forreal??? huh. i mean, spiders georg lives in an area with a large asian population and maybe shouldn't be counted, then (dang/deng is a pretty common chinese and vietnamese last name, my SO's last name is dang hahahahah) eta: OH LOL i thought you meant you'd met a doctor dang at an office or something and was saying that it's a strange name
Back on the subject of the Dr. Dang thing, there is a fairly prominent sexologist named Brenda Love. And yes, she has a PhD. Yes, really—there is a sexologist named Dr. Love.
I got curious and googled that one, and it's theeeeeoretically a variant on Gwyneth and the Welsh word for wheat, but it's apparently missing linguistic markers that tie back to the original language (i know nothing about welsh), so I'm guessing it's been put through a creative spelling filter.
Gwenith is commonly used as an alternate spelling of Gwyneth/Gwynedd. I think it's probably more closely related to Gwendydd, though, which is a less common Welsh name. ETA: Gwenith is also a name that I used in my 20s. I had it on my legal paperwork for a little while, when I was trying to decide if that or Kiri was going to be my real name; they are both names I was given in my teens by chosen family. And in that case, it was definitely a callback to Gwendydd.
Ah yes. My favorite time. Debates over how stupid names of Celtic origin are spelling wise time. The true sin anyway is not saying Caitlín right.
SAE = Standard American Englisch? (If you know german phonetics, I speak german natively as well if that would work better)
You would be correct in that guess, yes. But yeah the t there is 'slender', that is you gotta say it with like your tongue against the hard palate. Sounds kind of like the th of things like thing and Kathleen. But only kinda! The í over the i meanwhile lets us know that we've got a long vowel going on there. English lacks true long vowels but the ee of Kathleen gets us near enough it.
One for the “unfortunate combos” subheading: Crystal Methvin, who is a real person, and who was actually arrested on meth charges. I guess at least it’s a fitting name?
Oh God, that’s Shanda Lear levels of bad. (Although “Loony” is kind of an unfortunate surname in general...)