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A slightly unfortunate name for Spanish speakers, I'm afraid: "putero" can mean either "brothel" or "man who maintains sexual relations with prostitutes" [1].

Fun fact: the Mitsubishi Pajero had to be marketed as Montero in Spanish speaking markets as "pajero" is Spanish for "wanker" [2].

[1] https://dle.rae.es/putero

[2] https://dle.rae.es/pajero



Similary, the Hyundai Kona is called the Hyundai Kauai in Portugal as "cona" literally translates to "pussy".

Languages are fun :)


Not forgetting the case of the Seat Málaga that had to be marketed in Greece as Seat Gredos because Málaga sounded too similar to "Malaka". I'll let any fellow greek readers explain the meaning ;)


Wanker is a family name in Austria. I knew a scientist who started every talk with the origins of his family name....


Spanish also delights us with unlucky surnames. E.g., three acquaintances of my father have the family names "Feo", "Bastardo", and "Gay"; which translate, respectively, to "ugly", "bastard", and, of course, "gay".


Well, I know European Companies that wanted to expand into the US market.

One was named PMS LLC and one had a product that was named xfriend.

Both names are very memorable, but not the best choice.

Xfriend was actually a pretty good software: https://xfriend.soft112.com/

(only description, not for download anymore)


We've got Dutch people that are literally called Dick Cock.




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