this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
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So I recently learned there's was a Chinese emperor named "Cao Pi" which sounds like "Cow Pee", which made me wonder if there are English names that sound funny in other languages. (hexbear.net)
submitted 2 days ago by ConcreteHalloween@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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Like does "Steve" sound like the word for "Big Boobs" in Basque or something.

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[–] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I think they put the apostrophe after ts in some transcription to indicate the modern pinyin c, i.e. 曹操 Ts'ao Ts'ao

[–] CloutAtlas@hexbear.net 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Huh, I haven't encountered that Ts. Or at least I don't recall encountering it. Just Tsingtao Beer and Tsinghua University

[–] KuroXppi@hexbear.net 1 points 1 day ago

It's pretty uncommon, from the wade giles romanisation. I only recall seeing it in texts from like, the 1800s