It’s been noted that Italian opera genius Giuseppe Verdi sounds a little less lofty and exotic if you translate his name into English, where it means simply “Joseph Green.” More interestingly, this means that, in a sense, Giuseppe Verdi and Coke-guzzling Steelers defensive tackle “Mean” Joe Greene have the same name. You could type Giuseppe Verdi into Babel Fish, select “Italian to English,” and it would spit out “Mean Joe Greene.” (Well, if its AI were a little better.)

I’ve spent a long time looking for other pairs of translated celebrities like Verdi and Greene, and I’ve only been able to find one. Cubist painter Juan Gris and Men Are from Mars author John Gray have the same name (and it’s a color again). And that one only occurred to me because I speak Spanish–I bet I’m missing others. Can anybody come up with other bilingual pairs?