Foreign language names...

[ouronlylight.livejournal.com]

So, this came up in the confirmation name discussion... did anyone, in the course of taking a foreign language in school, ever have to pick a name in that language to use for class?

I started taking Spanish in the eighth grade, and we had to pick the name that was a translation of our name. My name is Bethany, which doesn't have a widely-used translation (I didn't find out about Bethania until this year), so I was supposed to pick something that started with a B. The only two my book had to offer were Bárbara and Beatriz, neither of which I liked, so I went on line and found Bella. I assumed that it was pronounced like it is in English, but I told my teacher the name and she was like, "Oh, BEH-ya". I thought it was pretty ugly, but she'd already written it down and I was too timid to tell her I didn't want to be saddled with something so fugly.

In high school, though, I changed it to Bianca, which is actually Italian and not even Spanish, but my Spanish II teacher didn't care. My Spanish III teacher alternated between calling me Bianca and Blanca, but other than that it was Bianca. I'm thinking that colleges don't use Spanish names, but if I get to pick one next semester, I'm totally going for Lola. If it has to start with a B, though, it will probably be Blanca.

Anyway, anyone else have tales of foreign language names?

Comments

[browncoatrebel.livejournal.com]

My Chinese teacher named us and gave us Chinese names that sound (vaguely) like our English names. My English name is Sara, and my Chinese name is Zhiruo. I think there's some inside joke there that goes over my American head because all the Chinese natives laugh when they hear my Chinese name. My teacher insists it's from a historical Chinese romance and martial arts novel, but my googling has only turned up some movie.