One of the joys of teaching English in South Korea is meeting a lot of unique and interesting people and among meeting those people, you also meet some students that introduce themselves with some very unique and/or creative English names.
Last week, I was discussing with my co-worker Nikki Rialp about these names and she was naming them left and right. Although I could think of a few names, she gets most of the credit as I have compiled a list of some of the funniest and most unique English names that adult students have chosen at our academy.
We'll start off with some fairly normal ones and get more unique as we go along.
#18: BJ. Now I had a friend named B.J. from kindergarten through 8th grade, so this isn't too weird for me. Two female teacher co-workers grin every time they hear this name, so it's sad to say that this name is no longer proper to use. It now has too much of a sexual connotation behind it.
#17: Newton. This student chose this name because Isaac Newton is one of his role models and all of us teachers think he chose it because it makes him sound smart. Fair enough, but the name sounds a bit nerdy actually.
#16: Bruce (as in Bruce Wayne) because he couldn't use Batman.
#15: Romeo. We had to warn this student to not use this if he goes abroad. Women will think he's a womanizer or playboy.
#14: Roosevelt. He's a very nice older male student that enjoys coming to our academy to study English but doesn't study hard at all and doesn't come too often. When he IS there, he seems to have a fun time. He chose the name Roosevelt probably after F.D.R.
#13: Metallica. This student is pretty cool and very laid back. He chose this name after his famous rock band.
#12: Excellent. Since this guy only comes once a week on Saturdays, I'm more inclined to name him "Okay". Haha!
#11: Nemo. However, this student pronounced it "NAY-MO". Um, yeah, we don't get it either.
#10: Freddie. First the student said he liked the name after hearing a Gangnam Center teacher have it. Then it reminded him of the character from Nightmare on Elm Street (Freddie Kruger) and that cemented his choice. In Nikki's words, "So he named himself after a fictional, supernatural, undead serial killer....greeaatttt."
#9: Petunia. The girl said the name sounded pretty after watching Harry Potter.
#8: Bo Geum: This is more of a Korean name but since her last name is Park (sounds like Bak in Korean), she wanted to her name to sound like bokkeum-bap, which is fried rice in Korean. Hmm, interesting.
#7: Yangban----> Jon Snow. First this man in his 40s chose Yangban because it represented Korean royalty during the Choseon Dynasty. Then he later changed it to Jon Snow after watching The Game of Thrones. You gotta give the guy credit for creativity!
#6: Annabelle. The student thought this was a pretty name until watching the horror movie. She quickly changed her name after that.
#5: Lotus. This single middle aged man said that his ex-girlfriend from 15 years ago had the name Lotus as her email ID. We thought he should change his name, but he said that all of his close friends refer to him as Lotus. This is a funny name but it's a bit sad as well.
#4: Heren. This girl tried to be unique. She had seen the name Helen many times, so she thought she would change the L to R. Well, it's a bit ridiculous because she still thought it would be okay to pronounce it like Helen, but to have it spelled Heren. Teachers told her that people would pronounce it with the R sound, so she didn't change it, it would sound weird. At first, she was going to change the name, but kept it anyway out of stubbornness.
#3: Vege. The girl named herself this and had it pronounced like Veggie. We don't know why.
#2: Scolra. We have no idea why this female student chose this name.
#1: Xpaino. This is probably the weirdest name we could remember and we have no clue why this guy chose this name.
If you teach English abroad and you have some weird names to share, please write a comment. I would love to hear some more unique, funny, weird, and/or creative names!!
Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)
Instagram: l.a.seoulguy
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