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Teams & Riders Coolest Names in the Peloton*

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Soraya Paladin.
There's a name that wouldn't feel out of place in an epic fantasy story.
I'm talking LoTR style. In fact 'Paladin' is the name of Pippin's father.
Soraya wouldn't look too out of place either in a role in an epic fantasy story.
I hadn't seen these posts before. They're hilarious to me because Soraya is one of the least epic, most streetwise, chavvest names a woman can bear in Spain. :D
No idea about its connotations in Italy though.
 
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Reactions: valentius borealis
I hadn't seen these posts before. They're hilarious to me because Soraya is one of the least epic, most streetwise, chavvest names a woman can bear in Spain. :D
No idea about its connotations in Italy though.
Soraya is the name of a Persian princess, pure class! Definitely one of the most beautiful Iranian names out there.

That should be the main connotation in Italy as well!

Clueless Spaniards! ;)
 
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Domenico Pozzovivo

Maybe you don't know that Domenico Pozzovivo legally change his surname when he was young.
His original surname was "Puzzovivo" with "U" but in italian this can be translated as "strong bad smell" :p

So in the first year of the 2000s (I think in 2004) he went to his municipality and start the procedure to change his surname
to Pozzovivo, that can be translated as "living water reservoire" :p

If you google "Domenico Puzzovivo" you can still find some italian cycling site with Juniores or U-23 race results
with his old name.
 
I hadn't seen these posts before. They're hilarious to me because Soraya is one of the least epic, most streetwise, chavvest names a woman can bear in Spain. :D

Seems a bit harsh on a former deputy Prime Minister.


Most people would probably assume she's a foreigner by only reading the full name.

Really? Can't be a native with family of non-native background? Or simply with parents who like the sound of the name?
Wikipedia has 17 "notable" Sorayas, all bar one of whom were born in the country in which they rose to prominence, including USA, Belgium, Sweden, Mexico, Spain, Brazil, Japan and Philippines as well as the Iran/Afghanistan "home region" of the name.
 
Been having a bit of fun with translating Danish names recently. So we got:
"Birdsong"
"Wingfarm"
"Oak"
"Mountain"
"Fight (Oaksplace)"

What about Dutch names?
"Longfield"
"Tree"
"Greenweigh"
"Basementman"
"Buildingman"
"Of the Pool"
"Of the Mountain"
"Of the Horn"
"Ball"
"Newandhouse"
"the Short"

I could add some more if I were allowed to change just one letter or go with the phonetics. And I didn't even search among the Flemish ones or among female riders.

Unfortunately, Polish (which is my native language) names don't consist of words you can find in dictionary in most cases. You can trace back the etymology of many of them to actual words but there are very few names that fully consist of common words. The only exceptions I can think of among recent road cyclist at highest lever are Niemiec (German- a noun, not adjective) and Niewiadoma (unknown).
 
Some Italian translations:

Cipollini --> small onions
Pantani --> quagmires
Baffi -->> Moustaches
Basso --> low
Quaranta --> forty
Rosa -->> Pink
Tonti -->> stupids, dumbs... :p
Casagrande -->> Big House

Gimondi -->> mondi is "worlds" in italian...so can be Giworlds :)
Moscon -->....Mosca in italian is the fly (the bug...) Moscon is very similar to "big fly" (that would be "moscone")
 
Seems a bit harsh on a former deputy Prime Minister.




Really? Can't be a native with family of non-native background? Or simply with parents who like the sound of the name?
Wikipedia has 17 "notable" Sorayas, all bar one of whom were born in the country in which they rose to prominence, including USA, Belgium, Sweden, Mexico, Spain, Brazil, Japan and Philippines as well as the Iran/Afghanistan "home region" of the name.
Soraya Bakhtiary was all over the European yellow press next to Audrey Hepburn in the 50s, that's how the name rose to prominence!

It means "little preciousness" / Jewelry, Pleiades or good princess literally.

Like I said, it's actually a very honorable name. So I don't get where the negative connotation in Spain is based on.
 
Names develop all kinds of connotations quite independently from their origins. Jessica and Vanessa have similar connotations in Spain and they have nothing to do with each other.

As for Dutch names (including Flemish), I've been researching them for a few weeks as part of a game where I translate them into Old English just for the sake of it and I must say, they're pretty cool. I'm a fan of how Lotte Kopecky's surname, which is Czech, translates almost exactly as Vandenbergh ("from the hill"). I also appreciate how Dumoulin is basically Vermeulen ("from the mill"). And I'm super puzzled by Mackaij, Makaay et al. Like what is a Scottish clan doing there.
Seems a bit harsh on a former deputy Prime Minister.
I wouldn't say it doesn't fit.
XoPuwDl4SUk3AngHknw8J3.jpg

soraya-pistola_8218c641_1280x719.jpg
 
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Reactions: Red Rick
Not to mention Gatto = cat.
Who's "The Short"?

Also, "rein" is French for "kidney", which gets really funny with a guy called 'Rein' on a French team.
Talking about riders called Rein in French teams, Rein Taaramäe's surname literally means "a pile of tare (containers)", in gentitive case.

To add some other translations of Estonian riders from past and present:
Kirsipuu - cherry tree
Aus - honest
Jõeäär - riverfront
Räim - small herring
Laas - large (old) forest
Kuum - hot
 
So Kirsipuu basically is the Estonian version of the Askhenazi name Kirschbaum!?

Yes, a literal translation.:D Actually, due to historical reasons, significant part of our vocabulary has come directly from or through the German language.

From middle ages until up to the early 20th century, almost every technological and cultural innovation reached local village people (large majority of ethnic estonians lived in the countryside back then) through mansions owned by german speaking (and often ethnic german) landlords.

As a result vocabulary necessary to describe the new types of tools, machinery, but also jobs and craftsmen were often inevitably borrowed from German and accomodated to Estonian language.

I'm no linguist, so I can't go very specific on that front, but the word cherry (kirsche -> kirss) is one of the most obvious examples of such borrowing of vocabulary.
 
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What about Dutch names?
"Longfield"
"Tree"
"Greenweigh"
"Basementman"
"Buildingman"
"Of the Pool"
"Of the Mountain"
"Of the Horn"
"Ball"
"Newandhouse"
"the Short"

I could add some more if I were allowed to change just one letter or go with the phonetics. And I didn't even search among the Flemish ones or among female riders.

Unfortunately, Polish (which is my native language) names don't consist of words you can find in dictionary in most cases. You can trace back the etymology of many of them to actual words but there are very few names that fully consist of common words. The only exceptions I can think of among recent road cyclist at highest lever are Niemiec (German- a noun, not adjective) and Niewiadoma (unknown).
There are a couple of straightforward ones in wintersport though, such as Maciej Kot, or Kamila Żuk.

A lot of exciting-sounding names are a lot more mundane when translated to one's native language, though. Basque names may seem exciting and unusual on the face of it, but a lot of the time that's simply because of Basque being so alien and unusual among a sea of Indo-European languages that its root components are not immediately recognizable to non-speakers. For example, Alex Aranburu might seem like he has an unusual name, but it's just a locative descriptor, no different to those you see in other languages all the time - aran meaning "valley", and buru meaning "head". As with a lot of languages, locatives form a lot of Basque names, and often in reference to the family house or features thereof, such as Etxeberria "new house", Goikoetxea "high house", and so on; other common elements include aritz "oak", mendi "mountain", ibai "river", and so on.
 

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