My new coworker's name is Benjamin. SHE started today.

A lot of Taiwanese people (and Chinese people) have odd English names. Many of them seem so random, so wrong, so that's-not-a-name. It's partly because people want to have original names. They think Kevin's too common, Wendy's too common, so they start making up names.

Running through the employee list, here are a few strange ones. They can be categorized into The Adjectives, The Misspellt, and The Say-What?. None of these names are directly translated from their Chinese names. I also put these names through a search in thinkbabynames.com to weed out a few rare names that are actually names.

The Adjectives:
Happy [M] (I'm sure you are)
Smart [M] (actually, this one's from China)

The Misspellt:
Jully [F]
Tomson [M]
Jamy [M]

The Say-What?:
Acme [M] (This was chosen using closed eyes and a finger in a dictionary)
Dinlin [F] (I'm sorry...?)
Dis [M] (Would hate to get Dis'ed)
Jaw [M] (like, hit you in the...?)
Jurcy [M] (MMmmm, them oranges sure are Jurcy...)
Manton [M] (means: "Man's or hero's town")
Morven [F] (Not sure how she chose this...)
Pagan [M] (means: "Countryman", but has come to mean "heathen")
Rabi [M] (I will be at the Bar Mitzvah)
Samun [M] (My favorite type of sashimi)
Solo [M] (He must idolize Mario Van Peebles)

And my absolute favorite employee name at my company is:
Captain [M]

Any odd names you've heard?

Ay ay, and Goodbye!!