I get particularly irritated by the urban legend about a baby named "Lemon Jello" because I actually KNOW someone whose absolutely legitimate, inherited-from-family surname is Lemongello. In English it is universally mis-analyzed. It's actually a perfectly reasonable Italian surname, and it was (I'm told) originally Le Mongello.
I don't know for sure where the Le-Something / La-Something naming trend came from, but I doubt it's to do with anything French, I think it's just a sound-fashion (like all the names ending in -aden). So far I think all the cases I've happened to run across are African-Americans. Some of the names sound quite pretty.
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I get particularly irritated by the urban legend about a baby named "Lemon Jello" because I actually KNOW someone whose absolutely legitimate, inherited-from-family surname is Lemongello. In English it is universally mis-analyzed. It's actually a perfectly reasonable Italian surname, and it was (I'm told) originally Le Mongello.
I don't know for sure where the Le-Something / La-Something naming trend came from, but I doubt it's to do with anything French, I think it's just a sound-fashion (like all the names ending in -aden). So far I think all the cases I've happened to run across are African-Americans. Some of the names sound quite pretty.