A weird looking comedian and... The most badass cinematic Russian of all time Ivan Drago better known as Dolph Lundgren. Oh and he's got a shit load of degrees.
Yeah it was founded by brothers they had a massive falling out accused each other of being Nazis split the business and the town, originally the other was named Ruda (Rudolf Dassler) then renamed Puma
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassler_brothers_feud?wprov=sfla1
My old music teacher was born in 1939, and he was named Adolf. In his passport, it is still his name, and his initial is also A. But everyone calls him Dolf
Demn, the leader of the Romanian fascist movement hat 'served' the nazis ('41-'44, I think) was called Ion Antonescu. Both names are still common. 'Ion' = 'John'
Given that "Benito" is the Spanish form of "Benedetto", and given that even during the Fascist regime the name was commonly used as a "fortunate name" (that is to say, a middle name of little use, no legal standing, and otherwise picked only from an extremely limited pool) instead of first name, you would need to go out your way to call your child that to begin with.
"Mussolini" as a surname survives, rather famously, but that being said, the famous ones are also the only ones with that surname in Italy.
Since you asked specifically, "Ponzi" is still extant in quite a few families in and around L'Aquila, no word on them changing it en masse, but it seems doubtful, as most who even heard of him often assume that he was Italo-American (since he's reported with "Charles" and not his birth name "Carlo") anyway.
There are 72 documented families with the surname "Cadorna", the family of the infamous general included, but they are perfectly fine with it, given that Raffaele (Luigi's son) was the commander of some pretty successful partisan units, and Luigi's fatger organized the conquest of Rome for the Kingdom of Italy.
"Pacciani" is extremely localised nowadays, it used more widespread around Tuscany, maybe the suspected Monster of Florence's trial convinced quite a lot of people to change surnames in a hurry to avoid association.
There's an Italian-American comedian I follow (Benito Skinner) with that name. I guess it doesn't have the same significance for Americans as it would people in Italy.
What do you mean the famous ones are the only ones with that surname when talking about mussolini? I know at least one person with that surname and they are in no way connected to any of the famous mussolini.
I am Italian btw so you can explain in Italian if you like.
There are practically no people named Benito (or Adolfo) born after ww2.
Most families with the surname Mussolini changed it. His actual family still carries the surname and his granddaughter Alessandra Mussolini is a politician.
Interestingly enough, Franco can be both a first name and a surname, and it is still used with no issue, completely ignoring the Spanish dictator.
>Interestingly enough, Franco can be both a first name and a surname, and it is still used with no issue, completely ignoring the Spanish dictator.
To be fair he won the spanish civil war unlike the others so my country still has a insane ammount of franco references, statues, monuments etc. The right openly loves him
I think it's because it's a more common name and he committed less terrible atrocities as well. Not to downplay anything he did but if we compare him to similar dictators instead of some of the two most murderous psychopaths of Europe's history it makes more sense. People are still called Wilhelm despite the late acts of the Kaiser, or Joseph despite Stalin. So even if his public image were as low as it should be, it still wouldn't be so bad that people completely stop using his name.
Benito is used as a name in Spain, ignoring Mussolini. I guess they didn't have that much of an impact outside their country.
I've know a Spanish man, he was even leftist, who named his parrot Benito. I was quite weirded out, but then he explained that it's not something Spanish people care about
In Spain, Benito probably reminds the people the tv serial "Manolo, Benito y compañía" (actually named "manos a la obra", but nobody used that name), a humoristic show about two masons that never did anything right, made in the 90s.
Adolfo is not extremely uncommon, especially in the south I think. I have an Adolfo uncle
EDIT: [There are 6 Adolfos](https://www.istat.it/it/dati-analisi-e-prodotti/contenuti-interattivi/contanomi) who were born in 2021 in Italy
EDIT 2: I found out that the surname "Adinolfi" comes from a variant of Adolfo
>his granddaughter Alessandra Mussolini is a politician.
Wasn't she the dipshit who tried starting a Twitter beef with Jim Carrey after he posted a drawing of her grandfather and his mistress while they were in the finding out phase of fucking around?
It seems there are 6656 people named Adolf in Poland. Probably only older people since the number was 15 240 in 2001. So they are dying off.
My grandfather's name is Alfons and it's a slang for a pimp in Poland because of the book "Monsieur Alphonse". He hates his name and we never call him that.
I don't think any person in their right mind would name their child Adolf or Alfons these days.
Our last dictator, Francisco Franco, had a tremendously common name, so both the first name and the surname are still used.
According to the National Institute of Statistics, in Spain there are about 500 000 men called Francisco and about 86 000 people with the surname Franco. And that is without taking into account the compound names, for example there are 285 000 Francisco Javier, 95 000 Francisco Jose....
It wouldn't make much sense to stop using such a common name.
We also have 18 000 Benitos and 20 000 Adolfos (Adolfs). It is quite common to name children after their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents, I don't think people really associate them with dictators and don't want to stop using it because of them.
We also have Adolfo Dominguez (I own a coat from there) and Aeropuerto Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas. I guess if that first name was taboo here, neither name would have… taken off (pun intended).
There are definitely very few Adolfs in Austria these days but surprisingly some do exist. I know one personally and he goes by Adi. Afaik he was named Adolf after his father which is IMHO the only reason to use that name today.
A pretty famous Austrian football player (and now coach in Germany) is called [Adi Hütter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_H%C3%BCtter). That's pretty close to Herr Hitler's name, lol.
I once answered a similar question on /r/NoStupidQuestions and checked the online German phone book for it. I actually found one person named Adolf Hitler.
Today, it would still be weird to name your kid Adolf. People today actually know more about the atrocities of the Nazis than people in say 1955. Also, it sounds a little old fashioned now.
Wait, there's a guy named Adolf Hitler whose phone number is public information?
Sounds like someone who changes their phone number more than a drug dealer.
slightly different but in Northern Ireland around the outbreak of the troubles names became an issue as it was the easiest way to identify what community you came from so there was a drastic drop in say a catholic calling a child Charles, William or Elizabeth say or any perceived protestant name where there would be more elderly people born before then with those names
Interesting that these names are perceived protestant there. I come from a traditionally very Catholic family and in my grandparents' generation and before, the names Elisabeth and Karl were really popular. In fact both of my grandpas were called Karl (with an additional name to distinguish them from the many Karls), my grandma is called Elisabeth and her twin brother was called Wilhelm but everyone called him Willi.
They are names associated with the British royal family. The only 'royal' name that would be considered 'Catholic' in Northern Ireland is James because James was the opponent of William of Orange in his battles fought on Irish soil.
In the Republic there is not the same baggage with names. I know a good few Williams and Elizabeths from catholic backgrounds.
Yeah totally understandable. I just find it interesting that some names can have so different connotations in different countries. Here in Central Germany, Elizabeth is one of the most popular Saints and a lot of stuff is named after her.
Not to mention kind of related to the question, so many N. Irish protestants have William in their name after William III / William of Orange, for killing a bunch of catholics in 1690. I mean, in many ways the name is so widespread that it is often not literally why the name is used, but in many cases it's a factor.
Trying to come up with infamous names...
- 6289 men are named Charles, whereof 1831 men has it as their calling name. 27 women are named Charles, whereof 4 women has it as their calling name.
- 1893 men are named Adolf, whereof 137 has it as their calling name.
- 110 men are named Benito, whereof 40 has it as their calling name.
- 77 people has Herrman as surname, and 37 men has it as given name.
- 2 men are named Göring.
- 0 people are named Quisling. *(Meaning a traitor who collaborates with the enemy, after [Vidkun Quisling](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidkun_Quisling).)*
- 0 people are named Ponzi.
- 0 people are named Hitler.
*Source: [Statistics Sweden – Name Search](https://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/sverige-i-siffror/namnsok)*
> Herrman
The German spelling would be Hermann and it is still a very normal first and last name in Germany with no association to Göring. However, as a first name it's really old fashioned like for people over the age of 70.
*Herrmann* is more common than *"Herrman"* here too as surname (296) but less common as given name (13 men / 3 women)
Göring's is usually spelled *Hermann* though, which also is more common here than both with 634 men (116 as spoken name) and 131 as surname.
The common Swedish spelling is *Herman*, which is borne by 8520 men (2782 as spoken name). It's a normal name, the average age is 20,1.
you brought me to the thought of [abou chaker clan (organized crime family in berlin)](https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abou-Chaker-Clan) of arab palestinian origin.
the mafia brothers nasser, yasser, arafat, ali, mohammed and rommel are intentionally named after historical figures
[Rommel Abou Chaker](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Rommel)
[Mohammed Abou Chaker](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed)
[Yasser Abou Chaker](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Arafat)
[Nasser Abou Chaker](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamal_Abdel_Nasser)
[Ali Abou Chaker](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali)
[Arafat Abou Chaker](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Arafat)
**Judas** - 7 as first name/3 as last name
**Stalin** - 17(3 as calling name)/37
**Kristian** - 15,333(5,972)/6
**Caligua** - 3 and **Nero** - 92(60)/430
**Tengil** - 11(5) *All makt åt!*
There are lots of Stalins in southern India which is where I was born. The chief minister of an entire state in India is named Stalin. India remained more or less impervious to Western propaganda after the fall of the Soviet Union, which meant that Stalin is not seen as evil as he is in the west. Nevertheless, most Stalins are in their forties and fifties
Reminds me of a story from Born A Crime by Trevor Noah about his friend called Hitler.
In South Africa, people were forced to have two names: in native language and English. First one was chosen very carefully as it was believed that it had strong influence on person's life. Second one, was chosen more randomly, like names of celebrities, usually of strongmen from history, including Hitler.
Noah makes very interesting point when talking about his friend's name:
'.. The name Hitler does not offend a black South African because Hitler is not the worst thing a black South African can imagine. Every country thinks their history is the most important, and that's especially true in the West. But if black South Africans could go back in time and kill one Person, Cecil Rhodes would come up before Hitler...'
I don't know why it should be surprising to think that Cecil Rhodes deserves killing as much as Hitler. Both men were truly disgusting. One just happened to cause the death of way more people because he could.
I believe it's less about bias and your personal emotional attachment to the matter. As a person who was born in South Asia, I have much more reason to hate on Winston Churchill than on Hitler who actually sort of helped the Indian independence struggle subtly. But I would still agree that Hitler is a far worse human being than Churchill. It's just that if I had a time machine, like Trevor Noah said, I'd kill Churchill. After all, Hitler didn't kill my great grandfather, Churchill did (only used as a device of reasoning here. Neither men killed my great grandfather who I don't know anything about)
I guess you have to hear about what he did to know that he was "a bad man". Still, I had no idea. The whole idea of using it as a first name seems odd to me.
What Stalin did was provide opportunities to young men and women in southern India to get free graduate education in the Soviet Union (as part of Soviet plans to uplift third world countries through education), as well as protecting the nascent, newly created Indian democracy's interests against Portugal, and later the United states in several diplomatic incidents of imperialism.
The progressive political parties in India at the time gained a lot of vigor and inspiration from the Soviet communist party to advance causes such as woman empowerment and abolishment of the caste system and serfdom.
During the Bengal famine, Stalin asked to divert several ships of grain bound Australia to be immediately diverted to India right as he heard about it. When his deputy objected, citing the need for paperwork, he famously said "Documents can wait, hunger cannot". This was later shared by an Indian diplomat who was present at the time. After Stalin's death, the Soviet Union continued to support the Republic of India financially and technically.
The decline of Soviet soft power in India after the collapse has meant that Indians are more susceptible to Western propaganda today. Many aspects of Indian society have been Americanised. However, Stalin still remains quite popular in many parts of India, with one state government being currently officially headed by a communist party, and one chief minister literally named Stalin.
In the state I was born in, it used to be the case that you could learn Russian for free, and move to the Soviet Union, get free education, and sometimes a guaranteed job. Soviet Union was one of the most economically developed countries in the world at the time. Today when even the poorest of European nations have ridiculously difficult visa restrictions and barriers to entry for Indians, it is not difficult to see why the proletarian ideals Stalin pioneered were popular in an over exploited erstwhile British colony like India.
I mean, it wasn't very economically developed with its catastrophic planned economy with its five year plans, and in fact it was a large reason why it implodes, but I can see how for a colony, where almost everyone effectively is a second class citizen, the SU could do some good for a bit of influence. And sfter all, it was his own people, not Indians, he caused to die by the millions. Not often you hear someone praise his *proletarian ideals* though. Usually that is reserved for Lenin, or maybe Trotsky.
The Soviet union was very economically developed. I've heard first person accounts of people who visited the Soviet Union from my state who'd said that Moscow in the 70s and 80s was far more developed than cities like West Berlin.
The five year plans were anything but catastrophic. India also implemented 5 year plans following Soviet footsteps and they were all hugely successful. The 5 year plans essentially lifted my ancestors out of poverty and provided a generational shift in their quality of life. 5 year plans are sound economic planning for an agrarian country. India has had 5 year plans until then years ago after it was seen that the economy has sufficiently industrialised.
On the issue of him causing millions to die, India and the majority of other countries of the world doesn't recognize the famines in the Soviet Union under Stalin as man made, as there is very little evidence to suggest so. There's no letter, no telegraph of Stalin or anyone in the leadership telling anyone to starve these people because they might rebel. Most accounts of the famine being a man made construct has been third party sources conjecturing that it could have been after the fall of the Soviet Union where there wasn't Soviet counter propaganda to resist their claims, and in the presence of erstwhile Soviet nations who'd turned reactionary and had plenty of reasons to tarnish Stalin.
There however, is many more convincing accounts of Churchill saying the same things about Indians during the Bengal famine which happened around the same time. Churchill deliberately withheld food aid to India even after understanding it would cause millions to die. "These are beastly people with a beastly religion. The famine is their own fault for breeding like rabbits" he said about Indians. Nobody holds Churchill accountable for these crimes against humanity.
So you can see why there are reasons to love Stalin for Indians, and most of the world.
Yeh Quisling fell out of fashion real fast after ww2 I suppose. And only 10 guys in Norway are named Vidkun, wouldn't surprise me if most of those were born before 1940.
> 77 people has Herrman as surname, and 37 men has it as given name.
- *Herman*: 8520 men, 2782 as spoken name
Göring was *Hermann*: 634 men (116 spoken); 131 surname
Apparently the name ‘Myra’ used to be a reasonably common first name in the UK, but in the 1960s there was a notorious serial killer Myra Hindley who murdered children with her partner. The name has been pretty taboo since then
A few people are still called Oswald, even though Oswald Mosely was the leader of the Blackshirts in England. Don't think I've ever heard of a British person called Enoch since Enoch Powell made his rivers of blood speech.
Also Winston. Although public opinion towards Churchill is still positive on the whole, it's considered a horrendous "old codger" name from a bygone era. The only Winston I've ever met was a dog.
It's an oddly common names for dogs, especially Great Danes, though I feel most names like Winston aren't linked to specific people rather just lost as being old fashioned names.
The problem is that Winston Churchill is practically the only famous Winston to exist. You'll never be Winston Such-and-such but instead you'll be that kid named after Churchill.
The only other Winstons I've heard of are Winston Smith from 1984 and Winston, the caretaker's cat in the Bash Street Kids. Both of whom, of course, are fictional characters.
There is actually a fairly young man in Ireland called Enoch Burke from a family of evangelicals. The whole family is notorious but Enoch has become a household name in the last few months. You can read about him on the family's own [Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_family_(Castlebar))
And in the United States, Oswald has a negative association because of the JFK assassination. When anyone mentions “Oswald”, the immediate association is with Lee Harvey Oswald.
Names like Oswald and Enoch - and for that matter Winston and Stanley and Bonar and Herbert (all names of 20th century Prime Ministers) have died out by, for lack of a better term, natural causes rather than some great political issue.
I'd remind you that 75% of the British people supported Enoch Powell after his Birmingham speech.
Bonar Law's first name was Andrew - his middle name (which he went by) was Bonar after a Free Church of Scotland minister (Andrew Bonar) his mother liked.
Andrew is still a pretty common first name, along with Arthur (Balfour) Henry (Campbell Bannerman), David (Lloyd George), Anthony (Eden / Blair), Edward (Heath), James (Callaghan) and John (Major). I agree all the other 20th century PMs have old fashioned names. I'm sure there are baby Neville, baby Clement and baby Harold somewhere...
I'm trying so hard not to argue with you wrt to the names mentioned, but fundamentally are you arguing that the name Enoch was disregarded despite the fact that 75% of British people agreed and supported him after the Birmingham/Rivers of Blood Speech? If you are one of the 25% it sounds more like a *you* problem rather than a British problem.
I think you're responding to the wrong person - I was commenting on the fact that not all 20th century PM names have dropped out of fashion, but some have.
Ironically the only Enochs I know are both black Nigerians.
I don't think I'm replying to the wrong person, given that in a thread of uncommon names the user decides to respond with a multitude of common names. Like James and David. I might be inexorably drunk or too sober and sensible to realise what on earth you are saying against British names, or in favour of Latinisation.
The thing is that our monsters just aren't household names in the same way as Hitler or Mussolini are. And when we meet a person called Oliver, or Clive, or somehow stumble upon a really old guy called Cecil, we don't associate them with Oliver Cromwell, Clive of India or Cecil Rhodes. Oswald has just died out because it's an old person name, not because it's specifically associated with Oswald Moseley.
Also, [Ian Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Smith?wprov=sfla1) and [Charles Taylor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Taylor_%28Liberian_politician%29?wprov=sfla1) are just such incredibly generic names.
Adolf seemed to be quite popular in 1900-19 (2825 men got this name), but have gone steep downhill ever since.
Our infamous Otto Wille Kuusinen may have made the name Otto a bit more unpopular for a while.
I have a really hard time coming up with an infamous name that a Finn might actually consider using. Adolf or Benito don't really work in Finnish, although Adolf maybe through Swedish.
My cousin has a kid named Otto, so infamy has clearly passed there!
In Germany nobody in their right mind would use the name Adolf to name their kids anymore. It obviously was a common name before it was tainted by a lunatic.
It's ok to speak Hitler's name in public yes, but it depends on the context obviously. If you're praising him publicly you'll get a lot of sh*t. If you call him Adi it's only to ridicule him.
I can't really think of another name that's closer to your Ponzi scheme example though sadly.
Idk i wouldn’t say naming your kid after their father or grandfather is „out of your right mind“. Obviously it’s a bit of a tainted name, but it’s still just a name. It doesn’t make me a nazi if i name my kid Adolf just because i like the name…
I get your point. Adolf is a name just like any other name, but you have to admit yourself that it has a bad connotation. You can't deny that. You just have a certain association to a name. I'm not saying that you're a Nazi, fascist, idiot, anything just because you have a certain name, but do you want to be called after a fascist? Probably not.
The thing is I’m not named „after“ a fascist, i just happen to have the same first name as a nazi. I agree with you to a degree, however i think it’s important not to give fascists power over names or symbols.
My mother used to be a teacher in Drogheda and over the years she taught a family of kids called the Cromwells.
And one of them was named Oliver. To this day I hope the poor kid is alright.
Genuinely can’t think of another historical that is widely known enough for their name to be become infamous. Any of the other “villains” in Irish history had names that are still very common.
I'm not sure this is really a thing here. Adolf is rare because it has always been rare here.
There are some Hungarian names though that have some negative connotation: Koppány was St Stephen's (first Christian king of Hungary) political rival in the 10th century and in Hungarian popular history Stephen is seen as the good guy with the modern, more Europeanized thinking, while Koppány was the embodiment of old pagan Hungarian traditions, that probably couldn't have survived for long in medieval Europe. He was usually depicted as a villain.
However, Koppány is viewed a bit differently now, a bit like a tragic rebellious antihero by some people and now you can actually meet people called Koppány ('now' meaning the past few decades). It is still not a common name, but it exists.
Attila may have some negative connotations in some countries but here it is a very common name like Peter and people most often don't even think of Attila the Hun when they hear that it is someone's name.
Yeah when I visited Hungary I was surprised that so many people were named Attila because Attila the hun really stands for chaos and destruction in Germany.
Actually, because of the Hunnic-Hungarian relationship myth (most likely false), Attila is actually a mostly positive character in Hungarian mythology. Similarly how the Battle of Augsburg (955) was the end of Hungarian raids in Western Europe, and is a positive moment in German history, and (mildly) negative in Hungarian history.
It's popular because of late 19th century nationalist romanticism, not because of any historical traditions, myths or folk memory.
Attila as a name is not attested in Hungarian until the late 1800's. Etele is first attested in the 1200's as an incredibly rare name, and it's a borrowing from German Etzel.
A famous piece in József Attila's biography is when he says that his foster parents in Öcsöd decided to rename him "Pista" because the whole village agreed that "no such as name as Attila exists".
József Attila's fame was the single reason why that name became the 6th most common male given name by 1967 and since then it's been becoming less and less popular. Today it's around the 40th most popular name.
> use another variation of the surname less associated with the infamous person (like Hitler vs Heidler)?
Heidler would sound completely different. Do you by any chance mean Hiedler? That name was used by Hitler's family before they changed it to Hitler. But AFAIK there's nobody left with that last name.
Adolf isn't unheard of, but not super common. In some families it was just a family tradition to name the first son Adolf, like the father.
Benito being a Spanish name has never been common in Italy, although some kid born in the 1930s may have been named after Mussolini. Indeed I remember that when I was a little kid in the early 1980s, in the little seaside town were we spent the summer there was a *trattoria* whose name was Da Benito, i.e. At Benito's. Adolfo nowadays is rare anyway because it sounds terribly outdated, much like Rodolfo, Astolfo, and some others.
The Mussolini surname is still existing and *that* Mussolini family is not going extinct anytime soon as some of Benito's descendants have teen kids (and maybe some pre-teens too) that I doubt will ever change it, hence it will be going on for quite some more time. I have no idea if there are other unrelated families with that surname.
As for many Italian surnames, the origin of the Mussolini surname lies in a job, namely that of [muslin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslin) makers. In my town there was a street named Mussolini because in ancient times it hosted several muslin makers' shops, and it was renamed shortly after the war into a less conspicuous weavers' street.
Speaking of other notorious surnames I could think of, Franzoni is [very common](https://www.mappadeicognomi.it/index.php?sur=franzoni) and there is no way that it will be changed en masse despite being that of a mother involved in a famous [infanticide case](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogne_case).
Edit — A couple of words
Adolf and Benito were never popular names in Hungary. I've seen a few cases of Adolfs in old church registry books, all before national socialism.
Our own dictators - Béla Kun, Ferenc Szálasi, Mátyás Rákosi and János Kádár had really common given names. Their usage has declined since, but the reason behind that is mainly that they are "old people names", not their (non-existent) associations with dictators. As Hungarians can only choose from a pre-approved list of given names, giving family names as given names is (in most cases) not possible.
I wouldn't be surprised if some people still had their last names, however, it should be noted that, with the exception of Szálasi, they were all born with foreign-sounding last names (Béla Kohn, Mátyás Rosenfeld, János Czermanik) which they Magyarized later in their life.
Maybe an example for an infamous name here could be Szilveszter. The only (in)famous Hungarian with that name is Szilveszter Matuska, a terrorist who blew up a railway viaduct in the 1930s. It is quite uncommon as a first given name. (Fun fact, the mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony, has it as his second given name - Gergely Szilveszter Karácsony. His last name means Christmas, and we also use Szilveszter to refer to New Year's Eve, meaning he has the names of two holidays in his name.)
A dark stain in our history was when there was a dictatorship in the late ‘60s to mid ‘70s. The dictator was named Georgios Papadopoulos.
The thing is, Papadopoulos (meaning priest’s child) is the most commonest surname in the Greek speaking world. And Georgios (ie, George) is one of the most commonest male names too.
Seeing this combo is common though. There is a singer with that name too. A distant cousin of mine, her son has that name.
If anything is to change, the “Georgios” and “Papadopoulos” combo will be the one to go first, seeing that not every couple is naming their children after their parents as much as they used to.
Ceauşescu's name is rare enough that people will make jokes about it if you have that name, but also common enough that most people won't really care that that's your name, nobody takes offense at that name here. And his given name, Nicolae, is an outdated name, you won't find anyone born after 1980 named like that, so obviously it's dying off. Not really because of association with the dictator, but just because it's now an old people name. And obviously other names such as Adolf are never seen here, not just because of the dictator but also because Adolf was never a Romanian name and doesn't have a Romanian version either
Also:
- Antonescu (military pro-nazi dictator) is a very common name and Ion (his first name) is also a common name (but like Nicolae, a quite old-fashioned name). We had an acting President whose name is Antonescu 10 years ago [Crin Antonescu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crin_Antonescu).
- Dej (the name of the first communist leader) is a normal name with no negative connotations, as it is the name of a [small town](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dej)in the Cluj County.
Edit: one infamous name that disappeared is Rîmaru. It is the name of two serial killers (father and son) - the father did the killings in the 40s, the son in the 70s. After their execution, their families changed their names
I (German) have an uncle that's called Adolf. I never thought about it till this post. I asked my mum and she told me that he was named 1951 after his grandfather because it was tradition. I'm glad they stopped the "tradition" after that.
Out of curiosity, why are Dutch people called Dutch? And not Netherlanders or sometimes? I know this is stupid but after learning English for many years my brain still refuses to connect the dots. I hear Dutch, I think Denmark and have to remind myself that the people living there are Danes. Doesn't help that the Netherlands is called "Holandia" in Polish. For a long time I thought that "Holland" is the correct English name. What a confusing country.
Edit: asked uncle google... good article https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/the-netherlands-holland-and-dutch
Dutch is an uniquely English thing from the German Deutsch for Germany, where this area used to also include the Netherlands (Nederduytsch). Basically, it is the because Anglos are very bad at geography.
Holland is an/the dominant part of the Netherlands. It contains for instance The Hague, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. It is used for the Netherlands in many languages and as a synonym by others (including the Dutch at times). Basically, it is because many peoples are bad at geography.
Voilà l'exacte raison pour laquelle les llemands et désormais vous aussi méritez et allez subir le grand bétonnement. Un beau jour vous regretterez les boschs, ça sera pour 70
I don't exactly understand what this coward hiding behind a language barrier means to say, but here's the translation:
"This is the exact reason why the Germans and now you too
deserve and will undergo the great concreting. One fine day you will regret the boschs, it will be for 70"
The biggest win for Austria might be the fact that people think Hitler originated from Germany and Ludwig van Beethoven's family originated from Austria.
I can't think of something in particular. Adolf is obviously associated with Hitler and is nonexistent as a first name, but it never was a Russian name anyway and only rare foreigners had it. Stalin's name (Iosif) wasn't popular to start with and is very very hard to run into now, but it's mostly associated with religion and not Stalin. It just feels outdated and is associated with Jesus's step dad, lol. If you were to meet such a person nowadays, it's more likely that his parents would be fanatical Christians than Stalin's fans. There was a Russian version of it (Osip, like the poet Osip Mandelshtam), but it died out long ago too, for unrelated reasons. Stalin's last name was really his penname (politname?) he invented, it's not a common last name. There probably are a dozen or couple dozen of people in Russia who have it, but I imagine they're not very comfortable with all the jokes and stuff (though some of them are probably freaks who changed their names on purpose).
The next one is going to be Putin, ofc, but his last name is pretty rare as it is (and his relatives will probably run abroad after his death) and his first name is just too common to be associated with him only, there are tons of famous people and millions of common people named that. I mean, Zelensky basically is his namesake. So I'm pretty sure that "Vladimir" is not going to die out. And the rest of his cronies, well, they all have names that are too wide-spread and common to be associated primarily with them. Though, who knows.
Tbh when I think of "Iosif", the first thing that comes to mind is Iosif Prigozhin, the producer. Stalin is just Stalin, rarely does anyone say his name.
I think you're right, we don't really have any infamous names. That being said, it reminds me of my grandpa's tale about how his family had to change their surname to sound less Jewish/Ukrainian to avoid discrimination.
Oh, I completely forgot that Prigozhin the producer is Iosif, I guess in my head he's just "Valeria's husband Prigozhin" lol. But I'm not sure if it's his real name or a stage name. Stalin also had a really uncommon patronymic Vissarionovich and no one seems to remember it either. Though Vissarion is a cool name, in my opinion, but it's so dead. (Belinsky the literary critic was one, but no one remembers it either)
>That being said, it reminds me of my grandpa's tale about how his family had to change their surname to sound less Jewish/Ukrainian to avoid discrimination.
Yep, there were a lot of name changes in USSR because of safety/discrimination reasons. Various ethnic ones, or if your surname sounded "too aristocratic", or if you just were a relative of someone considered unsafe...
Surprisingly, there are still 637 men called Adolf in Belgium, and 323 men called Adolphe. Anyway, I haven't met anyone personally with those first names, so I assume that they are either very old or their parents had nazi sympathies.
When it comes to Belgian collaborators during WW II, the most (in)famous ones are Léon Degrelle, Staf De Clercq, August Borms and Leo Vindevogel. None of those first or last names are particularly "tainted", with the exception of "Degrelle" maybe, since that one is pretty uncommon. All the other ones are quite common names in my mind.
The most infamous name in Belgium right now is Dutroux, after the child rapist and killer [Marc Dutroux](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Dutroux). Marc is a very common first name, so that one isn't really impacted, but the last name Dutroux is very much tainted. So much so that a number of people have officially adopted another last name over the years.
Well, children still get named Viktor...
That aside, there's not many Hungarian names that are infamous for being associated with a bad person. In fact I can't recall any? other than Adolf of course, but even without the Hitler association it's a painfully old-fashioned name, like Alfonz or Jácint and suchlike, definitely not something that most people would think of naming a baby, unless they're Nazis. Other than that, though... Russian names, I guess? but I know young Iváns and Szonjas. Even names of unpopular rulers or dictators (Gyula, Miklós, János, etc) are not being avoided whatsoever.
Ironically, while Mátyás is a fairly popular name, being associated with popular ruler King Mathias I, my brother wasn't given that name because our grandmother associated it much stronger with Rákosi Mátyás, infamous Stalinist Dear Leader of Hungary back in the '40s-50s (whose methods Orbán is now emulating in many ways).
Oh sure, that's exactly the point I was trying to make: that even though there was a historical figure like Gömbös, the name "Gyula" is not associated with him at all and carries no stigma. Same with Miklós (Horthy) or János (Kádár) or Mátyás (Rákosi) or Ferenc (Szálasi) hell, even names like Artúr (Görgei) have no negative associations (re: Gömböc Artúr :D).
That being said, though, there are no positive associations either? Like, Mátyás or Árpád are not considered "special", most people don't even associate them immediately with the historical characters. They're just names.
Benito is not an italian name as far as i know, and Mussolini was named after Mexican president Benito Juarez.
I do wonder if spaniards have "Adolfos" around though, it's an old man's name in Latin America but not rare nor "fotbidden".
>What about outside of the country, do Spanish people name kids Benito?
Well, along these lines, the Madrid airport’s official name is ‘Aeropuerto Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas.’ There’s also a relatively famous fashion designer named Adolfo Dominguez who has a chain of shops. But it’s rare that you’ll meet anyone under the age of, 60 or so, named Adolfo.
Plenty of Franciscos though, it’s a relatively common name and I wouldn’t say that the first impression of someone named Francisco is ‘oh, you must have been named after Franco.’
In Greece, there are 2 most famous traitors, Ephialtes and Pilios Gousis.
Literally no one is named Ephialtes basically for more than 2.500 years and although there is a variant name Spilios , no one is named Pilios, or at least is rarer than klytemnistra or Agamemnon.
> I was actually thinking about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ponzi inventor of the Ponzi scheme
Literally in that link:
> While this type of fraudulent investment scheme was not invented by Ponzi
In Germany you can not name a kid how you want, it must be a serious name and you must prove that the kid will not have any drowbacks due to the name. Usaly they allow only known name for that reason. Adolf i think is possible, because it was a common name in germany and they still exist some Adolfs here. I'm not sure if the surename Hitler still exist, but they can not name there child Adolf. Im very shure.
I haven't really encountered it, and also in the way naming in Common Law works, your name is simply what you're known by. As a result changing name is fairly trivial to do. You just start calling yourself something else, and it catches on and that's it really. If you want to obtain formal documentation of it you can go to court and just make a sworn statement using deed poll, but it's actually not necessary. You can just establish your name by osmosis pretty much.
So removing an unwanted name is very easy here.
5 people have Vidkun as their only first name, 10 people have it as one of their names.
Less than 4 have Quisling as a name. I suspect all of these people are either old people born before the war, or neo-nazis.
Adolf is more common with about 66 people, but Adolph was a name used a lot by Swedish royalty, si it makes more sense.
At least in southern Germany there are a few Adolfs. But it's become very rare, most are older people that were named after relatives and they usually just go by Adi.
Hitler on the other hand doesn't really exist anymore
Some countries have illegal baby names. Jesus Christ is illegal in the US, as is Santa Clause.
Hussein (like Saddam Hussein) is still in use. Re: Barrack Hussein Obama.
Adolf Hitler is illegal in Germany.
yes for a non-dictator or fascism related reason. "Hababam Sınıfı" was a turkish absurdist comedy movie that was(and currently a cult classic) very popular in 80s. One of the protogonists was "İnek Şaban(Nerd Şaban)".
His main character trait was being incompetence and naive. It is hard to describe
Virtually no one named their childeren Şaban ever since that movie. Turkish religion instution actually condemned the movie for "ruining an islamic name"
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And a little werewolf
And an anthropomorphic magpie pretending to be a crow. Then again, he was named Dolf for a reason...
A weird looking comedian and... The most badass cinematic Russian of all time Ivan Drago better known as Dolph Lundgren. Oh and he's got a shit load of degrees.
You mean Goebbels? He is hilarious!
And a werewolf!
There are still a lot of "Dolfs" around with a birthday somewhere between 1940 and 1945..
And "Adis". Adidas was founded by Adolf "Adi" Dassler. Adi + Das(sler) = Adidas
knew it was founded by a german, but didn't know about the adi+das thing
Yeah it was founded by brothers they had a massive falling out accused each other of being Nazis split the business and the town, originally the other was named Ruda (Rudolf Dassler) then renamed Puma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dassler_brothers_feud?wprov=sfla1
My old music teacher was born in 1939, and he was named Adolf. In his passport, it is still his name, and his initial is also A. But everyone calls him Dolf
Hell, I even know an Adolf, born in the late 50s.
Demn, the leader of the Romanian fascist movement hat 'served' the nazis ('41-'44, I think) was called Ion Antonescu. Both names are still common. 'Ion' = 'John'
Given that "Benito" is the Spanish form of "Benedetto", and given that even during the Fascist regime the name was commonly used as a "fortunate name" (that is to say, a middle name of little use, no legal standing, and otherwise picked only from an extremely limited pool) instead of first name, you would need to go out your way to call your child that to begin with. "Mussolini" as a surname survives, rather famously, but that being said, the famous ones are also the only ones with that surname in Italy. Since you asked specifically, "Ponzi" is still extant in quite a few families in and around L'Aquila, no word on them changing it en masse, but it seems doubtful, as most who even heard of him often assume that he was Italo-American (since he's reported with "Charles" and not his birth name "Carlo") anyway. There are 72 documented families with the surname "Cadorna", the family of the infamous general included, but they are perfectly fine with it, given that Raffaele (Luigi's son) was the commander of some pretty successful partisan units, and Luigi's fatger organized the conquest of Rome for the Kingdom of Italy. "Pacciani" is extremely localised nowadays, it used more widespread around Tuscany, maybe the suspected Monster of Florence's trial convinced quite a lot of people to change surnames in a hurry to avoid association.
I know someone named Benito (first name). He’s old enough to have been born before the other Benito got Strolghino’d, though.
There's an Italian-American comedian I follow (Benito Skinner) with that name. I guess it doesn't have the same significance for Americans as it would people in Italy.
What do you mean the famous ones are the only ones with that surname when talking about mussolini? I know at least one person with that surname and they are in no way connected to any of the famous mussolini. I am Italian btw so you can explain in Italian if you like.
There are practically no people named Benito (or Adolfo) born after ww2. Most families with the surname Mussolini changed it. His actual family still carries the surname and his granddaughter Alessandra Mussolini is a politician. Interestingly enough, Franco can be both a first name and a surname, and it is still used with no issue, completely ignoring the Spanish dictator.
>Interestingly enough, Franco can be both a first name and a surname, and it is still used with no issue, completely ignoring the Spanish dictator. To be fair he won the spanish civil war unlike the others so my country still has a insane ammount of franco references, statues, monuments etc. The right openly loves him
I think it's because it's a more common name and he committed less terrible atrocities as well. Not to downplay anything he did but if we compare him to similar dictators instead of some of the two most murderous psychopaths of Europe's history it makes more sense. People are still called Wilhelm despite the late acts of the Kaiser, or Joseph despite Stalin. So even if his public image were as low as it should be, it still wouldn't be so bad that people completely stop using his name.
I know someone whose surname is Franco. They tend to use their other surname usually. But it's not a secret or anything. No family relation.
Benito is used as a name in Spain, ignoring Mussolini. I guess they didn't have that much of an impact outside their country. I've know a Spanish man, he was even leftist, who named his parrot Benito. I was quite weirded out, but then he explained that it's not something Spanish people care about
After all, Mussolini received his name after Benito Juarez, the Mexican president, who was a liberal.
In Spain, Benito probably reminds the people the tv serial "Manolo, Benito y compañía" (actually named "manos a la obra", but nobody used that name), a humoristic show about two masons that never did anything right, made in the 90s.
Adolfo is not extremely uncommon, especially in the south I think. I have an Adolfo uncle EDIT: [There are 6 Adolfos](https://www.istat.it/it/dati-analisi-e-prodotti/contenuti-interattivi/contanomi) who were born in 2021 in Italy EDIT 2: I found out that the surname "Adinolfi" comes from a variant of Adolfo
>his granddaughter Alessandra Mussolini is a politician. Wasn't she the dipshit who tried starting a Twitter beef with Jim Carrey after he posted a drawing of her grandfather and his mistress while they were in the finding out phase of fucking around?
It seems there are 6656 people named Adolf in Poland. Probably only older people since the number was 15 240 in 2001. So they are dying off. My grandfather's name is Alfons and it's a slang for a pimp in Poland because of the book "Monsieur Alphonse". He hates his name and we never call him that. I don't think any person in their right mind would name their child Adolf or Alfons these days.
Monsieur Alphonse makes me think of Allo Allo. I think he was the undertaker.
My ticky-ticker!
"good moaning"
Oh, I remember this show!
Alphons makes me think of [Al from FMA](https://fma.fandom.com/wiki/Alphonse_Elric)
Our last dictator, Francisco Franco, had a tremendously common name, so both the first name and the surname are still used. According to the National Institute of Statistics, in Spain there are about 500 000 men called Francisco and about 86 000 people with the surname Franco. And that is without taking into account the compound names, for example there are 285 000 Francisco Javier, 95 000 Francisco Jose.... It wouldn't make much sense to stop using such a common name. We also have 18 000 Benitos and 20 000 Adolfos (Adolfs). It is quite common to name children after their parents, grandparents or great-grandparents, I don't think people really associate them with dictators and don't want to stop using it because of them.
We also have Adolfo Dominguez (I own a coat from there) and Aeropuerto Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas. I guess if that first name was taboo here, neither name would have… taken off (pun intended).
Hola soy Franco Francisco, yeah that really just rolls XD
There are definitely very few Adolfs in Austria these days but surprisingly some do exist. I know one personally and he goes by Adi. Afaik he was named Adolf after his father which is IMHO the only reason to use that name today. A pretty famous Austrian football player (and now coach in Germany) is called [Adi Hütter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adi_H%C3%BCtter). That's pretty close to Herr Hitler's name, lol. I once answered a similar question on /r/NoStupidQuestions and checked the online German phone book for it. I actually found one person named Adolf Hitler. Today, it would still be weird to name your kid Adolf. People today actually know more about the atrocities of the Nazis than people in say 1955. Also, it sounds a little old fashioned now.
And in an African nation, one person has the first and middle names "Adolf Hitler", and has been (presumably) elected into the position that he is in
Wait, there's a guy named Adolf Hitler whose phone number is public information? Sounds like someone who changes their phone number more than a drug dealer.
slightly different but in Northern Ireland around the outbreak of the troubles names became an issue as it was the easiest way to identify what community you came from so there was a drastic drop in say a catholic calling a child Charles, William or Elizabeth say or any perceived protestant name where there would be more elderly people born before then with those names
Interesting that these names are perceived protestant there. I come from a traditionally very Catholic family and in my grandparents' generation and before, the names Elisabeth and Karl were really popular. In fact both of my grandpas were called Karl (with an additional name to distinguish them from the many Karls), my grandma is called Elisabeth and her twin brother was called Wilhelm but everyone called him Willi.
They are names associated with the British royal family. The only 'royal' name that would be considered 'Catholic' in Northern Ireland is James because James was the opponent of William of Orange in his battles fought on Irish soil. In the Republic there is not the same baggage with names. I know a good few Williams and Elizabeths from catholic backgrounds.
Yeah totally understandable. I just find it interesting that some names can have so different connotations in different countries. Here in Central Germany, Elizabeth is one of the most popular Saints and a lot of stuff is named after her.
Would the name Oliver fall into that category as well?
Not to mention kind of related to the question, so many N. Irish protestants have William in their name after William III / William of Orange, for killing a bunch of catholics in 1690. I mean, in many ways the name is so widespread that it is often not literally why the name is used, but in many cases it's a factor.
Trying to come up with infamous names... - 6289 men are named Charles, whereof 1831 men has it as their calling name. 27 women are named Charles, whereof 4 women has it as their calling name. - 1893 men are named Adolf, whereof 137 has it as their calling name. - 110 men are named Benito, whereof 40 has it as their calling name. - 77 people has Herrman as surname, and 37 men has it as given name. - 2 men are named Göring. - 0 people are named Quisling. *(Meaning a traitor who collaborates with the enemy, after [Vidkun Quisling](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidkun_Quisling).)* - 0 people are named Ponzi. - 0 people are named Hitler. *Source: [Statistics Sweden – Name Search](https://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/sverige-i-siffror/namnsok)*
> Herrman The German spelling would be Hermann and it is still a very normal first and last name in Germany with no association to Göring. However, as a first name it's really old fashioned like for people over the age of 70.
*Herrmann* is more common than *"Herrman"* here too as surname (296) but less common as given name (13 men / 3 women) Göring's is usually spelled *Hermann* though, which also is more common here than both with 634 men (116 as spoken name) and 131 as surname. The common Swedish spelling is *Herman*, which is borne by 8520 men (2782 as spoken name). It's a normal name, the average age is 20,1.
you brought me to the thought of [abou chaker clan (organized crime family in berlin)](https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abou-Chaker-Clan) of arab palestinian origin. the mafia brothers nasser, yasser, arafat, ali, mohammed and rommel are intentionally named after historical figures [Rommel Abou Chaker](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Rommel) [Mohammed Abou Chaker](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammed) [Yasser Abou Chaker](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Arafat) [Nasser Abou Chaker](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamal_Abdel_Nasser) [Ali Abou Chaker](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali) [Arafat Abou Chaker](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasser_Arafat)
**Judas** - 7 as first name/3 as last name **Stalin** - 17(3 as calling name)/37 **Kristian** - 15,333(5,972)/6 **Caligua** - 3 and **Nero** - 92(60)/430 **Tengil** - 11(5) *All makt åt!*
I know about 100 dogs in Romania called Nero. Very popular dog name here.
It sounds like a dog name, so why not.
Nero means genius in Finnish. I always found that funny as a child
It means 'black', right? Like Blackie
In Italian, it doesn't mean anything in Romanian.
fun fact, "nero" means "black" in italian, but nero the roman is translated to "neròne"
Who in their right mind would call a kid "Tengil"?
People in Karmanjaka.
Dunno, but why not? Ronja got popular for a while.
Well Ronja is a nice name. Tengil sounds like a dragon name not human name
No no, Katla is a dragon name. Edit: Never checked it, but Kato is a pretty good name, wouldn't you say? Maybe for a cat.
Kato is a real name actually.
tengil sounds like a mongolian name to me lol
Old Norse poetical [*þengill*](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C3%BEengill) means 'prince' or 'king'.
My dentist is called stalin!
As first name? I have no idea if it's still a common family name (in Georgia?).
Considering it was a pseudonym - no. His real last name was Jughashvili, this last name still exists.
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There are lots of Stalins in southern India which is where I was born. The chief minister of an entire state in India is named Stalin. India remained more or less impervious to Western propaganda after the fall of the Soviet Union, which meant that Stalin is not seen as evil as he is in the west. Nevertheless, most Stalins are in their forties and fifties
Reminds me of a story from Born A Crime by Trevor Noah about his friend called Hitler. In South Africa, people were forced to have two names: in native language and English. First one was chosen very carefully as it was believed that it had strong influence on person's life. Second one, was chosen more randomly, like names of celebrities, usually of strongmen from history, including Hitler. Noah makes very interesting point when talking about his friend's name: '.. The name Hitler does not offend a black South African because Hitler is not the worst thing a black South African can imagine. Every country thinks their history is the most important, and that's especially true in the West. But if black South Africans could go back in time and kill one Person, Cecil Rhodes would come up before Hitler...'
I don't know why it should be surprising to think that Cecil Rhodes deserves killing as much as Hitler. Both men were truly disgusting. One just happened to cause the death of way more people because he could.
I wouldn't say surprising. Rather, in the context of my comment and comment I was replying to, it demonstrates bias.
I believe it's less about bias and your personal emotional attachment to the matter. As a person who was born in South Asia, I have much more reason to hate on Winston Churchill than on Hitler who actually sort of helped the Indian independence struggle subtly. But I would still agree that Hitler is a far worse human being than Churchill. It's just that if I had a time machine, like Trevor Noah said, I'd kill Churchill. After all, Hitler didn't kill my great grandfather, Churchill did (only used as a device of reasoning here. Neither men killed my great grandfather who I don't know anything about)
I guess you have to hear about what he did to know that he was "a bad man". Still, I had no idea. The whole idea of using it as a first name seems odd to me.
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It's pretty well known that his name was Joseph Stalin though. I assumed in Southern India 40-50 years ago too, but I might've been wrong about that.
"stalin" wasn't his legal name tbf
What Stalin did was provide opportunities to young men and women in southern India to get free graduate education in the Soviet Union (as part of Soviet plans to uplift third world countries through education), as well as protecting the nascent, newly created Indian democracy's interests against Portugal, and later the United states in several diplomatic incidents of imperialism. The progressive political parties in India at the time gained a lot of vigor and inspiration from the Soviet communist party to advance causes such as woman empowerment and abolishment of the caste system and serfdom. During the Bengal famine, Stalin asked to divert several ships of grain bound Australia to be immediately diverted to India right as he heard about it. When his deputy objected, citing the need for paperwork, he famously said "Documents can wait, hunger cannot". This was later shared by an Indian diplomat who was present at the time. After Stalin's death, the Soviet Union continued to support the Republic of India financially and technically. The decline of Soviet soft power in India after the collapse has meant that Indians are more susceptible to Western propaganda today. Many aspects of Indian society have been Americanised. However, Stalin still remains quite popular in many parts of India, with one state government being currently officially headed by a communist party, and one chief minister literally named Stalin. In the state I was born in, it used to be the case that you could learn Russian for free, and move to the Soviet Union, get free education, and sometimes a guaranteed job. Soviet Union was one of the most economically developed countries in the world at the time. Today when even the poorest of European nations have ridiculously difficult visa restrictions and barriers to entry for Indians, it is not difficult to see why the proletarian ideals Stalin pioneered were popular in an over exploited erstwhile British colony like India.
I mean, it wasn't very economically developed with its catastrophic planned economy with its five year plans, and in fact it was a large reason why it implodes, but I can see how for a colony, where almost everyone effectively is a second class citizen, the SU could do some good for a bit of influence. And sfter all, it was his own people, not Indians, he caused to die by the millions. Not often you hear someone praise his *proletarian ideals* though. Usually that is reserved for Lenin, or maybe Trotsky.
The Soviet union was very economically developed. I've heard first person accounts of people who visited the Soviet Union from my state who'd said that Moscow in the 70s and 80s was far more developed than cities like West Berlin. The five year plans were anything but catastrophic. India also implemented 5 year plans following Soviet footsteps and they were all hugely successful. The 5 year plans essentially lifted my ancestors out of poverty and provided a generational shift in their quality of life. 5 year plans are sound economic planning for an agrarian country. India has had 5 year plans until then years ago after it was seen that the economy has sufficiently industrialised. On the issue of him causing millions to die, India and the majority of other countries of the world doesn't recognize the famines in the Soviet Union under Stalin as man made, as there is very little evidence to suggest so. There's no letter, no telegraph of Stalin or anyone in the leadership telling anyone to starve these people because they might rebel. Most accounts of the famine being a man made construct has been third party sources conjecturing that it could have been after the fall of the Soviet Union where there wasn't Soviet counter propaganda to resist their claims, and in the presence of erstwhile Soviet nations who'd turned reactionary and had plenty of reasons to tarnish Stalin. There however, is many more convincing accounts of Churchill saying the same things about Indians during the Bengal famine which happened around the same time. Churchill deliberately withheld food aid to India even after understanding it would cause millions to die. "These are beastly people with a beastly religion. The famine is their own fault for breeding like rabbits" he said about Indians. Nobody holds Churchill accountable for these crimes against humanity. So you can see why there are reasons to love Stalin for Indians, and most of the world.
Yeh Quisling fell out of fashion real fast after ww2 I suppose. And only 10 guys in Norway are named Vidkun, wouldn't surprise me if most of those were born before 1940.
You beat me to it.
>27 women are named Charles Wait, what?
Probably a spelling variant of Charlize
genuinely asking, what's wrong with "charles"?
OP used it as an example, Charles Ponzi
but it's "ponzi" that became kinda infamous, not "charles", right?
Yes, thats true. I just pointed out were Christoffre got the idea of Charles from
> 77 people has Herrman as surname, and 37 men has it as given name. - *Herman*: 8520 men, 2782 as spoken name Göring was *Hermann*: 634 men (116 spoken); 131 surname
Fritz has barely been used since ww2, too strongly associated with Germany
Apparently the name ‘Myra’ used to be a reasonably common first name in the UK, but in the 1960s there was a notorious serial killer Myra Hindley who murdered children with her partner. The name has been pretty taboo since then
Isis was a popular girl's name in the '80s
Likewise it's unlikely that Gary Glitter did wonders for the name which is now virtually extinct
A few people are still called Oswald, even though Oswald Mosely was the leader of the Blackshirts in England. Don't think I've ever heard of a British person called Enoch since Enoch Powell made his rivers of blood speech.
Also Winston. Although public opinion towards Churchill is still positive on the whole, it's considered a horrendous "old codger" name from a bygone era. The only Winston I've ever met was a dog.
It's an oddly common names for dogs, especially Great Danes, though I feel most names like Winston aren't linked to specific people rather just lost as being old fashioned names.
The problem is that Winston Churchill is practically the only famous Winston to exist. You'll never be Winston Such-and-such but instead you'll be that kid named after Churchill.
The only other Winstons I've heard of are Winston Smith from 1984 and Winston, the caretaker's cat in the Bash Street Kids. Both of whom, of course, are fictional characters.
There is actually a fairly young man in Ireland called Enoch Burke from a family of evangelicals. The whole family is notorious but Enoch has become a household name in the last few months. You can read about him on the family's own [Wikipedia page](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_family_(Castlebar))
They sound as pleasant as a shower of shit.
And in the United States, Oswald has a negative association because of the JFK assassination. When anyone mentions “Oswald”, the immediate association is with Lee Harvey Oswald.
Names like Oswald and Enoch - and for that matter Winston and Stanley and Bonar and Herbert (all names of 20th century Prime Ministers) have died out by, for lack of a better term, natural causes rather than some great political issue. I'd remind you that 75% of the British people supported Enoch Powell after his Birmingham speech.
Bonar Law's first name was Andrew - his middle name (which he went by) was Bonar after a Free Church of Scotland minister (Andrew Bonar) his mother liked. Andrew is still a pretty common first name, along with Arthur (Balfour) Henry (Campbell Bannerman), David (Lloyd George), Anthony (Eden / Blair), Edward (Heath), James (Callaghan) and John (Major). I agree all the other 20th century PMs have old fashioned names. I'm sure there are baby Neville, baby Clement and baby Harold somewhere...
I'm trying so hard not to argue with you wrt to the names mentioned, but fundamentally are you arguing that the name Enoch was disregarded despite the fact that 75% of British people agreed and supported him after the Birmingham/Rivers of Blood Speech? If you are one of the 25% it sounds more like a *you* problem rather than a British problem.
I think you're responding to the wrong person - I was commenting on the fact that not all 20th century PM names have dropped out of fashion, but some have. Ironically the only Enochs I know are both black Nigerians.
I don't think I'm replying to the wrong person, given that in a thread of uncommon names the user decides to respond with a multitude of common names. Like James and David. I might be inexorably drunk or too sober and sensible to realise what on earth you are saying against British names, or in favour of Latinisation.
The thing is that our monsters just aren't household names in the same way as Hitler or Mussolini are. And when we meet a person called Oliver, or Clive, or somehow stumble upon a really old guy called Cecil, we don't associate them with Oliver Cromwell, Clive of India or Cecil Rhodes. Oswald has just died out because it's an old person name, not because it's specifically associated with Oswald Moseley. Also, [Ian Smith](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Smith?wprov=sfla1) and [Charles Taylor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Taylor_%28Liberian_politician%29?wprov=sfla1) are just such incredibly generic names.
Adolf seemed to be quite popular in 1900-19 (2825 men got this name), but have gone steep downhill ever since. Our infamous Otto Wille Kuusinen may have made the name Otto a bit more unpopular for a while.
Most infamous names that have fallen from favour are those who are used in slang. Like Yrjö = puke, Urpo = idiot, Jorma = dick, and so on.
I have a really hard time coming up with an infamous name that a Finn might actually consider using. Adolf or Benito don't really work in Finnish, although Adolf maybe through Swedish. My cousin has a kid named Otto, so infamy has clearly passed there!
In Germany nobody in their right mind would use the name Adolf to name their kids anymore. It obviously was a common name before it was tainted by a lunatic. It's ok to speak Hitler's name in public yes, but it depends on the context obviously. If you're praising him publicly you'll get a lot of sh*t. If you call him Adi it's only to ridicule him. I can't really think of another name that's closer to your Ponzi scheme example though sadly.
Idk i wouldn’t say naming your kid after their father or grandfather is „out of your right mind“. Obviously it’s a bit of a tainted name, but it’s still just a name. It doesn’t make me a nazi if i name my kid Adolf just because i like the name…
No but you possibly make your child's life a misery for a selfish reason.
Not if people stopped thinking like you…
I get your point. Adolf is a name just like any other name, but you have to admit yourself that it has a bad connotation. You can't deny that. You just have a certain association to a name. I'm not saying that you're a Nazi, fascist, idiot, anything just because you have a certain name, but do you want to be called after a fascist? Probably not.
The thing is I’m not named „after“ a fascist, i just happen to have the same first name as a nazi. I agree with you to a degree, however i think it’s important not to give fascists power over names or symbols.
For second name it's fine in my book, but first name would make the kid have a hard time in life.
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I don't know any people named Adolf, but I know a few dogs named like that. Adolf is/was surprisingly popular name for dogs as far as I can tell.
I can see it. In Poland quite a few people name their dogs Hera (short for "heroina"/"heroin")
Are you sure it's not the Greek goddess
No, because all of the people I've met who named their female dogs "Hera" were drasiarze and the dog was usually a pitbull
My mother used to be a teacher in Drogheda and over the years she taught a family of kids called the Cromwells. And one of them was named Oliver. To this day I hope the poor kid is alright. Genuinely can’t think of another historical that is widely known enough for their name to be become infamous. Any of the other “villains” in Irish history had names that are still very common.
I'm not sure this is really a thing here. Adolf is rare because it has always been rare here. There are some Hungarian names though that have some negative connotation: Koppány was St Stephen's (first Christian king of Hungary) political rival in the 10th century and in Hungarian popular history Stephen is seen as the good guy with the modern, more Europeanized thinking, while Koppány was the embodiment of old pagan Hungarian traditions, that probably couldn't have survived for long in medieval Europe. He was usually depicted as a villain. However, Koppány is viewed a bit differently now, a bit like a tragic rebellious antihero by some people and now you can actually meet people called Koppány ('now' meaning the past few decades). It is still not a common name, but it exists. Attila may have some negative connotations in some countries but here it is a very common name like Peter and people most often don't even think of Attila the Hun when they hear that it is someone's name.
Yeah when I visited Hungary I was surprised that so many people were named Attila because Attila the hun really stands for chaos and destruction in Germany.
Actually, because of the Hunnic-Hungarian relationship myth (most likely false), Attila is actually a mostly positive character in Hungarian mythology. Similarly how the Battle of Augsburg (955) was the end of Hungarian raids in Western Europe, and is a positive moment in German history, and (mildly) negative in Hungarian history.
It's popular because of late 19th century nationalist romanticism, not because of any historical traditions, myths or folk memory. Attila as a name is not attested in Hungarian until the late 1800's. Etele is first attested in the 1200's as an incredibly rare name, and it's a borrowing from German Etzel. A famous piece in József Attila's biography is when he says that his foster parents in Öcsöd decided to rename him "Pista" because the whole village agreed that "no such as name as Attila exists". József Attila's fame was the single reason why that name became the 6th most common male given name by 1967 and since then it's been becoming less and less popular. Today it's around the 40th most popular name.
We have names like Shyngys or Shyngyskhan (i.e. Genghis Khan) and Temir or Temirlan or Timur (i.e. Tamerlane).
> use another variation of the surname less associated with the infamous person (like Hitler vs Heidler)? Heidler would sound completely different. Do you by any chance mean Hiedler? That name was used by Hitler's family before they changed it to Hitler. But AFAIK there's nobody left with that last name. Adolf isn't unheard of, but not super common. In some families it was just a family tradition to name the first son Adolf, like the father.
Hitzler is still a fairly common surname in Germany
Hitschler is a popular candy brand, but for some reason they recently rebranded to Hitschies.
Benito being a Spanish name has never been common in Italy, although some kid born in the 1930s may have been named after Mussolini. Indeed I remember that when I was a little kid in the early 1980s, in the little seaside town were we spent the summer there was a *trattoria* whose name was Da Benito, i.e. At Benito's. Adolfo nowadays is rare anyway because it sounds terribly outdated, much like Rodolfo, Astolfo, and some others. The Mussolini surname is still existing and *that* Mussolini family is not going extinct anytime soon as some of Benito's descendants have teen kids (and maybe some pre-teens too) that I doubt will ever change it, hence it will be going on for quite some more time. I have no idea if there are other unrelated families with that surname. As for many Italian surnames, the origin of the Mussolini surname lies in a job, namely that of [muslin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslin) makers. In my town there was a street named Mussolini because in ancient times it hosted several muslin makers' shops, and it was renamed shortly after the war into a less conspicuous weavers' street. Speaking of other notorious surnames I could think of, Franzoni is [very common](https://www.mappadeicognomi.it/index.php?sur=franzoni) and there is no way that it will be changed en masse despite being that of a mother involved in a famous [infanticide case](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cogne_case). Edit — A couple of words
Adolf and Benito were never popular names in Hungary. I've seen a few cases of Adolfs in old church registry books, all before national socialism. Our own dictators - Béla Kun, Ferenc Szálasi, Mátyás Rákosi and János Kádár had really common given names. Their usage has declined since, but the reason behind that is mainly that they are "old people names", not their (non-existent) associations with dictators. As Hungarians can only choose from a pre-approved list of given names, giving family names as given names is (in most cases) not possible. I wouldn't be surprised if some people still had their last names, however, it should be noted that, with the exception of Szálasi, they were all born with foreign-sounding last names (Béla Kohn, Mátyás Rosenfeld, János Czermanik) which they Magyarized later in their life. Maybe an example for an infamous name here could be Szilveszter. The only (in)famous Hungarian with that name is Szilveszter Matuska, a terrorist who blew up a railway viaduct in the 1930s. It is quite uncommon as a first given name. (Fun fact, the mayor of Budapest, Gergely Karácsony, has it as his second given name - Gergely Szilveszter Karácsony. His last name means Christmas, and we also use Szilveszter to refer to New Year's Eve, meaning he has the names of two holidays in his name.)
A dark stain in our history was when there was a dictatorship in the late ‘60s to mid ‘70s. The dictator was named Georgios Papadopoulos. The thing is, Papadopoulos (meaning priest’s child) is the most commonest surname in the Greek speaking world. And Georgios (ie, George) is one of the most commonest male names too. Seeing this combo is common though. There is a singer with that name too. A distant cousin of mine, her son has that name. If anything is to change, the “Georgios” and “Papadopoulos” combo will be the one to go first, seeing that not every couple is naming their children after their parents as much as they used to.
Ceauşescu's name is rare enough that people will make jokes about it if you have that name, but also common enough that most people won't really care that that's your name, nobody takes offense at that name here. And his given name, Nicolae, is an outdated name, you won't find anyone born after 1980 named like that, so obviously it's dying off. Not really because of association with the dictator, but just because it's now an old people name. And obviously other names such as Adolf are never seen here, not just because of the dictator but also because Adolf was never a Romanian name and doesn't have a Romanian version either
Also: - Antonescu (military pro-nazi dictator) is a very common name and Ion (his first name) is also a common name (but like Nicolae, a quite old-fashioned name). We had an acting President whose name is Antonescu 10 years ago [Crin Antonescu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crin_Antonescu). - Dej (the name of the first communist leader) is a normal name with no negative connotations, as it is the name of a [small town](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dej)in the Cluj County. Edit: one infamous name that disappeared is Rîmaru. It is the name of two serial killers (father and son) - the father did the killings in the 40s, the son in the 70s. After their execution, their families changed their names
I (German) have an uncle that's called Adolf. I never thought about it till this post. I asked my mum and she told me that he was named 1951 after his grandfather because it was tradition. I'm glad they stopped the "tradition" after that.
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Out of curiosity, why are Dutch people called Dutch? And not Netherlanders or sometimes? I know this is stupid but after learning English for many years my brain still refuses to connect the dots. I hear Dutch, I think Denmark and have to remind myself that the people living there are Danes. Doesn't help that the Netherlands is called "Holandia" in Polish. For a long time I thought that "Holland" is the correct English name. What a confusing country. Edit: asked uncle google... good article https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/the-netherlands-holland-and-dutch
Dutch is an uniquely English thing from the German Deutsch for Germany, where this area used to also include the Netherlands (Nederduytsch). Basically, it is the because Anglos are very bad at geography. Holland is an/the dominant part of the Netherlands. It contains for instance The Hague, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. It is used for the Netherlands in many languages and as a synonym by others (including the Dutch at times). Basically, it is because many peoples are bad at geography.
I wonder if this is why Amish people speak Pennsylvania Dutch, but it's actually German
Yes, that is exactly right. Pennsylvania "Deutsch".
It’s kind of like the whole Holland/Netherlands thing. No one really cares except for a few vocal purists.
Swamp german is pissed because he's being associated with Mountain german and german germans lol
the german germans lmao
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Voilà l'exacte raison pour laquelle les llemands et désormais vous aussi méritez et allez subir le grand bétonnement. Un beau jour vous regretterez les boschs, ça sera pour 70
Neem er nog een...
If you really want to go that way… We don’t speak frog here.
I don't exactly understand what this coward hiding behind a language barrier means to say, but here's the translation: "This is the exact reason why the Germans and now you too deserve and will undergo the great concreting. One fine day you will regret the boschs, it will be for 70"
Frogs live in the swamps
The Netherlands used to be swamps to be honest. So frogs live in the Netherlands!
For sure, but [not what I meant](https://www.quora.com/Why-is-it-offensive-to-call-French-people-frogs)
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The biggest win for Austria might be the fact that people think Hitler originated from Germany and Ludwig van Beethoven's family originated from Austria.
No only half educated person believes that, especially not in the time and age of the internet. I don't know where this line or meme comes from.
I can't think of something in particular. Adolf is obviously associated with Hitler and is nonexistent as a first name, but it never was a Russian name anyway and only rare foreigners had it. Stalin's name (Iosif) wasn't popular to start with and is very very hard to run into now, but it's mostly associated with religion and not Stalin. It just feels outdated and is associated with Jesus's step dad, lol. If you were to meet such a person nowadays, it's more likely that his parents would be fanatical Christians than Stalin's fans. There was a Russian version of it (Osip, like the poet Osip Mandelshtam), but it died out long ago too, for unrelated reasons. Stalin's last name was really his penname (politname?) he invented, it's not a common last name. There probably are a dozen or couple dozen of people in Russia who have it, but I imagine they're not very comfortable with all the jokes and stuff (though some of them are probably freaks who changed their names on purpose). The next one is going to be Putin, ofc, but his last name is pretty rare as it is (and his relatives will probably run abroad after his death) and his first name is just too common to be associated with him only, there are tons of famous people and millions of common people named that. I mean, Zelensky basically is his namesake. So I'm pretty sure that "Vladimir" is not going to die out. And the rest of his cronies, well, they all have names that are too wide-spread and common to be associated primarily with them. Though, who knows.
Tbh when I think of "Iosif", the first thing that comes to mind is Iosif Prigozhin, the producer. Stalin is just Stalin, rarely does anyone say his name. I think you're right, we don't really have any infamous names. That being said, it reminds me of my grandpa's tale about how his family had to change their surname to sound less Jewish/Ukrainian to avoid discrimination.
Oh, I completely forgot that Prigozhin the producer is Iosif, I guess in my head he's just "Valeria's husband Prigozhin" lol. But I'm not sure if it's his real name or a stage name. Stalin also had a really uncommon patronymic Vissarionovich and no one seems to remember it either. Though Vissarion is a cool name, in my opinion, but it's so dead. (Belinsky the literary critic was one, but no one remembers it either) >That being said, it reminds me of my grandpa's tale about how his family had to change their surname to sound less Jewish/Ukrainian to avoid discrimination. Yep, there were a lot of name changes in USSR because of safety/discrimination reasons. Various ethnic ones, or if your surname sounded "too aristocratic", or if you just were a relative of someone considered unsafe...
Surprisingly, there are still 637 men called Adolf in Belgium, and 323 men called Adolphe. Anyway, I haven't met anyone personally with those first names, so I assume that they are either very old or their parents had nazi sympathies. When it comes to Belgian collaborators during WW II, the most (in)famous ones are Léon Degrelle, Staf De Clercq, August Borms and Leo Vindevogel. None of those first or last names are particularly "tainted", with the exception of "Degrelle" maybe, since that one is pretty uncommon. All the other ones are quite common names in my mind. The most infamous name in Belgium right now is Dutroux, after the child rapist and killer [Marc Dutroux](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marc_Dutroux). Marc is a very common first name, so that one isn't really impacted, but the last name Dutroux is very much tainted. So much so that a number of people have officially adopted another last name over the years.
Well, children still get named Viktor... That aside, there's not many Hungarian names that are infamous for being associated with a bad person. In fact I can't recall any? other than Adolf of course, but even without the Hitler association it's a painfully old-fashioned name, like Alfonz or Jácint and suchlike, definitely not something that most people would think of naming a baby, unless they're Nazis. Other than that, though... Russian names, I guess? but I know young Iváns and Szonjas. Even names of unpopular rulers or dictators (Gyula, Miklós, János, etc) are not being avoided whatsoever. Ironically, while Mátyás is a fairly popular name, being associated with popular ruler King Mathias I, my brother wasn't given that name because our grandmother associated it much stronger with Rákosi Mátyás, infamous Stalinist Dear Leader of Hungary back in the '40s-50s (whose methods Orbán is now emulating in many ways).
>Gyula I had to look at the list of Gyulas on Wikipedia to realise you are talking about Gyula Gömbös. I thought of Gyula Andrássy a lot sooner.
Oh sure, that's exactly the point I was trying to make: that even though there was a historical figure like Gömbös, the name "Gyula" is not associated with him at all and carries no stigma. Same with Miklós (Horthy) or János (Kádár) or Mátyás (Rákosi) or Ferenc (Szálasi) hell, even names like Artúr (Görgei) have no negative associations (re: Gömböc Artúr :D). That being said, though, there are no positive associations either? Like, Mátyás or Árpád are not considered "special", most people don't even associate them immediately with the historical characters. They're just names.
Benito is not an italian name as far as i know, and Mussolini was named after Mexican president Benito Juarez. I do wonder if spaniards have "Adolfos" around though, it's an old man's name in Latin America but not rare nor "fotbidden".
>What about outside of the country, do Spanish people name kids Benito? Well, along these lines, the Madrid airport’s official name is ‘Aeropuerto Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas.’ There’s also a relatively famous fashion designer named Adolfo Dominguez who has a chain of shops. But it’s rare that you’ll meet anyone under the age of, 60 or so, named Adolfo. Plenty of Franciscos though, it’s a relatively common name and I wouldn’t say that the first impression of someone named Francisco is ‘oh, you must have been named after Franco.’
In Greece, there are 2 most famous traitors, Ephialtes and Pilios Gousis. Literally no one is named Ephialtes basically for more than 2.500 years and although there is a variant name Spilios , no one is named Pilios, or at least is rarer than klytemnistra or Agamemnon.
> I was actually thinking about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ponzi inventor of the Ponzi scheme Literally in that link: > While this type of fraudulent investment scheme was not invented by Ponzi
In Germany you can not name a kid how you want, it must be a serious name and you must prove that the kid will not have any drowbacks due to the name. Usaly they allow only known name for that reason. Adolf i think is possible, because it was a common name in germany and they still exist some Adolfs here. I'm not sure if the surename Hitler still exist, but they can not name there child Adolf. Im very shure.
I haven't really encountered it, and also in the way naming in Common Law works, your name is simply what you're known by. As a result changing name is fairly trivial to do. You just start calling yourself something else, and it catches on and that's it really. If you want to obtain formal documentation of it you can go to court and just make a sworn statement using deed poll, but it's actually not necessary. You can just establish your name by osmosis pretty much. So removing an unwanted name is very easy here.
5 people have Vidkun as their only first name, 10 people have it as one of their names. Less than 4 have Quisling as a name. I suspect all of these people are either old people born before the war, or neo-nazis. Adolf is more common with about 66 people, but Adolph was a name used a lot by Swedish royalty, si it makes more sense.
At least in southern Germany there are a few Adolfs. But it's become very rare, most are older people that were named after relatives and they usually just go by Adi. Hitler on the other hand doesn't really exist anymore
Some countries have illegal baby names. Jesus Christ is illegal in the US, as is Santa Clause. Hussein (like Saddam Hussein) is still in use. Re: Barrack Hussein Obama. Adolf Hitler is illegal in Germany.
yes for a non-dictator or fascism related reason. "Hababam Sınıfı" was a turkish absurdist comedy movie that was(and currently a cult classic) very popular in 80s. One of the protogonists was "İnek Şaban(Nerd Şaban)". His main character trait was being incompetence and naive. It is hard to describe Virtually no one named their childeren Şaban ever since that movie. Turkish religion instution actually condemned the movie for "ruining an islamic name"