American woman moves to Australia and discovers embarrassing double-meaning of her name
Devyn introduced herself to a group of people and they immediately bust out laughing.

When people move abroad, it's normal to experience serious culture shock. Culture shock is a feeling of being disoriented or confused by a different way of life and set or norms than you're used to. You'd think moving from America to another English speaking country wouldn't be so jarring, but you might actually be surprised at how different things can really be even when the bulk of the language and customs overlap nicely.
Devyn Hales, 22, from California, recently moved to Sydney, Australia, on a one-year working visa and quickly found out that she had a lot to learn about her new home.
The first thing that made her feel out of place? Believe it or not, her name. It wasn't going to work Down Under. It all started when a group of men made fun of her on St. Patrick’s Day.
Australia is a lot more than Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin. Giphy
After she introduced herself as Devyn, the men laughed at her. "They burst out laughing, and when I asked them why, they told me devon is processed lunch meat,” she told The Daily Mail. It's similar to baloney, so I introduce myself as Dev now,” she said in a viral TikTok video with over 1.7 million views.
For those who have never been to Australia, Devon is a processed meat product usually cut into slices and served on sandwiches. It is usually made up of pork, basic spices, and a binder. Devon is affordable because people buy it in bulk and it’s often fed to children. Australians also enjoy eating it fried, like spam. It is also known by other names such as fritz, circle meat, Berlina and polony, depending on where one lives on the continent. It's like in America, where people refer to cola as pop, soda, or Coke, depending on where they live in the country.
So, one can easily see why a young woman wouldn’t want to refer to herself as a processed meat product that can be likened to boloney or spam.
"Wow, love that for us," another woman named Devyn wrote in the comments. “Tell me the name thing isn't true,” a woman called Devon added.
For Devyn, it could have been worse, as her name was easily shortened to Dev. She could have been named Sheila, which is a slang term for women or girls that also carries slightly derogatory undertones.
@dhalesss #fypシ #australia #americaninaustralia #sydney #aussie
Besides changing her name, Dev shared some other differences between living in Australia and her home country.
“So everyone wears slides. I feel like I'm the only one with 'thongs'—flip-flops—that have the little thing in the middle of your big toe. Everyone wears slides,” she said. "Everyone wears shorts that go down to your knees and that's a big thing here.”
Dev also noted that there are a lot of guys in Australia named Lachlan, Felix and Jack. (Noah, Oliver, Leo, and William have officially held the top spots for years.)
She was also thrown off by the sound of the plentiful magpies in Australia. According to Dev, they sound a lot like crying children with throat infections. “The birds threw me off,” she said before making an impression that many people in the comments thought was close to perfect.
"The birds is so spot on," a user named Jess wrote. "The birds, I will truly never get used to it," Marissa added.
@dhalesss Replying to @j🌿 #greenscreenvideo
One issue that many Americans face when moving to Australia is that it is more expensive than the United States. However, many Americans who move to Australia love the work-life balance. Brooke Laven, a brand strategist in the fitness industry who moved there from the U.S., says that Aussies have the “perfect work-life balance” and that they are “hard-working” but “know where to draw the line.”
Despite the initial cultural shocks, Devyn is embracing her new life in Australia with a positive outlook. In a follow-up video, she mentions she hasn't even had many run-ins with Australia's infamous and dangerous creatures like giant spiders and man-eating sharks. There are other perks to living there, as well.
“The coffee is a lot better in Australia, too,” she added with a smile, inspiring others to see the bright side of cultural differences.
This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.