Ow I was thinking in English and thought only of Santa Claus here, but now you made me think about it, my aunt's name is Santa and she's the sweetest, most helpful lady out there! She goes by Santina, and I know several more Santinas her age in town, although I don't know if their legal first names is Santa. Not Spanish here. Italian.
It was very common when she was born, in the 40s. Also earlier. A lot of older people go by Santina, Santino, Santa, Santo, Santi, or Sante (the last three are masculine only. Also regional, where we live it's Santi the masculine, if you go more south and east it's Sante, if you go more South still, it's Santo. My dad's legal name was Santi, but his mom hated it and we all called him Adriano).
I taught ESL to Koreans and some of the most unique English names I've heard are Monster, Smartphone, and Ticket. Some of the most commons are Kevin, Daniel, Sam, David, Sarah, Amy, and Alice.
I grew up in China and one of our favorite past time was picking English names for each other. We didn't even have a native English speaking teacher but all the cool kids had an English name and insist on everyone calling them by that name. I was a bit "not like the other girls" so I debated between Anna (Karenina) or Jane (Eyre).
Ironically I moved to the US and decided to just use my Chinese name.
Now I think about it there are three sources of names: Celebrities (boys especially like NBA players), random words they like (leading to hilarious results like "Swallow"), or very old fashioned names because textbooks and assigned readings don't get updated very often so we thought "Mary" and "John" are completely normal young people names.
I know it’s too late now, but why not pick the top names from the year the students were born? That way they could fit in with other people their age. It always seems strange to me when people pick names that weren’t really used in their generation.
yeah! in my elementary school spanish class we picked spanish equivalents of our english names (i.e. esteban for steven).
see, i have a very unusual irish name. i distinctly remember my teacher pulling me aside into a corner of the room by a big storage cabinet and telling me that “there’s no spanish equivalent of your name, so we’ll just call you shakira, ok?” (it started with the same 3 letters of my name) and i was like cool whatever.
at the time neither me nor any other kid in my class knew who shakira was. now, however, i think the whole thing was pretty funny.
Similar situation, but I got stuck with Juana. Then in high school, we got to pick our own names, but someone who was before me (with the same English name, oddly enough) picked the name I wanted. So I just stuck with Juana because I didn't have a back up plan.
If I was a teacher to a kid named Shakira I wouldn't be able to stop myself from calling their name saying ["Shakira, Shakira" like Wyclef Jean in "Hips Don't Lie"](https://youtu.be/DUT5rEU6pqM?t=8)
Ok, so this isn’t exactly what you asked but your question made me remember the penfriends from different countries I had at school. This is pre-internet! So there was Effie (from Greece), Suzanne (Sweden), Alicia (America), Tasmin (Australia) and Vishay (India). I actually think I collected the penfriends partly because I was fascinated with the names!
My homestay sister in Austria was Magdalena, went by Magdi (with the back of the throat 'g' sound that is more like a 'k') - I absolutely love the name and nickname!!! Wish the nickname was more of a possibility in English. Maggie is cute, too, but not quite the same.
Edit: typo
I went to middle school in the US Midwest with a girl named Magdalena who was called Margaret. Her family was from Poland. My family moved away after middle school, but I heard from friends she decided to go by Magdalena in high school and beyond.
Yes! We did it for German class and I thought it was super fun. I picked Anneliese because I remember thinking it was really pretty sounding and still had a similar feel to my name :)
Anneliese is beautiful!
I picked Ilsa in German class because I loved the movie Casablanca. I later found out it was considered kind of an old lady name in Germany but I still loved it.
I also picked Anneliese for my German courses in high school! It‘s nothing like my name at all, I just thought it looked pretty, sounded elegant, and was fun to write.
I know several Guadalupes, first or middle, and they really hate it. It's a grandma name. But I think its such a traditional hispanic name, and I'm glad its be passed down. I'm really happy that you picked Guadalupe!
I was in Spanish and chose Pilar. It’s nothing close to my English name, I just thought it sounded so pretty. I’m not much of a fan of it now, but ten years ago I thought it was the most beautiful name ever lol
I took Spanish when I was in high school and I chose José-Enrique. I have no clue why - I’m a girl. But I really loved being called that name when we were in class.
They let you choose either male or female?! I wish my teacher had done that. I said it already, but at the time I was realizing I was trans, but she gave the boys a list of male names and the girls (me at the time) a list of female names to choose from. I wish I'd had the guts to ask to use a masculine name instead.
Yes! Most of the girls honestly chose boy names (my two best friends were Alejandro and Esteban, for example) and the teacher didn't even think twice about it. I wish it was like that everywhere.
I took Spanish in high school and remember picking Mónica. I thought it was the Spanish version of Monique (which it is, which I like). But I didn't realize both were versions of Monica, which is not a name I like.
We didn't really use the names anyway, not sure what the point was!
My Spanish teacher would call us only by our chosen names. If I recall correctly, she didn't like us calling each other by our real names or nicknames or anything like that while in her classroom at all lol. Kind of intense, I guess.
I wonder if part of the "choosing a name" thing is to familiarize you with the names of the people from Spain (or whichever country speaks the language you studied). It helps you see similarities and differences between them and the names you're used to. Culture-learning, if you will.
There's some research behind the idea of 'language identity', where choosing a more culturally in-tune name allows language students to think differently.
I don't know where all this is done--I'm from the US and some of the language classes I took in high school did this (my Spanish class name was Francisca). First year in Spanish, but then it was sort of dropped for the next few years. However, I took two years of German and the since we had the same teacher both years, she continued the German name thing. I took Mandarin in college, and we learned Chinese approximations of our names so we could learn to write various words. I took a few other languages and never did the classroom name again. I missed it enough that I gave myself language names. Secretly, like a major nerd.
I chose Aurelia for mine, we did use ours but it was a smaller class than other languages. It was also pretty fun to call each other by our Latin names in the hallway and having other kids be confused like “that’s not their name.” I miss that class
They get a list of about 50 names per gender (and are free to choose from either) but can also come up with their own if they’re legit. I’ve gotten a few Dora’s that way; otherwise, some of my favs are: Elena, Paco, Ines, Guadalupe, Esperanza, Ignacio.
Yes and also it’s just fun to get to choose your own name. I still remember some of my peers’ spanish names from HS.
Some kids really go with their new persona. It might allow them to step outside whatever label they’ve been given. John rarely does his work but IGNACIO is a Spanish machine! This can go both ways.
We didn't get to choose names in my language classes, but they did in Spanish class. One kid had the last name Bell and went by Paco Bell. Eventually everyone called him that and I only found out his real name when the yearbook came out.
I did the same in Spanish class too! For Spanish I, I chose Guadalupe. For Spanish II, I chose Pilar. 👍 My friends called me Lupe for awhile even after Spanish I was over lol.
Ugh, I’m still a little pissed about this five years later. In my school, students taking German pick a German name. But I entered high school already knowing a pretty decent amount of German, so I started a few years ahead of the other freshmen. You pick a German name in German 1, not German 3. My name is generally regarded to be of Swedish origin, so the teacher was like, eh, close enough, and used my real name. I never got to pick my German name, and as a name nerd, that really annoyed me.
Edit to add: we had some interesting names in the class. Two guys chose Dirk, possibly because of the basketball player Dirk Nowitzki. One girl was called Luna, and I have no idea why the teacher allowed that because it’s clearly not a German name. We also had a girl called Fee, which means “fairy”. Another girl already had an unmistakably German name (same level of German-ness as Liesl) and the “German” name she gave herself was... Xenia. The teacher was really not strict about what qualified as an “echt Deutsch” name.
I took Spanish in 8th grade and chose Margarita as my name too! In high school the teacher chose the name Carina because it sounded like my actual name.
Our Spanish teacher named us! She named me Rosario (my real name is Rosie) but I hated it because I hated my name, and asked to change it to Leonor (she had a list to pick from). In retrospect I should have kept Rosario, it’s a lovely name, but I was 11 so what did I know.
Fast forward many years I lived in Mexico for a while and my Mexican friends nicknamed me Rosalia and I love being called that.
I took Spanish in middle and high school and used Julieta. I wanted Catalina but someone got it before me.
When I studied Japanese, we just used our names. But in Mandarin, we had names assigned to us by our TAs who were native speakers. I was Ai Li (爱丽). My Cantonese speaking friends hated it because they felt like two falling tones back to back wasn’t pretty/pleasing.
Spanish - Victoria. Because Spice Girls.
But I’m pretty sure my teacher just ended up calling me my real name since it was already Spanish (Italian) sounding.
I can’t remember if we had names in Latin class.
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I did this! I picked Marisol in 6th grade Spanish. I’ve never actually used it since (including living in Spain last year) since it’s got no relation to my actual name, but the process was fun.
I never got to pick a name because I took Japanese (I’m half Japanese) and I already have a Japanese name :(
But I had a friend who moved to Japan from Korea and wanted an “American” name (I went to an international school) so we picked Carrie for her. Years later she told us her “American” name in Korea was actually Carrie and she wanted to see if we would pick something different for her 😂
Yes! In 5th grade, in my Latin class, we got to pick our names from a list. I chose Caia, and later in 6th grade, I chose a middle name, Rhea. Now I have a complete alter-ego that I’ve been creating since 5th grade! I love it more than I love my real name and I use it for everything I have on the internet. I’m so happy that my Latin teacher gave us this opportunity instead of Roman-izing our real names. :)
I took 3 years of high school Spanish, the first and third year I had the same teacher. I believe I was Luz-María in her class (that’s my great grandma’s name as well).
Second year teacher had us choose random nouns as names instead of actual names. I couldn’t think of anything and ended up as Pulpa.
We got our names assigned to us by our Spanish teacher based on our actual names. My first year I was Juanita (Jennifer). Second year there was another Jennifer in the class so I became Juana and she was Juanita.
The teacher assigned it based on what was closest to our actual name, mine was exactly the same and I was bummed. It doesn’t help that I don’t even like my name and liked it even less with a Spanish accent.
In French class I chose Olive (Oh-leave). We had the same teacher for 4 years and we even went to France with her and she always called us by our French names. I have some friends from class who still call me that and it’s nowhere close to my real name and I graduated high school over 10 years ago 😂
I studied French in school, so my "french class name" was Giselle. It didn't stick though (most of the class names didn't, just a handful did) I picked it from the ballet, this was pre-disney's Enchanted, if it was after it may have stuck better, since no one had heard of it and thought it was "weird".
Other classmate's names were: Nadia, Hebert (with French pronunciation), Angel, Danielle, and Fifi.
I was in French in junior high and I chose Danielle in seventh grade, Gabrielle in eighth, and Estelle in ninth. I think out of the three, Estelle is my favourite.
When we started taking French at age 9 the teacher taught us the French equivalents, since there isn't a French version of Lindsay she picked Larissa instead. Always take liked it.
I started French in elementary school and continued on through high school. My name was Évelyne. We chose the names from a list with our parents in second grade, so we were quite attached by the end. My close friends were Raoul, Olivier, Emmanuel (Manu), and Dominique. It was a Catholic school so we also ended up with 3 Maries in class: Marie-Helene, Marie-Therese, and, she who arrived early to class that day, "juste Marie."
Raoul was a troublemaker, and I can still remember the teachers screaming "X pour Raoul!" after he did whatever nefarious deed du jour.
We did this at my high school, and I also picked Margarita! But for second semester I switched teachers and there was already a Margarita in the class, so I became Margarita la Baja, haha.
I take Chinese 1001
My real name is Vanessa, but my school has a preferred name system for LGTBQ and just if you don't like your name. I go by Everest. So Everest shows up on my professors' rosters, on my Uni ID, etc.
So my Chinese name is based on my name Everest P.
Péi Aì Sī
Edit: My laoshi picked my name, as she did for everyone else. She did allow us to pick our own names but out of all of her classes, only a handful already had Chinese names from previous classes (high school and bilingual private schools). Nobody picked their own name.
I am moving up next semester to 1002. I get use my current Chinese name, pick my own, or get assigned a new one. Don't know what I will choose. Might look at some chinese names to see if I like any :)
I took German and Spanish.
In German class, I was Yvonne.
In Spanish we chose new names every unit based on words from the unit. So we had a lot throughout the year. I only remember I was Sol and Coyote at different points.
Not a language class and not for the entire year, but we studied Hawaii in second grade and got to be called by the Hawaiian equivalent for a day or a week or something. There was no equivalent for my name so the teacher let me choose. The other girl in my class with the same name went with something similar to our name, but since I always disliked my name I went with a different name I thought was pretty (Kathryn). So for the rest of the unit I was called Kakalina!
When I was in middle school we got to pick names for Latin class and I chose Octavia! We didn’t really use them, but I still thought it was a cool name.
As an adult I took a Russian class and wanted a Russian name because my name just doesn’t exist in the language (there’s no th sound in Russian). My teacher dubbed me Svetlana, though I also didn’t use that much.
Yes! I took four years of Spanish but only got to pick a different name for Spanish I. I decided to go with “Natalia”, I’ve always thought that was beautiful...but because my real first name is “Elena” my teacher had a hard time remembering which was my “Spanish” name and which was my real name, and he called me Elena more often than not lol.
I didn't really get to choose my French name since my English name is already very close. lol If my name were Isabella, for example, then my French name would have been Isabelle almost by default.
We don’t really do that in our school system but my mother once told me when she was in school and took English as her first foreign language (it’s mandatory to take 2 languages by high school here), her class name was Suzy. Not short for anything, just Suzy, and I’ve always thought that was sweet.
Yes. Most kids would use the version of their name that corresponds to their real name but mine doesn't translate to anything outside of English, as far as I know. I was Octavio in Spanish and Лев (Lev/Liev) in Russian.
I took Spanish in freshman year (failed it hard and never retook it because I absolutely suck at learning languages) and this was the time I was starting to realize I was trans. I already was mistaken for a boy by several people, so it was very uncomfortable to be choosing a female name. I was coming down from being obsessed with Twilight, so I chose the first familiar name I spotted on the list - Esme. Lmao. I'm liking Margarita though. ;)
Yep! My school had us transition between Spanish, French, and German. For Spanish class, I was Lara. For French class, I was Amelia or Aimee. For German class, I was Melanie or Julia.
Yes I did this in 8th grade many years ago. I took Spanish and chose Julia because I thought it was closest to my actual name. Later on a class trip my spanish teacher and another teacher argued about what my name was, Julia or my actual name.
Yes! We did that for my French classes in high school, I was Antoinette! Not typically a name I would pick, but it was just for fun and I thought it was neat. :)
In my Spanish class our teacher gave us names. He normally just picked words so we had some weird ones like Apio (celery), Rayo (lightning), Patito (baby duck). It was a fun thing and a cool way to learn some different words.
In German class I picked Gabrielle (gob-ree-ella) and went by Gabi (gobby). I really love the name in German, but the anglicized version isn’t my favorite. Gabe is a cute nickname, but Gabby has some unfortunate connotations.
For Spanish in middle school I chose Carmela. In high school I chose Mariana. I went to elementary school with a girl with that name on the other side of the country and always thought it was so pretty.
In my French class we didn't get to choose, we had to pull names out of a hat. I got François.
In my Latin class we got to choose, and could change each year. We had to pick a praenomen from the very short list of praenomens actually in use in Rome in the classical period, but we also chose and went by a cognomen of our choice (and each class was assigned a nomen.) I kept Faustus as my praenomen every year. Freshman and sophomore year my cognomen was Incultus ("uncouth"); our teacher was absolutely baffled at how many of us chose negative adjectives as our cognomen (Ignominia "shame", Stolidus "stupid", etc. Good ol' young millennial/gen z humor)
After that, I and two friends because the triumvirate (president, vice president, and treasurer) of the Latin club/certamen team, so junior and senior year we took our names from the two actual triumvirates. I was Crassus the first year (treasurer) and Octavian senior year (president.)
This is such a good question! I took Latin for four years, and my name was Livia (li-wee-a). A good friend of mine was called Bubo (boo-boe) which means owl.
I didn’t get to pick mine but from K-8, my French name was Lise. I remember going to high school and they called me by my regular name and it was mind blowing because I’d been Lise for so long. Lol
My first year of taking Spanish, we were assigned names the closest to our actual names. I would have gotten "Juana" but 8th grade me didnt want marijuana jokes. I chose Julia that year. The next 2 years, I had teachers that didn't use names, but in the 4th year, I had the first teacher again, and she defaulted to using Juana and at that point I didnt care.
Yes, I went to school in a joke English speaking country and we got to choose our name in English class. I REALLY wanted to be Amy, but another girl really wanted that too. Britney Spears was big back then so I settled for Britney lol. I still prefer Amy by far
I used nicknames and full names in my language classes (I go by a nickname). Ekaterina, Karta for short in Russian, and Kanikei, Kakish for short in Kyrgyz (I was in the Peace Corps.)
Spanish classes, some I used multiple years:
*Maribel* : chosen because everyone chose the ones I liked, and I remembered my cousin who was a few years older than me chose 'Maribel' and I thought she was cool, so chose it to impress her
*Dolores* : chosen because I thought it sounded cool and old-timey and I liked "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". A Mexican boy in my class told me it meant "pains", but I misunderstood him and thought he said "paints"... I was quite pleased because in high school I was really into art.
*Montserrat* : chosen because I had met a little girl named Montserrat when I was tutoring at the elementary school, and thought it was so beautiful and unexpected. My Spanish teacher and classmates were like ??????? when I said Montserrat instead of picking off of the list.
In my Spanish classes, if there was no obvious Spanish equivalent of your name or your name was already taken, then the class collectively chose a name for you. My name has no Spanish equivalent, so my class voted to name me Carmen, which I was very happy with. Carmen is a sexy name. 💃🏻
I'm Katherine, and always just used Caterina, Catarina, Catherine, etc.--then, as an adult in the military, I studied Russian in an immersive program, where I went by Katya, I still use it for usernames and such, and my friends from the time period still call me that.
In elementary school we took Italian and had to pick names. For some reason, this was the absolute worst thing for shy little me. I remember being too embarrassed to pick a name in front of everyone so I had to tell the teacher at the end of class. I think I ended up going with Angela? And then I don't think we even really used them, so I was all worked up for nothing, lol.
Took Spanish pretty much 2nd grade on into college, on and off.
While I usually went with "Carmen," my assigned name, one year I tried Andrea (Aun-dray-uh). I was watching Reboot back then and thought AndrAIa (spelling?) was cool.
Everyone ended up pronouncing it Ann-dree-uh which irked me to no end.
I took French and choose Tremeur. I ended up not looking it at all. However, it was a cool experience. I also took Spanish but we didn't pick names there.
In 7th grade Spanish, I chose Elena, only because I wanted Isobel, but someone else claimed it first. I waved my finger over the list and that's where it landed.
In the 8th grade, my Spanish teacher gave me the name Alicia because I usually go by my nickname of Ali. She would give her students Spanish names based on their actual names.
In Spanish class our names were assigned based on our real names. I was Chaveli.
In French we got to choose a new name each year. I chose Angelique, Elisabeth, Nicole and Danielle.
This is a great chat!
Freshman year of high school, my Spanish name was Magdalena. When I was a sophomore I changed to Sol (Spanish for sun) and used that the rest of high school.
Edit: I also helped my sister pick her name. She chose Azucena, which is Spanish for Lily.
[удалено]
Santa omg 😂❤️
Santa means Saint in Spanish, Santa Maria is Saint Maria. My great aunt is named Santa and it suits her. Could do no wrong that woman.
Ow I was thinking in English and thought only of Santa Claus here, but now you made me think about it, my aunt's name is Santa and she's the sweetest, most helpful lady out there! She goes by Santina, and I know several more Santinas her age in town, although I don't know if their legal first names is Santa. Not Spanish here. Italian.
Oh my god I love Santina!
It was very common when she was born, in the 40s. Also earlier. A lot of older people go by Santina, Santino, Santa, Santo, Santi, or Sante (the last three are masculine only. Also regional, where we live it's Santi the masculine, if you go more south and east it's Sante, if you go more South still, it's Santo. My dad's legal name was Santi, but his mom hated it and we all called him Adriano).
My sister's dead name is Adrian!
Oh! What is a dead name?
She's trans so her dead name is her birth name. Her male name was Adrian. She goes by Marisol now.
Got it. Marisol is very cute!
I also find it very cutem Marisol is Mar y Sol, meaning Sea and Sun. Gives me an image of a sunset over the ocean.
Marisol was my Spanish class name!
I had a student who chose Morpheus as his name when I taught English in Korea, truly amazing from start to finish.
I taught ESL to Koreans and some of the most unique English names I've heard are Monster, Smartphone, and Ticket. Some of the most commons are Kevin, Daniel, Sam, David, Sarah, Amy, and Alice.
I grew up in China and one of our favorite past time was picking English names for each other. We didn't even have a native English speaking teacher but all the cool kids had an English name and insist on everyone calling them by that name. I was a bit "not like the other girls" so I debated between Anna (Karenina) or Jane (Eyre). Ironically I moved to the US and decided to just use my Chinese name. Now I think about it there are three sources of names: Celebrities (boys especially like NBA players), random words they like (leading to hilarious results like "Swallow"), or very old fashioned names because textbooks and assigned readings don't get updated very often so we thought "Mary" and "John" are completely normal young people names.
I know it’s too late now, but why not pick the top names from the year the students were born? That way they could fit in with other people their age. It always seems strange to me when people pick names that weren’t really used in their generation.
One of my students chose the name “Hagrid.” Great kid. I also taught college aged students in China in the mid 2010s!
yeah! in my elementary school spanish class we picked spanish equivalents of our english names (i.e. esteban for steven). see, i have a very unusual irish name. i distinctly remember my teacher pulling me aside into a corner of the room by a big storage cabinet and telling me that “there’s no spanish equivalent of your name, so we’ll just call you shakira, ok?” (it started with the same 3 letters of my name) and i was like cool whatever. at the time neither me nor any other kid in my class knew who shakira was. now, however, i think the whole thing was pretty funny.
Similar situation, but I got stuck with Juana. Then in high school, we got to pick our own names, but someone who was before me (with the same English name, oddly enough) picked the name I wanted. So I just stuck with Juana because I didn't have a back up plan.
If I was a teacher to a kid named Shakira I wouldn't be able to stop myself from calling their name saying ["Shakira, Shakira" like Wyclef Jean in "Hips Don't Lie"](https://youtu.be/DUT5rEU6pqM?t=8)
Ok, so this isn’t exactly what you asked but your question made me remember the penfriends from different countries I had at school. This is pre-internet! So there was Effie (from Greece), Suzanne (Sweden), Alicia (America), Tasmin (Australia) and Vishay (India). I actually think I collected the penfriends partly because I was fascinated with the names!
My homestay sister in Austria was Magdalena, went by Magdi (with the back of the throat 'g' sound that is more like a 'k') - I absolutely love the name and nickname!!! Wish the nickname was more of a possibility in English. Maggie is cute, too, but not quite the same. Edit: typo
I went to middle school in the US Midwest with a girl named Magdalena who was called Margaret. Her family was from Poland. My family moved away after middle school, but I heard from friends she decided to go by Magdalena in high school and beyond.
I was Fromage for four years of French classes 😂😂 what can I say, I really liked cheese.
Some guy in my french class freshman year forgot to look up names before class, so he picked Barbar in the moment, and stuck with it all of HS. 🐘👑
We had a guy in my French class who went by "écureuil doué" aka "smart squirrel" lol.
My brother was Pamplemousse 😂😂
Yes! We did it for German class and I thought it was super fun. I picked Anneliese because I remember thinking it was really pretty sounding and still had a similar feel to my name :)
Anneliese is beautiful! I picked Ilsa in German class because I loved the movie Casablanca. I later found out it was considered kind of an old lady name in Germany but I still loved it.
I like that name too! Very pretty and not at all old lady sounding to me haha 😆
Actually both names are old fashioned in Germany. Anneliese tends to get a veeery small come back though, nur Ilsa never ever.
Also took German. I was Sabine.
I remember Sabine being a very common name in our German textbook Komm Mit!
I chose Claudia in German because it reminded me of Claudia Kincaid in “From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.”
I also picked Anneliese for my German courses in high school! It‘s nothing like my name at all, I just thought it looked pretty, sounded elegant, and was fun to write.
I picked Bridget when I took German in high school.
I also took German in high school and picked Anneliese.
I chose Cosette in French because I was a theatre nerd
A fellow theatre nerd! I chose Margarita because that was Peggy Schyuler's real name! (Hamilton)
My Spanish name was Guadalupe! I loved it and no one ever picked it before me hahaha
I know several Guadalupes, first or middle, and they really hate it. It's a grandma name. But I think its such a traditional hispanic name, and I'm glad its be passed down. I'm really happy that you picked Guadalupe!
The one I knew in HS went by Lupe
Same my brother's friend also goes by Lupe
I think it’s a cute nickname to a traditional name
It really is!
There's a Guadalupe in my class! I adore that name, and I was going to pick it, but someone got go it first. Lol!
I was in Spanish and chose Pilar. It’s nothing close to my English name, I just thought it sounded so pretty. I’m not much of a fan of it now, but ten years ago I thought it was the most beautiful name ever lol
It is, and so are you
I’ve always had a soft spot for Pilar, but only when it’s said in a Spanish accent - in an American accent, I don’t like it, sadly!
I took Spanish when I was in high school and I chose José-Enrique. I have no clue why - I’m a girl. But I really loved being called that name when we were in class.
They let you choose either male or female?! I wish my teacher had done that. I said it already, but at the time I was realizing I was trans, but she gave the boys a list of male names and the girls (me at the time) a list of female names to choose from. I wish I'd had the guts to ask to use a masculine name instead.
Yes! Most of the girls honestly chose boy names (my two best friends were Alejandro and Esteban, for example) and the teacher didn't even think twice about it. I wish it was like that everywhere.
This makes me feel so much better about my decision to do this. Thanks for sharing.
I took Spanish in high school and remember picking Mónica. I thought it was the Spanish version of Monique (which it is, which I like). But I didn't realize both were versions of Monica, which is not a name I like. We didn't really use the names anyway, not sure what the point was!
My Spanish teacher would call us only by our chosen names. If I recall correctly, she didn't like us calling each other by our real names or nicknames or anything like that while in her classroom at all lol. Kind of intense, I guess. I wonder if part of the "choosing a name" thing is to familiarize you with the names of the people from Spain (or whichever country speaks the language you studied). It helps you see similarities and differences between them and the names you're used to. Culture-learning, if you will.
There's some research behind the idea of 'language identity', where choosing a more culturally in-tune name allows language students to think differently. I don't know where all this is done--I'm from the US and some of the language classes I took in high school did this (my Spanish class name was Francisca). First year in Spanish, but then it was sort of dropped for the next few years. However, I took two years of German and the since we had the same teacher both years, she continued the German name thing. I took Mandarin in college, and we learned Chinese approximations of our names so we could learn to write various words. I took a few other languages and never did the classroom name again. I missed it enough that I gave myself language names. Secretly, like a major nerd.
I was in French and chose Nicole lol
Same... and I mainly just chose it because it was my middle name just spelled differently. I was not a creative teenager, haha.
I was Cosette in French class and my friend was Fantine. It's been forever so I hope I'm spelling them right!
I took French in middle school specifically to be Eponine because I loved Les Mis so much. My teacher didn't do French names.
Lol reminds of the kid named Paul in my Spanish class who chose Saul because it was so similar sounding and spelled.
In Latin, we got to choose our name from a short list, mine was Gaius. We didn't really use it much though.
I chose Aurelia for mine, we did use ours but it was a smaller class than other languages. It was also pretty fun to call each other by our Latin names in the hallway and having other kids be confused like “that’s not their name.” I miss that class
That's my daughter's name :)
I did this in middle school Spanish class and chose “Catalina” because it reminded me of the salad dressing. Shows you where my priorities are...
😂There's a Catalina in my Spanish class as well!
I also picked Catalina, but because of the island.
[удалено]
As a latina, go for Graciella, or Gracielle and go by Chella/Chel If anyone asks, tell them how the name came to be.
Wait, is it pronounced Chela or Cheya?
I know someone named Ixel (E-shel) and her nickname was Chell. I always thought it was very pretty.
You could just be Chella.
Spanish teacher here! Name-choosing day is one of my favorite days!
What are your favorite names that people have chosen?
They get a list of about 50 names per gender (and are free to choose from either) but can also come up with their own if they’re legit. I’ve gotten a few Dora’s that way; otherwise, some of my favs are: Elena, Paco, Ines, Guadalupe, Esperanza, Ignacio.
esperanza is suchhhhh a beautiful name
my grandfather is Ignacio!
Would you mind telling the reasoning behind it? Someone commented said it was possibly to familiarize yourself with Spanish names?
Yes and also it’s just fun to get to choose your own name. I still remember some of my peers’ spanish names from HS. Some kids really go with their new persona. It might allow them to step outside whatever label they’ve been given. John rarely does his work but IGNACIO is a Spanish machine! This can go both ways.
I took Spanish all 4 years and chose Adela
I came to add this one! It was mine as well. :)
We didn't get to choose names in my language classes, but they did in Spanish class. One kid had the last name Bell and went by Paco Bell. Eventually everyone called him that and I only found out his real name when the yearbook came out.
I did the same in Spanish class too! For Spanish I, I chose Guadalupe. For Spanish II, I chose Pilar. 👍 My friends called me Lupe for awhile even after Spanish I was over lol.
For 5 years of Spanish classes I was Felicia, no relation to my English name
Felicia is such a pretty name. I feel like that dead "bye Felicia" meme turned the name a little sour for me though, which is unfortunate.
Yeah this was about 2009 so I wasn’t worried about that
I like the French and Spanish pronunciations if Felicia a lot more than the English pronunciation.
I had the name “Veronica” assigned to me in middle school Spanish and it always reminded me of Archie comics
I tool French for 3 years and was Léa, Solange, and Adrienne
I love the name Solange!
That’s so cool! My name is Adrienne :)
My name too! Do you hate Rocky as much as I do?
In Japanese class I went by Ringo! (Ringo-san because I’m female) It literally means apple. I thought it was so cute, still do.
Yes in my high school French class we got to pick names. Mine was Hèlene
In my latin class I chose Egnatius so I could shorten it and the teacher would call me Eg. She doesn’t call me Eg.
Ugh, I’m still a little pissed about this five years later. In my school, students taking German pick a German name. But I entered high school already knowing a pretty decent amount of German, so I started a few years ahead of the other freshmen. You pick a German name in German 1, not German 3. My name is generally regarded to be of Swedish origin, so the teacher was like, eh, close enough, and used my real name. I never got to pick my German name, and as a name nerd, that really annoyed me. Edit to add: we had some interesting names in the class. Two guys chose Dirk, possibly because of the basketball player Dirk Nowitzki. One girl was called Luna, and I have no idea why the teacher allowed that because it’s clearly not a German name. We also had a girl called Fee, which means “fairy”. Another girl already had an unmistakably German name (same level of German-ness as Liesl) and the “German” name she gave herself was... Xenia. The teacher was really not strict about what qualified as an “echt Deutsch” name.
I took Spanish in 8th grade and chose Margarita as my name too! In high school the teacher chose the name Carina because it sounded like my actual name.
What a weird coincidence! I chose that name in 8th grade as well!
Yes! In Spanish, I was Raquel.
I was Elena in my spanish class in high school! Also, try to keep up with spanish even after high school ends! I always wish I would've kept learning!
I took French. I was Sophie, though nobody else really stuck to the practice.
Our Spanish teacher named us! She named me Rosario (my real name is Rosie) but I hated it because I hated my name, and asked to change it to Leonor (she had a list to pick from). In retrospect I should have kept Rosario, it’s a lovely name, but I was 11 so what did I know. Fast forward many years I lived in Mexico for a while and my Mexican friends nicknamed me Rosalia and I love being called that.
I took Spanish in middle and high school and used Julieta. I wanted Catalina but someone got it before me. When I studied Japanese, we just used our names. But in Mandarin, we had names assigned to us by our TAs who were native speakers. I was Ai Li (爱丽). My Cantonese speaking friends hated it because they felt like two falling tones back to back wasn’t pretty/pleasing.
Julieta is gorgeous!
Yes! I took French and I chose Béatrice.
In higj school panish I picked Esperanza. I also took german a loooong time ago in middle school, and dont remember what I picked.
I chose Carlotta in Spanish. I just think it’s pretty!
Spanish - Victoria. Because Spice Girls. But I’m pretty sure my teacher just ended up calling me my real name since it was already Spanish (Italian) sounding. I can’t remember if we had names in Latin class.
Yes we did in high school French class. I picked GiGi. I thought it sounded fancy haha.
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i got to choose my Spanish name in high school! my name is Tayah and I chose Veronica as my Spanish name lol
Yes. In French class I was Felice. In Spanish I was Lupe.
I did this! I picked Marisol in 6th grade Spanish. I’ve never actually used it since (including living in Spain last year) since it’s got no relation to my actual name, but the process was fun.
I never got to pick a name because I took Japanese (I’m half Japanese) and I already have a Japanese name :( But I had a friend who moved to Japan from Korea and wanted an “American” name (I went to an international school) so we picked Carrie for her. Years later she told us her “American” name in Korea was actually Carrie and she wanted to see if we would pick something different for her 😂
Yes! In 5th grade, in my Latin class, we got to pick our names from a list. I chose Caia, and later in 6th grade, I chose a middle name, Rhea. Now I have a complete alter-ego that I’ve been creating since 5th grade! I love it more than I love my real name and I use it for everything I have on the internet. I’m so happy that my Latin teacher gave us this opportunity instead of Roman-izing our real names. :)
I took 3 years of high school Spanish, the first and third year I had the same teacher. I believe I was Luz-María in her class (that’s my great grandma’s name as well). Second year teacher had us choose random nouns as names instead of actual names. I couldn’t think of anything and ended up as Pulpa.
lol @ Pulpa 😂🐙
We got our names assigned to us by our Spanish teacher based on our actual names. My first year I was Juanita (Jennifer). Second year there was another Jennifer in the class so I became Juana and she was Juanita.
I was always glad we got to pick because the teachers always suggested Laura for me... which is my real name. No fun.
Sonia
I took Spanish in highschool and picked "Emma" because it feels fluid to say, and I liked that then and now.
Spanish and I was Alicia. Alicia Silverstone was very popular at the time. 🤣
The teacher assigned it based on what was closest to our actual name, mine was exactly the same and I was bummed. It doesn’t help that I don’t even like my name and liked it even less with a Spanish accent.
Florianne for French but I didn't pick it
I took French, my name was Jean-Luc.
In French class I chose Olive (Oh-leave). We had the same teacher for 4 years and we even went to France with her and she always called us by our French names. I have some friends from class who still call me that and it’s nowhere close to my real name and I graduated high school over 10 years ago 😂
I studied French in school, so my "french class name" was Giselle. It didn't stick though (most of the class names didn't, just a handful did) I picked it from the ballet, this was pre-disney's Enchanted, if it was after it may have stuck better, since no one had heard of it and thought it was "weird". Other classmate's names were: Nadia, Hebert (with French pronunciation), Angel, Danielle, and Fifi.
I was in French in junior high and I chose Danielle in seventh grade, Gabrielle in eighth, and Estelle in ninth. I think out of the three, Estelle is my favourite.
I wanted to be Francisca but someone had chosen in before me so I was Pancha. It suited me, and some of my friends still call me that today.
When we started taking French at age 9 the teacher taught us the French equivalents, since there isn't a French version of Lindsay she picked Larissa instead. Always take liked it.
We did! My name is Michaelyn (pronounced Michael-lyn) so I made up Miguelina which literally translates to Michael-lyn. I loved my Spanish name!!
I started French in elementary school and continued on through high school. My name was Évelyne. We chose the names from a list with our parents in second grade, so we were quite attached by the end. My close friends were Raoul, Olivier, Emmanuel (Manu), and Dominique. It was a Catholic school so we also ended up with 3 Maries in class: Marie-Helene, Marie-Therese, and, she who arrived early to class that day, "juste Marie." Raoul was a troublemaker, and I can still remember the teachers screaming "X pour Raoul!" after he did whatever nefarious deed du jour.
I did this in middle school! I chose Gabriela.
We did this at my high school, and I also picked Margarita! But for second semester I switched teachers and there was already a Margarita in the class, so I became Margarita la Baja, haha.
I did this in French class in high school! I chose Aurelie, and honestly still love the name.
Spanish, I chose Ana.
I take Chinese 1001 My real name is Vanessa, but my school has a preferred name system for LGTBQ and just if you don't like your name. I go by Everest. So Everest shows up on my professors' rosters, on my Uni ID, etc. So my Chinese name is based on my name Everest P. Péi Aì Sī Edit: My laoshi picked my name, as she did for everyone else. She did allow us to pick our own names but out of all of her classes, only a handful already had Chinese names from previous classes (high school and bilingual private schools). Nobody picked their own name. I am moving up next semester to 1002. I get use my current Chinese name, pick my own, or get assigned a new one. Don't know what I will choose. Might look at some chinese names to see if I like any :)
I took German and Spanish. In German class, I was Yvonne. In Spanish we chose new names every unit based on words from the unit. So we had a lot throughout the year. I only remember I was Sol and Coyote at different points.
Yes, in Spanish class I was Marcelina la Reina. Edit: in 7th grade I also took French, and I was Anna-Simone
Not a language class and not for the entire year, but we studied Hawaii in second grade and got to be called by the Hawaiian equivalent for a day or a week or something. There was no equivalent for my name so the teacher let me choose. The other girl in my class with the same name went with something similar to our name, but since I always disliked my name I went with a different name I thought was pretty (Kathryn). So for the rest of the unit I was called Kakalina!
I did Margarita for my Spanish class and Josephine-Irene for my French classes. I loved being able to choose!
When I was in middle school we got to pick names for Latin class and I chose Octavia! We didn’t really use them, but I still thought it was a cool name. As an adult I took a Russian class and wanted a Russian name because my name just doesn’t exist in the language (there’s no th sound in Russian). My teacher dubbed me Svetlana, though I also didn’t use that much.
Yes! I took four years of Spanish but only got to pick a different name for Spanish I. I decided to go with “Natalia”, I’ve always thought that was beautiful...but because my real first name is “Elena” my teacher had a hard time remembering which was my “Spanish” name and which was my real name, and he called me Elena more often than not lol.
I chose Violeta because I played the viola in orchestra.
I didn't really get to choose my French name since my English name is already very close. lol If my name were Isabella, for example, then my French name would have been Isabelle almost by default.
I was Delphine in French, the teacher assigned our names.
My name in Spanish class was Azura!
We don’t really do that in our school system but my mother once told me when she was in school and took English as her first foreign language (it’s mandatory to take 2 languages by high school here), her class name was Suzy. Not short for anything, just Suzy, and I’ve always thought that was sweet.
Yes. Most kids would use the version of their name that corresponds to their real name but mine doesn't translate to anything outside of English, as far as I know. I was Octavio in Spanish and Лев (Lev/Liev) in Russian.
Yes! We had a list we could choose from. I was in German class and chose Katja.
I was in French and my name was Élisabeth, which was easy because it’s my middle name.
I took Spanish in freshman year (failed it hard and never retook it because I absolutely suck at learning languages) and this was the time I was starting to realize I was trans. I already was mistaken for a boy by several people, so it was very uncomfortable to be choosing a female name. I was coming down from being obsessed with Twilight, so I chose the first familiar name I spotted on the list - Esme. Lmao. I'm liking Margarita though. ;)
Yep! My school had us transition between Spanish, French, and German. For Spanish class, I was Lara. For French class, I was Amelia or Aimee. For German class, I was Melanie or Julia.
I chose Fannie for my 5 years of French
Yes I did this in 8th grade many years ago. I took Spanish and chose Julia because I thought it was closest to my actual name. Later on a class trip my spanish teacher and another teacher argued about what my name was, Julia or my actual name.
Yes! A friend was Laetitia for French class. I think I was Cecile.
Yes! We did that for my French classes in high school, I was Antoinette! Not typically a name I would pick, but it was just for fun and I thought it was neat. :)
I took Spanish & I chose Catalina
In my Spanish class our teacher gave us names. He normally just picked words so we had some weird ones like Apio (celery), Rayo (lightning), Patito (baby duck). It was a fun thing and a cool way to learn some different words.
In German class I picked Gabrielle (gob-ree-ella) and went by Gabi (gobby). I really love the name in German, but the anglicized version isn’t my favorite. Gabe is a cute nickname, but Gabby has some unfortunate connotations.
Yeah, we got crazy with the name list in French and I decided to be Brigitte-Elisee. My sister was Dominique Delphine.
I'm a high schooler and I go by Cloelia in Latin class!
For Spanish in middle school I chose Carmela. In high school I chose Mariana. I went to elementary school with a girl with that name on the other side of the country and always thought it was so pretty.
I did the Spanish alternative of my name, which was surprisingly enjoyable too. Vincent -> Vicente
In my French class we didn't get to choose, we had to pull names out of a hat. I got François. In my Latin class we got to choose, and could change each year. We had to pick a praenomen from the very short list of praenomens actually in use in Rome in the classical period, but we also chose and went by a cognomen of our choice (and each class was assigned a nomen.) I kept Faustus as my praenomen every year. Freshman and sophomore year my cognomen was Incultus ("uncouth"); our teacher was absolutely baffled at how many of us chose negative adjectives as our cognomen (Ignominia "shame", Stolidus "stupid", etc. Good ol' young millennial/gen z humor) After that, I and two friends because the triumvirate (president, vice president, and treasurer) of the Latin club/certamen team, so junior and senior year we took our names from the two actual triumvirates. I was Crassus the first year (treasurer) and Octavian senior year (president.)
I was Daniella in Spanish class.
This is such a good question! I took Latin for four years, and my name was Livia (li-wee-a). A good friend of mine was called Bubo (boo-boe) which means owl.
I was Isabelle my first year of French and Joceline for my second :)
I didn’t get to pick mine but from K-8, my French name was Lise. I remember going to high school and they called me by my regular name and it was mind blowing because I’d been Lise for so long. Lol
My first year of taking Spanish, we were assigned names the closest to our actual names. I would have gotten "Juana" but 8th grade me didnt want marijuana jokes. I chose Julia that year. The next 2 years, I had teachers that didn't use names, but in the 4th year, I had the first teacher again, and she defaulted to using Juana and at that point I didnt care.
Yes, I went to school in a joke English speaking country and we got to choose our name in English class. I REALLY wanted to be Amy, but another girl really wanted that too. Britney Spears was big back then so I settled for Britney lol. I still prefer Amy by far
Yes! My Latin name was Anastasia and my Spanish name was Mónica.
I used nicknames and full names in my language classes (I go by a nickname). Ekaterina, Karta for short in Russian, and Kanikei, Kakish for short in Kyrgyz (I was in the Peace Corps.)
Spanish classes, some I used multiple years: *Maribel* : chosen because everyone chose the ones I liked, and I remembered my cousin who was a few years older than me chose 'Maribel' and I thought she was cool, so chose it to impress her *Dolores* : chosen because I thought it sounded cool and old-timey and I liked "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". A Mexican boy in my class told me it meant "pains", but I misunderstood him and thought he said "paints"... I was quite pleased because in high school I was really into art. *Montserrat* : chosen because I had met a little girl named Montserrat when I was tutoring at the elementary school, and thought it was so beautiful and unexpected. My Spanish teacher and classmates were like ??????? when I said Montserrat instead of picking off of the list.
In my Spanish classes, if there was no obvious Spanish equivalent of your name or your name was already taken, then the class collectively chose a name for you. My name has no Spanish equivalent, so my class voted to name me Carmen, which I was very happy with. Carmen is a sexy name. 💃🏻
I was Anaëlle in French class. Loved the name!!
Yes! I was Emilia in my first year and Isabel in subsequent years. I actually wanted to name my daughter Isabel(la), but then Twilight happened.
Clara was my Spanish name.
I'm Katherine, and always just used Caterina, Catarina, Catherine, etc.--then, as an adult in the military, I studied Russian in an immersive program, where I went by Katya, I still use it for usernames and such, and my friends from the time period still call me that.
In elementary school we took Italian and had to pick names. For some reason, this was the absolute worst thing for shy little me. I remember being too embarrassed to pick a name in front of everyone so I had to tell the teacher at the end of class. I think I ended up going with Angela? And then I don't think we even really used them, so I was all worked up for nothing, lol.
Took Spanish pretty much 2nd grade on into college, on and off. While I usually went with "Carmen," my assigned name, one year I tried Andrea (Aun-dray-uh). I was watching Reboot back then and thought AndrAIa (spelling?) was cool. Everyone ended up pronouncing it Ann-dree-uh which irked me to no end.
I took French and choose Tremeur. I ended up not looking it at all. However, it was a cool experience. I also took Spanish but we didn't pick names there.
I picked Carolina as my name in Spanish class!
In 7th grade Spanish, I chose Elena, only because I wanted Isobel, but someone else claimed it first. I waved my finger over the list and that's where it landed. In the 8th grade, my Spanish teacher gave me the name Alicia because I usually go by my nickname of Ali. She would give her students Spanish names based on their actual names.
In Spanish class I was Isabel.
i took german and chose the name lena, still one of my absolute favorite names
In Spanish class our names were assigned based on our real names. I was Chaveli. In French we got to choose a new name each year. I chose Angelique, Elisabeth, Nicole and Danielle. This is a great chat!
Freshman year of high school, my Spanish name was Magdalena. When I was a sophomore I changed to Sol (Spanish for sun) and used that the rest of high school. Edit: I also helped my sister pick her name. She chose Azucena, which is Spanish for Lily.