Your Chinese Name
xiao_liang
March 20, 2010, 01:14 PM posted in General DiscussionHow did you all choose your Chinese names, or were you given them? I remember a news and features where Sarah discussed the fact she was given a few names to choose from!
In my case, for a while I've been called 小凉 (xiao liang), but that's more of a nickname, I've realised I need a proper chinese name if I'm to visit China. Or at least a transliteration. Since my name is Stephen, that gives me two options:
史帝夫 (shǐdìfu) - Steve
史帝芬 (shǐdìfen) - Stephen
To be honest, I'd rather go with the second, since 芬 means smell, or scent, and I'm not that keen on being called "History, Emperor, Smell", rather than "History, Emperor, Man".
Any name-related stories?
Conversely, I'm also fascinated by the process that Chinese people go through in choosing their names. Jenny wrote a blog post on it a while ago:
http://jennyzhu.com/2010/03/04/why-chinese-like-weird-english-names/
Aside from the weird and inappropriate ones, it always makes me giggle how particularly chinese girls love to pick names that you'd normally only hear from an old lady! They're kind of sweet, but names like Dorothy, Lily, Vera, Connie, Gloria, Grace, Peggy - these are all names just from Chinesepod, but all old lady names! Vera is my 86 year old grandmother's name!
xiao_liang
I think it's an extraordinarily good idea to let someone else choose it for you. So long as you trust them... :-)
simonpettersson
April 25, 2010, 12:56 AM
When I came to China my Chinese name was 西明. I didn't particularily feel I needed a family name. Coming to China, it was soon changed by my sifu to 曦明. He thought, and I agree, that it's a bit fancier. The 曦 character is pronounced "xi" and means "the first rays of the morning sun", which corresponds nicely with the 明. The only trouble is that it's a bother to write (although I haven't actually had to write it yet) and sometimes even Chinese people can get a bit unsure on it.
I guess the original 西明 can be interpreted as either insulting ("I'm the light from the West, come to shine in this dark barbarian place") or depressing (The light from the west is, after all, the light of a sun that is setting, not rising), so it's good that it got changed.
hamshank
March 21, 2010, 05:27 AMI also think that people should just go with a name they like rather than something that sounds like their foreign name otherwise you might end up being called something very strange.
Mine is:
劉軍衛
Liu Jun Wei
xiao_liang
March 21, 2010, 09:40 AMI think it's an extraordinarily good idea to let someone else choose it for you. So long as you trust them... :-)
JasonSch
March 21, 2010, 10:14 AMMy Chinese name is 舒介生.
It was given to me by my Chinese philosophy professor. It's based somewhat on the pronunciation of my name, (Schuu, 舒 and Jason 介生) but it's not a direct transliteration and a Chinese person could have this name.
I do like it, but 1) it sounds like 一介书生 a 成语 about being a scholar, which I'm not exactly and 2) it's a very traditional name and sounds a bit old to Chinese people. That being said, most people say it's a really nice name.
Given that I have a shaved head though, I end up getting called 光头 quite often anyway. :)
bodawei
March 21, 2010, 10:41 AM@Ouyangjun
It's interesting that you say that not many people have a two character family name - do you know the proportions? It is somewhat unusual, but I would say that the name 欧阳 is well known. Better known than many single character family names. I wonder if 欧阳 is the most common of two character family names?
I wonder if poddies know that it is also the case that parents sometimes give their children the family names of both families - the Chinese version of what in English we sometimes call 'double-barrelled'. A student today told me that she has four friends with four character names - one of these has a double-barrelled family name. Coincidently one of the others has 欧阳 as a family name.
ouyangjun116
March 21, 2010, 01:48 PMHi bodawei & changye,
I just asked my best Chinese resource (my Chinese girlfriend) and she explained the following to me. Note that she is Han Chinese.
She could only think of 3 family surnames that are composed of two characters:
欧阳
西门
上官
Also I asked her about having both the father an mothers surname, and she said it is a common practice, but only one of them can be your surname, because Chinese people can only have one surname. She said if you wanted to use both surnames it would have to work as follows: You'd take your father's surname as your surname, and then your mother's surname would actually be part of your given name. For example, her family name is 刘 (Liu). If she took her mother's surname 张 (Zhang) and her father's surname 刘 (Liu), she could be called 刘张荔 (Liu Zhang Li) or 刘荔张 (Liu Li Zhang). In any case, her father's surname would always be her surname.
Hope this helps clarify.
ouyangjun116
March 21, 2010, 04:55 AMMy Chinese name is 欧阳骏 (OuYang Jun). 欧阳 is the family name and 骏 is the given name.
It has absolutely nothing to do with, nor sounds like my English name, Ryan Reinhardt.
At work, my colleagues asked me if I wanted a Chinese name that sounds like my English name. I told them no, that I wanted a traditional Chinese name. So they picked 欧阳骏, the 欧阳 portion is a special surname in China because few people have a surname with two characters, usually it's only one character. And the 骏 portion means a fine horse or steed.
When my name was first picked for me I could not speak any Chinese, but I'm happy with the name they gave me. If I could re-do it all over again with the knowledge I have now, I still would've gone with a traditional Chinese name instead of trying to use Chinese words to sound like my English name.
hamshank
I also think that people should just go with a name they like rather than something that sounds like their foreign name otherwise you might end up being called something very strange.
Mine is:
劉軍衛
Liu Jun Wei
bodawei
@Ouyangjun
It's interesting that you say that not many people have a two character family name - do you know the proportions? It is somewhat unusual, but I would say that the name 欧阳 is well known. Better known than many single character family names. I wonder if 欧阳 is the most common of two character family names?
I wonder if poddies know that it is also the case that parents sometimes give their children the family names of both families - the Chinese version of what in English we sometimes call 'double-barrelled'. A student today told me that she has four friends with four character names - one of these has a double-barrelled family name. Coincidently one of the others has 欧阳 as a family name.
bodawei
Hi Changye
You have me there - I am guessing yes. The student with the four named friends is Han, but there are a lot of non-Han people in this city, and we have a good proportion of non-Han students, so I can't say for sure. Why is that relevant? Is there a pattern about names related to ethnicity/nationality? I have not noticed any pattern in the names of my students.
changye
Hi bodawei
I heard before that two-character family names are more common among ethnic minority people than among Han people, and this is why I asked that question.
ouyangjun116
Hi bodawei & changye,
I just asked my best Chinese resource (my Chinese girlfriend) and she explained the following to me. Note that she is Han Chinese.
She could only think of 3 family surnames that are composed of two characters:
欧阳
西门
上官
Also I asked her about having both the father an mothers surname, and she said it is a common practice, but only one of them can be your surname, because Chinese people can only have one surname. She said if you wanted to use both surnames it would have to work as follows: You'd take your father's surname as your surname, and then your mother's surname would actually be part of your given name. For example, her family name is 刘 (Liu). If she took her mother's surname 张 (Zhang) and her father's surname 刘 (Liu), she could be called 刘张荔 (Liu Zhang Li) or 刘荔张 (Liu Li Zhang). In any case, her father's surname would always be her surname.
Hope this helps clarify.
bodawei
@Ouyangjun
Thanks for this - feeding my current appetite for lots of information about names.
Yes, Wikipaedia (not necessarily an authority on these matters) lists about 60 compound family names but notes that only a handful are in common use today. Interestingly it does note that some (in antiquity) were formed by taking the family name of father and mother, but the story I am getting is that this is becoming more common today, rather like it has taken off in the West. (It did so in the West because of higher divorce and re-marriage rates). Whether this meets the 'rules' is another thing - I assume you mean for official purposes - your girlfriend's explanation does not surprise me.
But Chinese people have a gleeful disregard for rules - one reason I like the place. They also love names - many of my students seem to have more than one name, what we'd describe as a nickname. They may have more than one nickname, one at uni and one at home. Also there is no limit to the number of characters in a name as far as I know; it is just the convention that most are two, three or four characters. Even at an official level: when a foreigner marries they transliterate the name and it goes in the licence even if there are twenty or more characters. As Changye notes ethnic minorities often have more characters in their name than 'standard'. BTW your girlfriend in your scenario would not be limited to three characters - she could have both parents names and a couple of characters in addition, if she wanted. :-)
But the question about 欧阳 remains: I suggest that it is better known than many single character family names (probably not a big statement; there are many fairly obscure family names in China.) From Wikipaedia again it suggests that 欧阳 is not in the top 100 in terms of frequency, but I guess it could be 'famous' for other reasons (eg. as a surviving double character family name!)
changye
Hi ouyangjun116
Thanks a lot for the interesting story. FYI, it's legally possible to choose mother's surname for a new born baby, although it's not so often in the PRC. As for two-character family name, your Chinese friend is forgetting about a well-known one, i.e. “诸葛” (诸葛亮).
P/S. The name “欧阳” is well-known in Japan, Taiwan, HK, and probably in the PRC. There is a famous (and a little out-of-date) female Taiwan singer called “欧阳菲菲”.
simonpettersson
There's a famous calligrapher named 欧阳询, which a lot of people know about. A large part of calligraphy students, myself included, start their studies by imitating his characters. It's called writing "欧体". Interestingly, it's not called "欧阳体".
tvan
March 21, 2010, 08:37 PMI just went the transliteration route. My name is way too long (湯母。馮。陸文), but it works for me. Everybody just calls me Tom or 湯母. But the greatest pleasure is when I come to an official government agency, and they try to cram my name into a computer system. I usually suggest that they use the first three, last three, or middle three characters, alternating suggestions of course.
Big Brother is watching? Hah!
In all seriousness, I guess I like a "foreign" Chinese name because, well, I'm foreign.
stevec
April 17, 2010, 05:25 PMI asked some Taiwanese friends to help me come up with my Chinese name. I told them I wanted something that sounded authentically Chinese, yet still retained at least some of the sounds of my English name.
They gave me some choices, and I picked 孔書文 Kǒng Shū-wén. 孔 sounds a bit like the first part of my surname (Coleman) and 書文 a bit like Stephen. Additionally, the meanings of the characters are pleasant, and they aren't difficult to write.
So my chop, my ID card, and my driver's license all say 孔書文. I'm still get giddy when someone refers to me as 孔先生 or 小文.
xiao_liang
Wow, I love that, speaking as a fellow Stephen. Although I think 書文 is possibly a bit more educated than I am!
changye
Hi stevec
Your Taiwanese friends did a great job for you. I like your Chinese name, which sounds very "intellectual". Furthermore, I think the name would make you feel the pressure to learn Chinese hard, because Chinese people would definitely expect the guy named "孔書文" to speak fluent Mandarin. 加油！
xiao_liang
April 17, 2010, 05:31 PMWow, I love that, speaking as a fellow Stephen. Although I think 書文 is possibly a bit more educated than I am!
changye
April 17, 2010, 05:43 PMHi stevec
Your Taiwanese friends did a great job for you. I like your Chinese name, which sounds very "intellectual". Furthermore, I think the name would make you feel the pressure to learn Chinese hard, because Chinese people would definitely expect the guy named "孔書文" to speak fluent Mandarin. 加油！
Jess_Andersen
April 24, 2010, 06:54 AMOne of my Kung Fu teachers gave me my name.
It is 安士杰。
安 for Andersen and the fact that I'm a peaceful, mellow guy.
士 for my study habits,
and 杰 for Jess and it goes well with 士。
light487
March 21, 2010, 07:52 PMI have to be quick, as I am getting ready for work.. but I chose my own Chinese name, which is: 光明. The meaning, in its most basic form, is "Light".
My internet username has been light487 for as long as I remember and there is a reason for this. My real name is, Luke, and if you look up the meaning it also means "Light".
So this is the reason behind my online nickname and my Chinese name. :)
trevorb
March 20, 2010, 11:25 PMAh the very thing that Jenny talks about in that blog as being a problem with English names chosen by Chinese people is why I've never been brave enough to adopt a Chinese name.
I thought of a transliteration for my full name 特热发 八次特 but our names are way to long to use all of it! the danger though is that it means something that I'm not aware of....
When I was at school some time ago (我属老虎）my french teach gave each child in the class a french name, to make us feel part of the country when in those lessons. That makes sense especially for a language like chinese. If someone chinese asked me to give them a name I would guide them away from "boot" or "kinki"!
I guess though that you'd have to trust the person naming you or you could end up with a name that means something you'd not really want to be called ;-)