Example:
USA 美国 - 美 mean “beautiful” and 国 is “country”
So when my mom told me we were going to move to 美国, I, having never heard of anything about this country ever before, already had a positive impression of this “beautiful country”.
France 法国 - 法 is one of the characters in 法律, law, so my first impression was, that these people probably have very strict rules and are law abiders
Britain/UK 英国 - 英 is one of the characters in 英雄, hero, so I just imagine British people like to help the innocent (this was before I learned about British colonialism lol, but I guess the 英 character still sort of partly relevent, as in they view themselves as “hero”, aka: they interfere with other’s countries bussiness a lot)
Germany 德国 - 德 is one of the characters in 道德, morality, so I had a subconcious belief they were very moral people. I didn’t even know about the holocaust yet. 💀
Mexico 墨西哥 - 墨 is ink, 哥 is brother, so I though these are dark-skinned people that value brotherhood, masculinity.
South Korea 韩国 - 韩 sounds like 寒, so I just assumed it was a very cold country (isn’t it tho?) Oh BTW, I was in South Korea… in the airport waiting for a transfer flight, never actually entered the country for real, that was 15 years go, the closest I’ve ever been to South Korea. Wanna go there someday, see the snow (cuz its a 寒国 “cold country” remember xD)
Japan 日本 - 日 is the sun, so I thought it gets like very sunny or something
These are the few on the top of my head. You can mention any below and I can tell you what my “subconcious feel” about the name is.
I don’t even know much actor names.
But I think the first foreign name that comes to mind was 奧斑馬 (Obama) I don’t think those are the correct characters of the transliterated name, but that’s how I thought heard the adults said it, I think it was like 2012, right on election year and my mom was talking to like a friend/acquaintance, and Obama was talked about. But the 馬 immediately made imagine like: does this person like horse or like come from a family that has horses, then I think later I learned about presidents in school and learned the English version of Obama and I was like: oh it sounds the same as the 奧斑馬 the adults talked about, its the same guy right?
But does Obama like horses tho? 🤔 (I was so silly as a kid lol)
Street names, there is one memorable one in Philly Chinatown called Race St or 禮士街 on the sign (it’s in both languages on the street sign near the Chinatown Area).
In Cantonese, 禮士 sounds too close to 瀨屎 (to shit yourself) lmfao I always tell my dad “hey it’s the 瀨屎 street” and laugh when I see that street sign, yes I’m that immature (I mean I was still a minor when I was first in the Philly Chinatown, you know, jokes like these was nornal)
As for Chinese first names, yes I joked about my parents names a lot, but unfortunately I can’t share those jokes since its personal info.
I don’t really have memories of names of classmates when I was in school in China, like who cares about classmates. None of the nameswere memorable or that I can make a joke out of.
As a teen, I noticed that Xi Jinping, the Xi in Mandarin sounds too close to 屎 in Cantonese so me and my brother would just call him 屎精評 in Cantonese which sounds almost the same as Xi Jinping in Mandarin. 屎 for shit and 精 is a character in 妖精 monster, and 評 is commentary, so Xi Jinping is a monster that shits itself while public speaking. xD
Your comment reminded me of a road in a suburb in Ohio I once heard about called Sharts Road. For context, in American slang to shart is to fail to merely flatulate. Every once in a while I look up if that town ever noticed and changed it. And well…