A program on a pbs station several years back went into how a lot of
"American" names originated.  Some of it was because of misspellings by
immigration people, and quite a bit was because of changing of spellings
intentionally.  Some to avoid people looking for them, and some because of
the names appearance in English (Yank variation).  Makes me wonder sometimes
what our various names would look like in other languages slang.

This is also a big reason why product brand names and trademark symbols
change from country to country.  Don�t remember what US soft drink it was
but its symbol in certain Afrikan countries meant "POISON".
jimt

On 10/21/05 11:40 PM, "Andrew Grebneff"
<andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ> wrote:

> 
> I know of a scientist in Germany. His name is Rolland T Fuck. Not
> Fuch. Can you imagine the fun (at the price of some hassles) he could
> have in an Englisch-sprechen country?
> --
> Andrew Grebneff
> Dunedin
> New Zealand
> Fossil preparator
> <andrew.grebneff@stonebow.otago.ac.nz>
> Seashell, Macintosh, VW/Toyota van nut
> 
> HUMANITY: THE ULTIMATE VON NEUMANN MACHINE
> 
> DEMOCRACY: RULE BY THE LOWEST COMMON DENOMINATOR