What's in a name? More than you might think.

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - A London-based translation firm is offering parents-to-be the chance to check the meaning of prospective baby names in other languages to avoid inadvertently causing their offspring future embarrassment.

Celebrity couple Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes might have thought twice about naming their daughter Suri if they'd known that it means "pickpocket" in Japanese, "turned sour" in French, and "horse mackerels" in Italian, suggest Today Translations.

For 1,000 pounds ($1,678), the company's linguists will carry out a "basic name translation audit" of names, checking their meaning in 100 languages, or more for an additional cost.

While open to everyone, the firm said it expects the service is likely to attract celebrity clients, who are known for giving their babies unusual names.

Other celebrity baby names it has checked include Kai Rooney, the newborn son of English soccer player Wayne Rooney, whose name means "probably" in Finnish, "pier" in Estonian, and "stop it" in the west African language of Yoruba.

And while musicians Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale may have known Zuma meant "peace" in Arabic when choosing their son's name, they may not have been aware it also translates as "Lord frowns in anger" in the Aztec language of Nahuatl.

Some unusual celebrity baby name choices are beyond easy translation however, the company admits, such as Jermajesty -- the son of Michael Jackson's brother Jermaine.

I bet you sceadugenga would warm their CPU up.

Other celebrity baby names it has checked include Kai Rooney, the newborn son of English soccer player Wayne Rooney, whose name means "probably" in Finnish, "pier" in Estonian, and "stop it" in the west African language of Yoruba.

and quite possibly "Egg" in Thai. Hopefully he will turn out to be a good egg, rather than a rotten one.

..ill get my coat.

Also slang for testicles.....

Interestingly, in the South, little boys are called kai, so for example, my nephew is Kai Nook (nook is his name). If you dont' know a little boys name you just call him kai. Not considered a bad thing at all

I've only heard it used like that in Isaan/Lao.

Khai is egg, and kai/gai is chicken.

1000 GBP to check Baby's name against Aztec, amongst other languages, but obviously not Thai (as Eek pointed out) or Polynesian (kai = food, or a type of shelfish), both of which, I daresay, would be more likely languages that a British or American baby will come across in his/her life

I'll take the risk that any unusual names I choose may sound odd in Nahuatl.

what's the world coming to?

What about all those people called Peter, John & Dick, they all have other meanings...........

Just send your $1000 to me and I can tell you what they mean.

$1000.- on it's way to you Uncle Ken.

I had to sell a valuable organ to make ends meet for this one.

my grandson has been given the nickname '<deleted>'...fortunately, he won't be relocating to Pasadena anytime soon...

other nephews are 'cake' (mister piece of cake) and 'yut' (mister wan yut)...of course, I'm sure that locals could find something odd about 'tutsi' ('yew talkin' about the american chewy confection or the Dustin Hoffman movie?...')

I was friends with a Vietnamese couple in Adelaide and their children's name's were Chow and Hu. They both got teased at school, the girls nickname was cat chow... a popular brand of cat food, and the boy used to get, "hey hu"... (hey, you).

Funny with Thai names, the latest niece is Noi, but when I say, "Hi Noi, you little cutey", the Mrs yells at me... "not Noi, it's Noi!"

I'll have to run that past the language forum one day.

I'm sure that locals could find something odd about 'tutsi'

Arse coloured?

ahem...that would be si tut...

dyslexia is a tragic affliction...

When i was very young my name wasnt that common, well, not in Scotland anyway. I used to get retarded looks when i said what my name was.

Then, when more characters on tv etc started popping up with the same name, people would decide they would instruct me how to spell my own name. "Put the umlaut over the O", "put the umlaut over the E", "add a Y", and some other more odd advices. I stopped using an umlaut at about 15 yrs old, because i was fed up with people telling me how i should spell my own bloody name. Now people can just accept how i spell it and lump it if they have a problem with that. At times it ends up being said as a one syllable name instead of a two..but doesnt bother really bother me. Call me anything you want, just so long as its not bad, and just so long as you dont bloody lecture me on what i should call myself!

ahem...that would be si tut...

dyslexia is a tragic affliction...

Who are you calling lesdyxic?

I was friends with a Vietnamese couple in Adelaide and their children's name's were Chow and Hu. They both got teased at school, the girls nickname was cat chow... a popular brand of cat food, and the boy used to get, "hey hu"... (hey, you).

Funny with Thai names, the latest niece is Noi, but when I say, "Hi Noi, you little cutey", the Mrs yells at me... "not Noi, it's Noi!"

I'll have to run that past the language forum one day.

My GF's name is Areerak. Ah-ree-rahk. The last sylable is high tone... rak = รัก = "love". If the last sylable is spoken in a lower tone, อ้วก, it means "vomit".

She hated it when Westeners (including me) would read her name and naturally say "rak" ( อ้วก) (vomit).

....Perhaps that is why Thai is not one of the default languages compared to by this company....tonal languages have too many alternatives to phonetic Western spelling/transliteration.

"That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet."

(Or words to that effect)

In the Finnish slang "hi" is moi and bye bye is "moi moi".

Always gets strange looks from the Thais.

(moi moi= public hair)