So I found this to be a really interesting question, because yeah, Chuck and Brandon are “default American” names to me.
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@pthime @astronomerritt But the "most American" name to people outside the USA is a matter of familiarity and social perception, not statistics (or at least, that's what I was thinking in my original question). I wouldn't assume a "Michael" was from the USA, but "Chuck" sure sounds that way to me too. (Maybe because of Chuck Norris, I don't know.)
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@amenonsen/116029985914224033
So I found this to be a really interesting question, because yeah, Chuck and Brandon are “default American” names to me. And now I’m interested to know what other names people from outside the US see as default American names, and also, if there’s default names for other countries.
@astronomerritt Russ, & Chad!
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@croptopjin Oooh I heard that was a thing in Germany! They call it Kevinismus.
@astronomerritt @croptopjin I know someone who changed their name to Kevin because they had German heritage and it was pronounced sensibly in both English and German... I suspect he wasn't aware of the Kevinismus aspect tho as he doesn't live in Germany.
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@skittles I’ve heard of Kevinismus and associated names but I had no idea about Karl-Heinz and Malte and I find that absolutely fascinating!
I’ve only ever heard of two people called Genesis and they were both Filipino, but those other names you gave are ABSOLUTELY American-sounding.
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@astronomerritt Russ, & Chad!
@DrChris Russ is a good one actually, I’ve known some Russels but they’ve never been Russes!
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@piglet @astronomerritt I work with 2 men named Chad
Also a Chaz@Artemis201 @piglet You could feasibly have a British Chaz, I think! It is hilarious to me that you actually work with two Chads, I still can’t quite get my brain to recognise it as a name real people have
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@hattom @astronomerritt interesting that Kayleigh was the example here, since it was pretty high on this list of Irish girls names (though I suspect this list was written for Americans)
@Artemis201 Oh lord, Irish name lists written by/for Americans are always hilariously wrong in a few ways!
A céilidh (Scottish Gaelic) or céilí (Irish) is a WORD, not a name. It’s a social gathering.
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I was not aware that there was a shortage of Michaels in Ireland.
But when I was in college calculus here in the US, there were four other students in the class named "Michael" ...
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I was not aware that there was a shortage of Michaels in Ireland.
But when I was in college calculus here in the US, there were four other students in the class named "Michael" ...
@michael_w_busch @pthime Oh, I know many Michaels, it’s just that the USA seems to have even MORE, proportionally
There was only one in my university calculus class, for instance…
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RE: https://mastodon.social/@amenonsen/116029985914224033
So I found this to be a really interesting question, because yeah, Chuck and Brandon are “default American” names to me. And now I’m interested to know what other names people from outside the US see as default American names, and also, if there’s default names for other countries.
@astronomerritt Every piece of fiction written by an American but set in the UK or just featuring British characters seems to include at least one Simon, Nigel or possibly Ian.
I find this exceedingly odd (and funny) as most real-life British guys seem to have names like Matt or George.
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