Dear Amber - Choosing a Chinese Name and Safety

Hi Lujiaojie
I've been trying to get a chinese name for a while and I have to admit it's quite hard since I'm trying to balance ear-pleasing sounds, simplicity in characters and proper meaning. Initially I tried to translate the meaning of my native name into chinese, it was not obvious especially it's quite uncommon. The literal equivalent of it would be 卫民 驯化. Howerver the funny part is that my surname also sounds like "deamon", so my chinese friends nicknamed me 卫鬼 which does rhyme and is somewhat teasing. Someone else suggested at some point 卫维 which is the same sound repeated twice and would be easier to remember.

My other alternative was to come up with something totally different like 暢高翔 which is perhaps closer to my personality and because I love hang-gliding. Ideally it would be something which matches my translated english name, but i realize it may not be feasible. Should I keep my nickname? Any thoughts on this?

cloud9:

I think 卫维 is a great name , you can keep this one.

Hi Lujiaojie,

A while back you helped me with 3 Chinese names for some friends of my son. Well their other two brothers would like Chinese names also. The names you picked so far are boy's name : 高 云龙 Gāo Yúnlóng 高 云飞 Gāo Yúnfēi and girl's name : 高 云溪 Gāo Yúnxī. I need two more boy names one aged 9 first name Brennen and the other boy age 5 first name Jarom. Again they are all the same family so we can still use Gāo Yún.

Thank you,

 裴凱達

Hello again, 

I forgot to ask one other favor. When you pick the other two names would also give me the meanings like you did last time. That was very meaningful and greatly appreciated,

Thank you,

裴凱達

rerefruit:

高云 鹏 péng 

鹏 is a kind of fabulous (mythical) giant bird that has great strength and ideals. 云鹏 sounds like a wonderful boy's name.

高云 升 shēng

升 means rise or ascend, 云升 means the boy will have a beautiful future.

My name is Eva and my surname starts with Lu. I have been suggested to use 陆 爱 娃  as a Chinese name. Not sure this is good, though. I have been suggested 伊 娃 as well, but don't like the 伊 bit very much!

Thank you,

You don't know how helpful you have been. 

Can you tell us if the characters in the names are traditional or simplified?

We were also wondering if you have an opinion on which is best to learn, traditional or simplified. The instructor I had really felt that it was important to learn both and it didn't seem so hard in the classroom. However now that the class has been cancelled and I have to learn on my own I am wondering if it would be smarter for me to only concentrate on one. I don't know if I would ever have the opportunity to visit China so for now the only place I get to practice speaking, reading and writing my Chinese is with others here in the USA. 

What do you think?

Gratefully,

裴凱達

Great episode, not sure where to start with my name though... Richard Frost, can anyone help? :)

@ Richyfrost, Maybe 双里茶 for the fun explanation you will have to give every time. ;o)

rarefruit:

The characters in the names are  simplified.

In the mainland, we learn simplified character at school and you can see simplified character everywhere.

@kimiik thanks, what does that mean exactly though! :p

hey,

my friend from Taiwan gave me the name 凯文 (Kǎi wén) because my english name is Kevin.  Though his english isn't very good so he couldnt explain what it means.  Can anyone tell me what it means and if its a good name?

hi kevin,

凯  means triumphant and victorious
文 means cultured or civil

so it's a pretty good name!

awsome, thanks amber :)

As far as names go I really don't know what would be best for me to go with.  The best transliteration that I have found is shi4lou2 (to reveal logic if I translated correctly) But the meaning for my name is peaceful, so I thought about tai4ping2.  What do you think is better to go with?  Also, since I am married would my maiden name or married name be used? (both are long)  Would I only use the first character of it for the name? bu {maiden} or fu {married}.

shilena:

shi4lou2 and tai4ping2 both are a little bit weird.

I think 晓莲(xiǎolián) is good for you.
晓  has two meanings:  one means 'dawn', the other is 'intelligence, insightful', daybreak is also quiet and peaceful.
莲 is lotus, it's pure and beautiful, and sounds like your English name.

Usually we use our maiden name, so you can use 卜 (bǔ).

to lujiaojie:

Thank you so very much!  I can see why you need help finding a name! 

I have only just begun learning Mandarin, but I think I am in love with it.  One of my goals being to become a teacher (specifically a linguistics teacher and teacher of English as a second language) I have wanted to find a name to use as I continue to study this amazing language and culture.

Thank you again.

Xiao3 lian2

Great show!

Interesting that you refer to 煎饼 (jiān bǐng) as a breakfast food... I guess I did see them being made when I was on morning bike rides. But to the few foreigners around where I was, they were, along with 肉加莫 (ròu jiā mò), more of a candidate for drunken late night snacks. There was a guy with a cart on the street corner near my apartment, making both those delicacies until 2 or 3 am. When talking about him we'd call him Roger Moore, based on that being what a friend of mine would say through his early China days in order to get a 肉加莫.

As for names, I'll probably have to change my name to something less silly than this one if I ever go back to China... I just wanted to get away from the (albeit accurately transliterated) 欧文 that I went by at first.

我叫柯临圣。

That's the chinese name my instructor gave me.

Help me!   can anyone think of a good Chinese Name for me?  My name is Don  (or Donald, Donny), any suggestions?   我的中文名字是。。。  (Please help me finish my sentence!)   :)

japchinman, how about 日颏人 rì kērén ;-)

seems a little strange...    day, chin , person?

japchinman,

If I may shed some light.I think Calkins was not giving a Chinese name for Don,Donald,or Donny ,but rather for your username japchinman,breaking it down into jap ...chin...and man

日  from 日本 for Japan

颗 for chin

人 for man

安全建议，中文名字?

Oh, I see! interesting.  

I knew something got lost there...

The suggestion was appreciated

Hi japchinman,

"Donald" is commonly transliterated as "唐纳德" (tang2na4de2), so "Donald Duck" is called "唐老鸭" (= 唐纳德老鸭子) in China. As far as I can see on the Internet, "Don" seems to be transcribed as "丹" (dan1) in Chinese.

Cool!  Thanks alot cahngye, sounds good.   I never thought about Donald Duck till reading your post

I found this list of popular given names... 

I wanted to ask, do alot of people just add two symbols together to make a name or do they only use certain ones? 

for instance I picked two from the list, would it be a normal name in China =东毅 dong1yi4      ?

I also need a little insight on my Chinese name. Back home in the states, my teacher named me 雪蓮 (xue3 lian2) because my English name is Jillian. The meaning is Snow Lotus and my boyfriend informs me it is also a kind of plant. I am fond of the name but my teacher who gave it to me was from Mainland. Here in Taiwan, people often giggle a bit at the name and tell me it's "old school." So, I guess I'm at a loss. Should I keep my old school name, 雪蓮 or change it to something more suitable? To native Chinese... does this name sound funky? o_O Thanks a lot for any insight!

japchinman:

东毅 dong1yi4 is OK.

People often pick two symbols together to make a name.

suxuelian07:

I think 雪莲 is pretty good.

Thanks! ;D

How would one translate Elina into Chinese in general and/or specifically?

On a side note, I heard Chinese novels have a general rule in which the main characters' names (as in a couple) have to match up to make it more pleasing to the ear?

I'm actually writing a story in Chinese so it pertains to what I want to name people or things in there.

Hi  ellina

Ellina can be directly translated into “易丽娜”Li4 li4na4.

易 is family name.

丽娜  is given name keeping the English pronunciation and representing a beautiful and slim girl’s figure.

Can these names be good?

陳美妍

陳嘉茵

陳秀娟

hitokiri6993：

很好！Great!

謝謝妳！

Hello all, I know this is a late post considering but I am a newbie. That post by jpvillanueva on the JianBing video made me so hungry. Also, I just started listening to DA and learned she has moved to New York. Good luck Amber and I love the show.

David