There is a really interesting phenomenon in languages where letters in words get shuffled to produce a different word altogether. Linguists refer to this evolution or process as metathesis.
Metathesis occurs in languages all over the world and does not appear to be unique to any one family of languages.
This process has also occurred in Latin Louisiana heritage languages (Kouri-Vini, French, Spanish), and most speakers of our languages are unaware of it.
The following is a small list of examples in forenames and surnames. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list, but is here to serve as a eye-opener. If you have more examples, please do respond with examples to the bottom of this post.
The examples are arranged with the “original” name in bold and underlined, followed by the Louisiana French, the Kouri-Vini. In some cases, the French form changes from Greek, Latin, and Germanic, but does not metathesize, whereas from French to Louisiana French and to Kouri-Vini, there is metathesis.
To further help illustrate this process, I also provide pronunciations of the examples in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Note that the French IPA below is specific to Louisiana French, which may have 2 different pronunciations in that language (one more commonly associated with France French, the other with Louisiana). We especially see the 2 pronunciations in Louisiana French in the pronunciation of the consonant R, which is sometimes guttural /ʁ/ and other times a “flap r” /r/ as well as the vowel è /ɛ/, which takes on 2 forms in Louisiana: /ɛ/ and /æ/, the latter most common when preceding the consonant r.
Colobert
Origin: Germanic
Surname and forename
Metathetic forms in Louisiana:
(LF) Colbert /kol•bɛʁ/ and Colbert /kol•bær/
(KV) Klobær /klo•bær/
Coquelin /ko•klɛ̃/
Origin: France French, from coq (rooster) for a boastful person.
Surname, nickname, forename
Metathetic form in Louisiana:
(KV) Klokin /klo•kɛ̃/ or Kloklin /klo•klɛ̃/
Fearghus
Origin: Scottish and Irish
Forename
Metathetic forms in Louisiana:
(LF) Ferjus /fɛʁ•ʒys/ or /fær•ʒys/
(KV) Fréjis /fre•ʒis/ or Fréjish /fre•ʒish/
Friedrich
Origin: Germanic
Forename and surname
Metathetic form in Louisiana:
(LF) Frédéric /fe•de•ʁik/ or Fédéric /fe•de•rik/
(KV) Fédélik /fe•de•lik/ or Fédérik /fe•de•rik/
Fulgentius
Origin: Latin
Forename
Metathetic forms in Louisiana:
(LF) Fulgence /fyl•ʒãs/
(KV) Fléjans or Fléjens /fle•ʒãs/
Hieronymos
Origin: Greek
Male forename and surname
Metathetic forms in Louisiana:
(LF) Jérôme /ʒe•ʁom/ or /ʒe•rom/ and Géromine /ʒe•ʁo•min/
(KV) Jéronm /ʒe•rom/ and Jéronimm /ʒe•ro•nim/
Korinna
Origin: Greek
Female forename
Metathetic form in Louisiana:
(FR) Corine or Corinne /ko•ʁin/ or /ko•rin/
(KV) Klarènn /kla•rɛn/
Click here to view IPA for French.
*Note that the 2nd LF form for è /æ/ is not in the IPA French link above. For more on the è as /æ/ in Louisiana French, see this Quebec French phonology.
Click here to view IPA for Kouri-Vini.