My pet peeve is the Finnish name “Yrjö”. It comes from the Greek name “Geôrgios”, which means farmer, but nowadays the word “yrjö” means vomit. ‘Unique spellings’ like some “Everleigh” also drive me crazy.
By some strange alchemy, all of my friends seem to know a person named Greg that they dislike. It’s become a bit of a meme that if someone mentions the name, others will just grumble in “Fuckin’ Greg”
I have a not-so-common name (not spelled strangely or anything though) and people always mishear it on the phone so I have to say it kind of slow and feel like an idiot every time. Also, people botch my last name because it’s one letter off from a more common last name.
Kevin is literally the stand-in name for uneducated/lower classes children here in Germany. There’s literally been an article in Der Spiegel “Kevin is not a name, but a diagnosis”.
My own first name Mark, Firstly it is supposed to be spelled Marc as according to my mother I was named after Marc Bolan but they wrote it with a K on the birth certificate. Secondly it just doesn’t feel like it suits me, I have no idea what alternative I would pick though. Maybe I just don’t feel comfortable being called by my name no matter what it is :)
I worked with a man from Vietnam that was named Gary because when he came to America there was a lake Gary nearby and his boss just called him that. Stuck with it for the rest of his life. He was crazy but made me laugh a lot.
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