Names | Dominik Mayer – Products, Asia, Productivity

An American college professor asked Vietnamese-American student Phuc Bui Diem Nguyen to change her name:

Could you Anglicize your name. Phuc Bui sounds like an insult in English.

Understandably, she did not think this was a good idea and so in a subsequent e-mail he would go so far as to explain:

Your name in English sounds like Fuck Boy. If I lived in Vietnam and my name in your language sounded like Eat a Dick, I would change it to avoid embarrassment both on my part and on the part of the people who have to say it.

Phuc Bui’s sister Quynh shared the exchange on Instagram from where it was picked up across the globe.

Now Vietnamese names can be tricky. But suggesting a student to change her name…

As for the professor: Should he ever visit Vietnam, he might want to check out Phuc Long Coffee & Tea 😄.

Markenblog and China-Guide pointed out this funny video about Chinese using English names:

It’s really like that. I had the pleasure to meet some interestingly named people as well. Eagle, Success and a friend’s facebook friend is called Ente, German for Duck. And do you know Bayreuth?

Or this waitress at a café: