[ihojman]

The fact that this is an issue tells me how english-centric is the software community! culturally and linguistically speaking.

Why do some folks have to change it's project name regardless of it's meaning in another language? Coq's name wasn't meant to be offensive.

What would happen if the new name is considered an offensive or uncomfortable word in any other language? would that be a good enough reason to reconsider it? Or we only care about english speaking minds?

If coq's team is fine with it, I'm fine with it (maybe they want to have more users and thats a legit reason to change it).

But this sounds like some sort of peer presure to change it.

[benwad]

This is just anecdotal, but one of my professors at university said that the name was intentional, as a joke to make English speakers feel uncomfortable. I've not idea if this is true but it would make sense that the creators of Coq would have been aware of its English translation (lots of people in France speak English, especially in academia).

[ihojman]

And it makes sense that it could be intentional. There is a ton of rivalry between France and The US, in cultural terms. French people have a contempt attitude towards US citizen manners, they think they are rude, loud, and often self-centered. When you go to France, don't you dare to speak to someone in English, they are gonna freak out.

I believe it is pretty clever to defy them by using a French word that sounds a little inappropriate in English, if that were the case. Totally legal. But if its not, why should we, non-US Citizens, have to bare linguistic and cultural impositions because some feel 'uncomfortable' with the way we express in our own languages? Totally non-sense.

[tasogare]

> When you go to France, don't you dare to speak to someone in English, they are gonna freak out

Please stop spreading bullshit. French don’t "freak out" for being spoken to in English. A lot of people in the older generation don’t have a good command of the language, that’s it. The situation is not very different from a lot of other countries.

[ihojman]

ok, I expressed myself wrong. But the fact that tourism leads to tourist tend to speak in English first is outrageous for many locals, old and young, and not just in France.

This happened to me in Germany also, so I started approaching people by saluting them in Spanish, which is my main language, and they had a different reaction (a very positive one) than those who I said hi to in English.

It's not bullshit. Many people have an anti-american feeling in a cultural sense. (not saying I'm endorsing it)

[Blaisorblade0]

Coq’s name _was_ meant to be offensive to English speakers. And the team does want to avoid names that are offensive in other languages, as EVERYBODY does when choosing international brand names.

[enriquto]

> avoid names that are offensive in other languages, EVERYBODY does when choosing international brand names.

This is simply not true. There's plenty of commonly used English names that are offensive in other languages.