Chinese Name Help!
ancalagon
October 25, 2008, 12:28 PM posted in General Discussion大家好！My name is Mathew L, and I'm a senior at Syracuse University planning on (a) somehow, someway making a career out of this China infatuation I have, and (b) spending the next few years, prior to grad school, in China.
Which brings me to my dilemma -- I was never given a Chinese name by one of my 中文老师, so I sought the aid of my Chinese history professor, an American. Mathew meaning "gift from god" the name he gave me, in endeavoring to retain some semblance of both meaning and pronunciation was:
吕萌天 （Lǚ Méngtian） -- which I was told translates to 'sprout of heaven'.
I've since run the name by a few Chinese people and their reactions to it have been underwhelming. The first, my current Chinese language teacher, wanted me to drop the 天； she felt that 萌 and 天 made no sense together, one being about plants the other being about sky. The second person told me the name struck him as a girl's name at first glance. So this was worrying.
Anyways, sorry this post is so lengthy -- I'm hoping you all, and particularly the native Chinese among us, will be able to give me some feedback on the original name -- does it make sense? does it sound alright? does it give off an effeminate vibe?
谢谢你们，
Matt~
stifler
October 26, 2008, 04:41 PM吕嘉威 吕弘文...i do like both of them..but unfortunately ,they are not in line with the pronunciation of your english name.
among the names changye listed above,i actually like 迈修best..that's my idea ..
stifler
October 25, 2008, 04:06 PM萌 is a verb in chinese..
it has the same meaning of " start to grow or appear"/sprout .
somehow..literally,萌天sounds like "you make the god".but not "a gift from god"
saraouyang
October 25, 2008, 04:17 PMaha, funny...
I think it's a good Chinese name for American girls, not for boys.
changye
October 25, 2008, 04:33 PM"Mathew" is usually transliterated as "马修" (ma3 xiu1) in Chinese, but I don't think you will find it very attractive, hehe.
ancalagon
October 25, 2008, 04:38 PMChangye, I actually like the Ma xiu pronunciation but I'm not thrilled with those particular characters. Any suggestions on more exciting/meaningful/interesting characters to fit the name Ma xiu?
stifler
October 25, 2008, 06:29 PMancalagon:
is it that you wanna get a chinese name fit the
pronounciation of Ma xiu,,,while it is meaningful
in chinese...plus..it better to be related to"gift from god"?
i'd like you to be more specific...that i might come up with sth faster..
ancalagon
October 25, 2008, 08:05 PMStifler, I'll try and be more specific. I don't care that much about it being related to 'gift from god'; I just mentioned that as the reason for my Professor giving me the name 萌天.
I'm more concerned with the name being appropriate for a guy (not a girl), sounding alright, and -- least important, and not essential -- having some interesting meaning/characters.
So I guess if you were going to try and help me, I would say that I like the pronunciation 'Ma xiu' but would prefer the characters be more interesting/meaningful/unique than 马修 (does 修 have any meaning, by the way?)
Sorry if I'm being overly difficult and not expressing my wishes clearly. I appreciate you attempting to help me very much.
stifler
October 25, 2008, 08:17 PMyou made yourself pretty clear..i did catch you..
i 'll try my best..pal
ancalagon
October 25, 2008, 03:05 PM谢谢 for the reply. I'm a he -- Mathew is a boy's name in America.
So you think 萌天 is a bad name? 为什么？
Thanks, too, for the name recommendation. I will definitely take it under consideration.
ancalagon
October 25, 2008, 08:29 PM吕is fine. Another question: How important are the tones of a given name? Are some tones considered more masculine with others being more feminine?
stifler
October 25, 2008, 08:48 PMnope...we pay more attention on the meanings of the words .but not onto the tones.Mathem..it is a little unconvenient for me to chat here..do u have a MSN or what?
light487
October 25, 2008, 09:41 PMI had this same struggle with my own chinese name.. I wanted something "meaningful".. something "unique".. something that would make people go "oh wow.. cool name".. but really.. the name my parents gave me is Luke David, and that will never change.
Why did they call me Luke David? Because they liked the sound of those names? I don't really know.. never asked them to be honest. I know they are both Christians and those are biblical names, so I guess it would have something to do with that.
On to the Chinese name though.. my Chinese name is a transliteration of Luke so it ends up being: Lǔkè. You can play around with the characters over and over till you find something that makes sense if you really wanted but in the end, it's still a transliteration of an English (well.. to be accurate, a Hebrew) name. So you could write it as: 虏客 haha.. or simply 鲁克 which are the first characters that the Microsoft IME displays when you type it... I like the first one for the funny meaning but the second one because it's easier to type.
I'm not going to be signing my name with 鲁克 anytime soon (or likely to get a tattoo.. lol), so it doesn't really matter a heck of a lot.
帕森斯 would be a transliteration of my surname but why would I transliterate a name that is looked on in China, and many Asian cultures, as the most important?.. So with this realisation, you go back and also realise that to change your name is to dishonour your parents, and the choice of name(s) they had for you.
The only reason I choose to say Lǔkè is my name, is to make it easier for my Chinese friends to pronounce, it's still very much the same name "Luke"..
As there are over 1.3 Billion people in China now.. names are a little underwhelming at the best of times. No matter how much time you spend making up a winning combination of characters that you, from a western perspective, find awe inspiring.. you are pretty much always going to get blank stares, or in some cases laughs. So yeh.. I spent months looking for a good Chinese name and ended up back where I started.. with my own name. :)
stifler
October 25, 2008, 09:41 PM吕嘉威 吕弘文
it is already 5:40 in the morning..man.
i did my best ,,i gotta take a rest....cya.
联系方式：Tencent QQ:751316265
MSN:luwei.wu@hotmail.com
stifler
October 26, 2008, 03:42 AMlight487
的确是如此，很难找到一个中文名字即发音像你的英文名又有meaningful 的中文意思。而且还要考虑是男的还是女的名字。
turn to your chinese name.鲁克 is much better than虏克,for 虏客 means “lie to your clients" .on the other hand..
changye
October 26, 2008, 11:24 AM马修 (ma3 xiu1)
马秀 (ma3 xiu4)
马殊 (ma3 shu1) ……For the record, 马术 (ma3 shu4) means “circus”
麦修 (mai4 xiu1)
麦秀 (mai4 xiu4)
麦殊 (mai4 shu1)
迈修 (mai4 xiu1)
迈秀 (mai4 xiu4)
迈殊 (mai4 shu1)
The character “马” is frequently used for foreign names in Chinese, such as “马克思” (Marx) and “马赫” (Mach). Interestingly, “Maxwell” is transcribed as “麦克斯韦”, but not “马克斯韦”, so I think that “麦，迈” (mai4) can also be used for your name.
I like the character “迈” (stride). It’s usually used in “positive” words such as “迈进” (stride forward) and “迈步” (step forward), although “迈” also means “old”, hehe. “秀” connotes “elegant, excellent”, and “殊” means “different, special”.
I think that “transliteration” would be the best way when you select your Chinese name, which lets Chinese people easily know that you are from a foreign country. As stifler said, you can’t have it both ways.
ancalagon
October 26, 2008, 01:01 PMMany thanks to both of you for spending so much time on this.
Changye, I think I really like 马秀. So as a full name, does 吕马秀 strike you as decent (that is to say, as a name that won't elicit laughter from every 中国人 it's mentioned to)?
stifler
October 26, 2008, 04:35 PMAncalagon:
to be honest..吕马秀 is not a good name for us .
you know that ,it sounds like (驴马秀），kind of a show performed by dunkey and horse..
not good.indeed...and 马修 is even better than it..though 马修 is not meaningful.
without disrespect,pal.
stifler
October 25, 2008, 08:27 PM修 has many meanings :to repair ,to build,to decorate ,to mend ,to trim ,to research ,and it is also a family name for some chinese.
by the way..what would you like to be the family name in your chinese name?
stifler
October 25, 2008, 02:59 PMhi..Mathew L
how about 吕天礼..,a name for males
吕 is a family name in China..
天 is god.
礼means the gift.
and 吕天礼 sounds much better than 吕萌天 to me
by the way..are you a she or he?
i'm a native chinese student..lol