New Post
Search
Help
ArchivesRe: What does my name mean?
in reply to a message by Mar
Yeah, I wondered that, too. It would sound like Tunisia the country, in that case! Quite a good way of using a geographical name without being too obvious about it.
Does that kind of thing happen in the Netherlands? Here in south Africa it does. We had a beauty queen some years ago named Cezanne, because it 'sounded like' Suzanne but looked exotically different.
Does that kind of thing happen in the Netherlands? Here in south Africa it does. We had a beauty queen some years ago named Cezanne, because it 'sounded like' Suzanne but looked exotically different.
1
Replies
I'm the Netherlands I haven't seen it happen that things are misspelled to make it look exotic/differnt/unique or anything like that. Maybe it happened a couple of times, but it is certainly not common. But as the saying goes here "Doe maar normaal dan doe je gek genoeg." (approximate translation for those who can't read it: "Just be normal, that's crazy enough").
When I read Cezanne, I immediately thought "She was named after Paul Cezanne!", but no :(
When I read Cezanne, I immediately thought "She was named after Paul Cezanne!", but no :(
This message was edited 9/8/2008, 11:10 PM
1
Until recently, South Africans have been memorably bad at French: our European language of choice at most schools was German (with Namibia, formerly German South-West Africa, next door, that made sense). So you get really weird things like girls named Rene (no accent, no second e) and boys named Charl (to look different from the English Charles!). And there's a suburb called Fontainebleau.
But now we're getting lots of immigrants, guest workers, diplomats and refugees from Francophone Africa, so more schools are offering French as well as German and its popularity is growing. In twenty years it'll be interesting to see what's developed.
Love your local saying!
But now we're getting lots of immigrants, guest workers, diplomats and refugees from Francophone Africa, so more schools are offering French as well as German and its popularity is growing. In twenty years it'll be interesting to see what's developed.
Love your local saying!
1