Through the eyes of the Waygook: English Names

This has been long overdue but I was inspired after watching Jack Donaghy talk about baby names. Keep it classic because there's never going to be a President Ashton, to be fair Zack was a pretty big stretch already. Here in Korea, students who attend English Academies after school (instead of having fun) receive English names for when they are in their English Academies. I completely understand this because phonetically they're difficult to pronounce correctly and just memorizing names that don't really sound like names is really difficult; examples being Sang Hyeon, Tong Bim, Jyun Haen, Jang Seo, etc. There are names that do sound like Western names like Min Ju, Min Ji, Soo Min, Min Oh, Su Bin, and many more I think its just because they're shorter though. Regardless, English names are easier to read off and just remember for the typical Westerner.

I'm not totally sure who names these children, but my hunch is its the principal at the Academy. Obviously, this principal, or their delegate, is not their parent and their isn't a 9 month wait period to decide on one name you like. As a result there is an odd collection of students with either dated names or nicknames off of proper ones. One class I have has a Billy and a Chucky, not William and Charles. When they told me I replied "So you're names are Charles and William but they shortened it because you're younger, right?"
"No teacha, my name is Chaacky"
"And my name is Birry"
Thank you English Academy. By the way, there is no Korean boy who looks like a Chucky. The most popular names for boys and girls respectively are Tyler and Amy. This isn't too bad for girls, I've met a grown-up named Amy. However, every Tyler I have met back home and here is, and always will be, a teenage boy at heart. Some girls have really dated names like Daisy and Alice (to make matters worse I was calling her Ellis for weeks).

I haven't met many kids with J names like Jeremy, Joshua, Jenny, or Jordan and my presumption is because in Korea the j sound is more of a ch sound over top of the j making for a bunch of Cheremies, Choshes, Chennies, and Chordans. I guess its also why I haven't met any Raymonds, Leroys, Nigels, Lindseys and other L and R names. Unfortunately, poor Birry got the short end of the stick. So to all  the Koreans in the 30+s with outdated, unpronounceable and childish names hopefully they're not on your passports or driver's licences.