students picked weird ones - Tiger, Dragon, Superman and a bunch of other ones I can't remember now.
----------Seoul Writers
Korea NaNo Group on Facebook
40,640 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 21 32
Ru-y may be an attempt at Louis.
I had a student who wanted to be either Lola or Laura but she pronounced it, of course, as Rora.
Lots of Jinnys and Jannys who should probably be Ginnys and Jennys.
----------There's always someone left to fight.
28,334 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2009 - 22 48
Yeah, lot's of Esthers. It does seem like an old lady name but now that I've had so many cute girls named that, it is starting to sound pretty to me. Maybe it'll come back into fashion.
Some ones at my schools have been The Undertaker and Lucky Cat (who actually acted like a cat... it was weird)
One girl named Gabrielle absolutely refused to stop spelling her name "Gabriel" even after I explained that it was a boy's name. Well, that is she refused for the first couple weeks until she was tired of getting -1 point on ever daily quiz for spelling her name wrong. Unusual spellings are acceptable. Spelling your name like a completely different name is not :-)
A little girl another teacher had was named 유진 so she naturally made her name... Eugene! This cute little girl had the name of a middle aged nerdy guy.
There are always the kids who keep their Korean names and just spell them in English letters:
유석 (you suck)
동석 (dong suck)
소영(so young)
의범(wee bum)
58,329 / 50,000
Nov 4, 2009 - 03 58
Aww, I had an Esther. The teachers all hated the name so we tried to convince her to change to Estelle, but her mom wouldn't have it. She was the sweetest little thing. A little clingy, but she had this really great aboriginal look to her: dark skin, cute french braid pigtails or rolled up princess Liea style.
Anyway, thanks for all the ideas so far. I think a few of these might just make it into the halls of SEI (Super English Institute). Also, let me know if you've heard of a hakwon with that name. I hope you haven't!
----------0 / 50,000
Nov 8, 2009 - 22 22
The strangest names I had were a girl named Ace, which made me think of a fighter pilot from a 70's cartoon), one who was misnamed Luby (instead of Ruby), one who named himself Harry because of his love of the Harry Potter books, a man in my adult class who called himself Jenny and wouldn't change it because he said he liked the sound, Rynn (instead of Lynn) and a Korean Christian friend of mine who goes by the biblical name, Ezra, which I think sounds kind of cool and old-west gunslingerish. "Yun 'Ezra' Jung, come out with your hands high!"
41,079 / 50,000
Nov 9, 2009 - 08 40
I tried to name a student Naomi once. She and her mom decided that "Now-mi" (as they pronounced it) was a hideously ugly name, and decided to go with her old English name, instead: Agnes.
At our school, we have enough girls named Lucy, Jenny, and Sally to found a new hakwon for each name. I also hear "Sunny" a lot (I HATE that name).
There's a kid in one class called Paolo (smooth looking lad; used to have an earring.) I've got a boy named "Luchio" (Lucio, I guess.) We've also had Griffin, Simba, Merlin, and a girl named Ariel. One kid's parents insisted on calling him "J. Kevin," though to my knowledge there wasn't another Kevin in the class at the time.
Bell is a very popular name. No e. No a. One of my kids originally insisted on going by "Belly." It took me a while to explain why that was a bad idea, and she eventually changed it to "Sally." The sad thing was that she was the SECOND Belly I'd had to dissuade.
One kid refused to choose an English name. Instead of Romanizing his given name, though, he just went by Yang, his family name. I always felt bad calling on him-- "Yang! Sit down! Yang! Speak English!" Guess it was good practice for middle school.
Lots of weird spellings. I have a Lora and a Soo in one of my classes. Robin is a fairly popular name for boys-- out of date, of course, though it's my dad's name and doesn't actually sound too weird to me. Of course we have millions of boys named Harry, and all of them are immediately nicknamed "Harry Potter" regardless of temperament. Had a boy named Jun once (it took his parents a while to drop the "e") and a "Joy" who changed to "Joey" once the spelling error was realized.
Oh! The weirdest lately: One of my beginner-level kids came to school with his English name already picked out: Brown. Actually, it kind of suited his personality, now that I think of it.
I'm sure I can think of more, but my computer's about to overheat...