English Names in Korea

When kids go to English school, they are given or choose an English name to be called when they are there. But sometimes they are quite unusual, or are pronounced differently than they would be based on native English pronunciation rules. For instance:

Different pronunciation and/or spelling:

Lany, pronounced like Laney
Jany = Janey
Phillip= Pillup (they have trouble with the ‘F’ sound)
Jinny= Jeanie or Genie
Linze= Lindsay or Lindsey.
Zena= Gina, with a hard G, almost like Cheena. (Took me a long time to say this one correctly!)

Unusual:

Bella. Thank you, Twilight series.

Walter. My great-uncle was called Walter. While itsuited him, I have a hard time seeing a 10-year-old Korean boy 4 generations later being called Walter.

Fred. My grandfather was Fred. See above.

Very unusual:

Fanny=boy (I told his teacher that a ‘Fanny’ in the U.S. is either a 90-year-old great-grandmother, or a behind. I decided not to have her tell him, because he would only be embarrassed.)

June=boy (It was Jun, but that’s not how they pronounced it, so we added an ‘e’. Now he’s a middle-aged woman.)

Rooney=boy (He came up with this one on his own, but I’m not sure where he got it from. It’s not a name I’ve ever heard.)

Landy=boy (He came up with this one, but I don’t know where…)


And of course, in a class where there's a Jerry, there's always a Tom, too. ;)