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Popularity of the baby name Dudu


Posts that mention the name Dudu

Baby name battle: Owen vs. Oen

A reader named Tyler got in touch recently to ask me about using Oen as an alternative to the very trendy Owen.

Here are Tyler’s questions:

I was browsing your site and came across the name Oen, which I thought seemed like a unique way to spell Owen and I really liked it. I spoke about the name to some friends and was told by a dutch friend of mine that in dutch, Oen apparently means (and I kid you not, unfortunately) something along the lines of a castrated donkey, and is slang for moron and idiot, among other things.

I was just wondering what you thought the likelihood would be of an Oen being made fun of or potentially not being hired for jobs because of the translation? Do you know if there are a lot of names that mean something not-so-great after translation?

My heart sank when my friend told me, I really liked Oen.

According to Wiktionary, the Dutch word oen does indeed mean “castrated donkey” or “nincompoop, moron, dumb person.”

It doesn’t sound like Owen, though. Oen is a single-syllable word with a vowel sound that’s something like the oo of “took.”

Here are my thoughts on the name Oen:

Employment: Names that signal race/class can be problematic during a job hunt, but Oen doesn’t do this. It just happens to have an undesirable meaning in a non-English language. I doubt this would make it a barrier to employment.

Teasing: I think someone named Oen is more likely to be teased about the spelling of his name than an obscure translation. Names with more conspicuous negative associations like Mangina, Dudu, Phuc, Bich, Randy and Fanny are much riskier than Oen in this respect.

Spelling: Tyler didn’t mention spelling, but I think it’s an important issue. The name Oen will always have to be explained to people. “Owen without the w” is pretty simple as far as spelling explanations go, but saying it over and over again for an entire lifetime? Hm.

So that’s my take on Oen. I don’t think the Dutch translation is a big deal, but I do think the spelling could be.

Which version do you prefer, Owen or Oen? Why?

[Update: The poll is closed now. The final tally was: 48 votes for Owen, 22 votes for Oen.]

Morocco bans Berber baby names

Here’s something I wasn’t aware of until I did some research on Berber names (for a post about the name Monica, the only Berber name commonly used in English).

In 2009, human rights groups called out the Moroccan government for not allowing Berber (a.k.a. Amazigh) parents to choose Amazigh names for their babies. Activists claimed it amounted to ethnic discrimination.

According to a Moroccan government official, the names were rejected because they “contradict the Moroccan identity” — despite the fact that Berbers are native to Morocco.

The handful of Amazigh parents who’d fought for and won the right to use Amazigh names for their babies had to endure an expensive, time-consuming appeals process. They also had a hard time obtaining things like passports and medical insurance for their (officially) nameless newborns.

Here are some Amazigh names that were initially rejected, but later accepted, by the Moroccan government:

  • Ayyur – “moon” in Tamazight (the Berber language)
  • Massine – the diminutive form of Massinissa, the name of an ancient Berber king
  • Sifaw – “enlightened” in Tamazight
  • Tara – the name of an aromatic plant in Tamazight
  • Tin-Ass* – “light” in Tamazight
  • Tiziri – “moonlight” in Tamazight

I haven’t been able to find any updates on the story, so I’m not sure if Morocco has since changed its stance on Amazigh names.

*Not to make light of the issue, but…Tin-Ass reminds me of a post I wrote a few years ago on lost-in-translation Hebrew names like Mangina and Dudu.

Sources: Morocco bans Berber names on birth certificates, Letter to Morocco Interior Minister Benmoussa on the Refusal of Amazigh Names, Morocco: Lift Restrictions on Amazigh (Berber) Names