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Stock Foreign Name / United States to Welsh

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    U.S. General 

General

  • Many given names which are popular in the U.S. are much less common in other parts of the world. For more information and examples of that, see the Trope page Wacky Americans Have Wacky Names.

Masculine names

Feminine names

  • Ann/Anne
  • Ashley
  • Betty
  • Brianna—like Candace and Marcia below, a name that's common in the US, but much more rarely encountered in the wider Anglosphere.
  • Britney (particularly this spelling of it)
  • Candace/Candy—much rarer in the rest of the Anglosphere
  • Chelsea
  • Chris (short for Christine, Christina, or occasionally Crystal). The Stock Name for American girls, or any Western girl, in Japan and, by way of cultural osmosis, Korea, China, and Taiwan.
    • Ironically, within the US itself, it's primarily seen as a boy's name or at least a unisex Tomboyish Name, as it's also short for 'Christopher'.
    • Christine "Chris" Hargensen from Carrie.
  • Debbie
  • Jane
    • Jane Doe, female equivalent of John Doe.
  • Jennifer—always a (hot) girlfriend
  • June
  • Kimberley/Kimberly
  • Madison
    • It was formerly an uncommon boys' name and a presidential surname, until Splash.
  • Marcia/Marsha—like Candace above, much rarer in the rest of the Anglosphere
  • Mary
  • Misty/Missy
  • Nancy
    • Nancy Reagan, a former president's wife
    • Nancy Drew
  • Taylor
  • Tiffany
    • '80s Teen Idol Tiffany Darwish (usually known by just her first name)

Surnames

  • Brown
  • Buchanan (popular family name in sitcoms/soaps)
  • Davis
  • Henderson
    • An archetypal 'family next door' — "We owe the Hendersons a dinner!"
  • Jones
  • Johnson, the second most common last name in the US.
  • Miller
  • Scott
  • Smith, which happens to be the most common last name in the US.
  • Wilson

    U.S. African-Americans 
  • See Ghetto Name for more information.
  • Many African-Americans may choose to adopt non-Western invented names or names of African origin to distance themselves from their 'slave' roots. For similar reasons, with the rise of The Nation of Islam among Black Americans with its focus upon black advocacy (and its lasting effects), expect to see more 'Islamic' names, often of Arabic origin, on the list.
  • The reason many French names appear on this list is because Creoles of color (mixed-race Creoles born from the French/Spanish settlers intermarrying with Africans or from freed slaves) historically had classical French names.

Masculine names

Feminine names

  • Anything ending in '-isha' (Keisha, Kenisha, Tanesha, etc.)
  • Aaliyahnote 
  • Aisha, Monique and Neice (and combination with just about any word)
    • Aisha from Winx Club.
    • Little Bill: Ms. Murray's first name is Aisha, as revealed in the wedding episode.
  • Alexus (or Mercedes)
  • Angela
  • Dejanote 
  • Ebony, Raven and other color-signifying names
  • Imaninote 
  • Jazmine
  • Lasquweesha
  • LaSomething
  • Lulanote 
  • Mae
    • Usually associated with older black women.
  • Monique/Monica
  • Nianote 
  • Peaches
  • Phyllis/Phillis, in period works.
  • Shanice
    • As well as Shaniqua, Shalissa, Shanay, Shanaynay, and anything with the prefix 'Sha-'
  • Tangerine/Tangie)

Unisex

  • Conventional names with creative spellings or pronunciations, for example the Urban Legend about Le-a pronounced "Le-dash-a".
  • Names of luxury cars, such as Bentley, Lexus, or Mercedes
  • Line of Sight Names
  • Pookie (usually used in a stereotypical way)
  • Ray-Ray (similar to Pookie in usage)

Last names

    U.S. Amish 

Masculine names

  • Ezekiel
    • The below-mentioned Weird Al Yankovic quote.
  • Jebediah
    • Played straight in "Weird Al" Yankovic's Amish Paradise:
      At 4:30 in the morning I'm milkin' cows
      Jebediah feeds the chickens and Jacob plows... fool
      And I've been milkin' and plowin' so long that
      Even Ezekiel thinks that my mind is gone!
  • Jeremiah
  • Jacob
    • Used by Amish in For Richer or Poorer, "The Outsiders" episode of MacGyver, "Murder, Plain and Simple" episode of Murder, She Wrote, A Murder in Fulham County, a theater production "Jacob's Choice" and Harvest of Fire. In the musical Plain and Fancy, Jacob Yoder is not a unique name.
  • Samuel
    • Used by Amish in Witness, For Richer or Poorer, and Harvest of Fire.
    • Also one of the top five Amish masculine names according to John A. Hostetler (the others are John, Amos, Daniel and David).

Feminine names

  • Mary, Katie and Annie round out the top five Amish feminine names according to John A. Hostetler.
  • Rebecca
  • Sarah
    • Used by Amish in Aaron's Way, Jodi Picoult's "Plain Truth", "Murder, Plain and Simple" episode of Murder, She Wrote, A Stoning in Fulham County, and Harvest of Fire.

Surnames

  • Lapp
    • Used by Amish in Witness, For Richer or Poorer, "Murder, Plain and Simple" episode of Murder, She Wrote, Harvest of Fire and The Shunning. Also one of the top five Amish surnames according to John A. Hostetler (the four others are Stoltzfus, King, Fisher and Beiler).
  • Yoder
    • Used by Amish in For Richer or Poorer and the musical Plain and Fancy.
    • Also associated with a brand of "Amish" dairy products and with the important Mennonite theologian, John Howard Yoder.
  • Zook
    • Plain and Fancy: "Also families like Yoder, only more. We got twenty-four families Zook."

    U.S. Latter-Day Saints 

General

  • Given their faith, the tendency to use names derived from The Book of Mormon is pretty much exclusive to them. Context for religious figures exclusive to this book will be provided.
  • Mormons are known for choosing strangely- or uniquely-spelled names (or otherwise unconventional names) for their children.
    • The actual reason behind this practice varies, with some saying it's to seek individuality in a highly conformist and culturally-homogenous environment, while others explain it can theoretically help to keep the peace between expectant mothers who want to preserve a One-Steve Limit of sorts.note 
    • A Saturday Night Live skit aired on March 3, 2012 impersonating Mitt Romney and his five sons parodies this and features the sons introducing themselves as Tagg, Tanner, Tictac, Targalack, and Tiggit. Only the first of the five names is real.

Masculine names

  • Alma, not to be confused with the feminine name in Spanishnote 
  • Brigham
    • Usually named after Brigham Young, the successor of Joseph Smith (see below).
  • Hebernote 
  • John
  • Joseph
    • Most likely named after Joseph Smith, the founder and first Head of the LDS Church.
  • Moses
  • Moroninote 
  • Nephinote 
  • Spencer

Feminine names

  • Emma
  • Molly
    • "Molly Mormon" is a term for the popular stereotype of a female member of the LDS Church, i.e. "the perfect Mormon woman".

Last names

  • Browning
  • Call
  • Hatch
  • Osmond
    • The Osmonds, a family of musicians who enjoyed mainstream success in The '70s.
  • Romney
  • Young

    U.S. Puerto Rican 

Masculine names

Feminine names

    U.S. Wealthy 

Masculine

Feminine

  • Traditionally male names such as 'Spencer' or 'Dylan'.
  • Alexis
  • Ashley
    • 'The Ashleys', a clique of snobby, fashion-obsessed girls (all called Ashley) from Recess. In keeping with the preppy theme, they also each have a younger sister called Brittany.
    • Ashley and Ashlyn, archetypal rich, ditzy girls from Final Destination 3.
    • Ashley Banks, youngest child of the wealthy Banks family from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
  • Blair
    • Glossy young New Yorker Blair Waldorf from Gossip Girl.
  • Brittany (not "Britney")
  • Brenda
    • Strangely enough, given that in the UK, where it originates, this is seen as a frumpy, rather common old lady name.
    • Popularized in the US by Brenda Walsh of 90210 fame.
  • Bunny/Bitsy/Buffy/Muffy
    • Usually used by older up-scale women.
    • Muffy from Arthur, though she's a young girl
    • Bunny Caldwell, Cecile's intimidating mother from Cruel Intentions.
    • Bunny McDougal, Charlotte's mother-in-law-from-hell from Sex and the City.
    • Bitsy von Muffling, also from Sex and the City.
  • Heather, which firmly cemented its place after Heathers debuted.
  • Parker
  • Whitney

Last names

  • Any British-heritage derived last name, required to lend that all-important WASPy flavour, especially those ending in '-ton', '-worth' or '-more' — for example Kensington, Buffington, Lexington, Whitworth, Widmore, etc.
  • Dutch surnames also tend to denote high social class in the US — Van de Kamp, for example.
    • In a German name, "von" really is an aristocratic prefix; the similar sounding "van" in Dutch names, however, is common as dirt. (The Dutch-descended Ludwig van Beethoven tried to pull a fast one on the Austrian nobles by way of this confusion.) However, what's being signaled with the Dutch names isn't that the ancestors were aristocrats in the Netherlands, but rather that the family has been in America—especially New York—for a very long time (probably since the 17th century). A prime example of this is the Roosevelt family, whose name isn't particularly distinctive in the Netherlands (it means "rose field") but sounds upper-crust to Americans (and would even if the family hadn't produced two presidents).
  • Roman numerals at the end: e.g. John Buffington III
    • William Henry Gates III, better known as Bill Gates. Note that Gates was from the wealthy family right from the start.
  • A middle name that is the person's mother's maiden name.

    U.S. Southern States 
See Hayseed Name for more information.

Masculine names

  • Names that were originally used (and still are) as British occupational surnames — Tucker, Parker, Hunter, Carter, Cooper etc. Justifiable in that they might have been the mother's maiden name.
  • Androgynous names like Ashley or Beverley, leading to jokes when juxtaposed with masculine-sounding female names like Billie Jo.
  • Semi-obscure biblical names, especially if they end with "-iah" (or short forms of names that do).
    • Jebediah/Jeb
    • Jedidiah
    • Jethro
    • Zebediah
    • Zeke. Though the full name, Ezekiel, is kind of rare.
  • Compound names, e.g. Billy-Bob, Billy-Joe, Joe-Bob, etc.
  • Abner
  • Bubba
  • Buck
  • Cletus
  • Clyde
  • Elmer
  • Jimbo
  • Kevin
  • Peyton
  • Reuben/Rube

Feminine names

  • Compound names, e.g. Mary-Lou, Peggy-Sue, etc.
  • Irish-sounding names—Lurleen, Rayleen, Darleen, etc.
  • Names that end in -belle
  • Austin
  • Brandy/Brandi
  • Darla
  • Dixienote 
  • Dolly
  • Dusty
  • Jenny (at least in Texas)
  • Taylor

    Vietnamese 

General

  • Note that in Vietnam it's customary to address a stranger by their given name, not a family name. Võ Nguyên Giáp, a famous North Vietnam general (the guy died in October 2013, BTW), is thus correctly addressed as "General Giáp", not "General Võ".
  • Most Vietnamese names are word names like Chinese, Korean, and (some) Japanese names, e.g. 'Trung', "Loyal"; 'Vân', "Cloud", etc. If a name is Sino-Vietnamese in nature (i.e. has a Chinese cognate form), corresponding Chữ Hán (Chinese characters) are provided for reference.note 

Masculine names

  • Dũng*
  • Minh*
    • This was an adopted name of the communist revolutionary Hồ Chí Minh (1890-1969).
  • Sơn*
  • Thanh*
  • Tuấn*

Feminine names

  • Mỹ*
  • Ngọc*
  • Thảo*
  • Thi*
  • Thị (note the diacritic)*
    • In this case, it's justified, as it's a middle name (note: not a given name) used for virtually every Vietnamese woman before the mid-1970s.
  • Thu*
  • Trâm*

Unisex names

  • An*
  • Dương*
  • Giang*

Family names

  • They're technically first names, as Vietnamese follow the common Asian tradition of putting the family name first.
  • Nguyễn*
    • Justified as about 39% of the Vietnamese population has this surname—and for good reason, as many events in Vietnamese history have contributed to the name's prominence, including and not limited to various royal families changing their surnames after their dynasties collapsed (either being forced to do so or to avoid retribution by the new monarch), the Nguyễn Dynasty (the last Vietnamese dynasty, 1802-1884) awarding people the surname during their rule (much like how 'Li/Lee' became common in China), criminals changing their names to avoid persecution, etc.
    • Tila Nguyen, better known as Tila Tequila.
    • Tyler Nguyen-Baker from Turning Red is part-Vietnamese.
  • Trần*
    • Also justified as it's the second most common surname in Vietnam (about 11%).
    • DR. TRAN'S GIVING AWAY THE HOT DICKINGS.
  • Lê*
    • Also justified as it's the third most common surname in Vietnam (about 10%).
  • Phạm*
    • Also justified as it's the fourth most common surname in Vietnam (about 7%).

    Welsh 

Masculine Names

  • Alednote 
  • Dafydd/Dewinote 
    • Saint Dewi, the patron saint of Wales, was a 6th-century bishop of Mynyw.
  • Dainote 
  • Dylan
  • Geraint
  • Glyn/Glyndwrnote 
    • Usually in honour of Owain Glyndwr (or Glyn Dŵr, Anglicized as Glendower), a 14th-century Welsh patriot who led a revolt against England.
  • Hugh/Huw
  • Ioannote 
  • Lloydnote 
  • Owain/Owen
  • Rhysnote 

Feminine names

  • Angharadnote 
    • In the medieval Welsh romance Peredur son of Efrawg, Angharad Golden-Hand is the lover of the knight Peredur.
  • Bronwynnote 
    • It has been used as a given name in Wales since the 19th century.
  • Carys/Cerysnote 
  • Delythnote 
    • This name is actually a recent creation.
  • Dilysnote 
  • Gwen (and various derivatives thereof)note 
  • Hafnote 
    • It's more commonly used as a middle name.
  • Myfanwynote 
  • Serennote 
    • This name is actually a recent creation.

Last names

  • Davis/Davies
  • Evans
  • Jones
    • Lampshaded in The Very World of Milton Jones: In the midst of (Welsh) choir practice, the teacher bellows, "JONES!" to which everyone answers, "Which one?". Milton tries asking, "Which one?" again in Fiji later, but it doesn't work 'cos there's only him.
    • If you listen carefully to the roll call in Zulu, you can hear several calls of "Jones [service number]". This was common practice in Welsh regiments due to the sheer number of Joneses.
    • Alec, Aled, and Alex Jones are all Welsh presenters in Britain—and often presenting the same things, most commonly The One Show.
    • Catherine Zeta-Jones was born Catherine Zeta Jones, with Zeta as simply her middle name. Growing up in Wales, however, meant she had to include "Zeta" to distinguish herself. Her early film and TV credits lacked the hyphen.
    • Bryn Terfel Jones likewise treats his middle name as a last name.
    • Tom Jones went the opposite way. He was born Thomas John Woodward.
  • Lloyd
  • Llewellynnote 
  • Thomas
  • Williams

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