Observations

We may use the names of Americans (or Spaniards, or whatever) but don't always use them like they do. For example:


Katie

I've never met a Katherine who went by Katie or Kate; the common nickname here is Kathy, or Kath, or Kat. People seem to use Kate as an independent name, and the only Katie I've met was an American exchange student named Kaitlyn.


José María and María José

Mexico has men named José María and women named María José. The Philippines has the former (spelled without diacritics) but not the latter. Or at least, I haven't encountered them.


Jonah and Micah

Jonah and Micah may be male prophets in the Bible and fashionable names for male babies in the States, but around here it seems that they're more likely to be girls. Part of it is because they both end in -a and as with many other countries (the Anglosphere, the Hispanic world) most names ending with -a are for girls; however, it's worth noting that Joshua doesn't have this problem. Here's what I think: some parents see Jonah as a feminization of John and thus pronounce the "o" more like "aw" instead of like the long "o" in Joseph. Or they consider it as halfway between Joan and Joanna. The Wattpad writer known as Jonaxx is named Jonah Mae (or Jonahmae) Pacala. As for Micah, I'd assume that many people are pronouncing it as "MEE-ka" and not "MY-ka." The first pronunciation makes it look like a shortening of Mikaela, and even the second brings to mind Maymay/Maimai, itself an established girls' nickname. Of course, I could also say that many people don't read the Bible, or perhaps they do but they don't fuss about these things.