叫, 姓, and 名字 usage

[Guest AlexF]

Please correct me if there are mistakes:

when i want to ask somebody, what is his/her name, i gonna say "你叫什么吗?"

response may me like (for example) "我姓王,名字云,你呢?" - is 叫 needed here?

Does anybody in China say "您贵姓?", or this is an ancient form?

Thank you!

[galitonwu]

when i want to ask somebody, what is his/her name, i gonna say "你叫什么吗?"

你叫什么名字？

response may me like (for example) "我姓王,名字云,你呢?" - is 叫 needed here?

我姓王,三横一竖王。单名一个字云，云彩的云。

Does anybody in China say "您贵姓?", or this is an ancient form?

very common.

[bjgodefr]

i gonna say "你叫什么吗?"

you have to omit 吗 in this sentence because you're already using an asking word (=什么)

You can never use 吗 in sentences where you use asking words like: shenme, shei, shenme shihou, nar3, na3, zenmeyang, etc.

it's like indicating twice that you're asking a question.

[shibo77]

吗ma5 Add this to the end of statements to change into a question.

呢ne5 Add this to the end of sentences with a question word.

"你叫什么?-You called what?" There is a question word in the sentence, "什么-what".

Thus, "你叫什么呢?Ni3 jiao4 shen2 me5 ne5?-You called what?".

-Shibo

[holyman]

你叫什么名字sounds a little like interrogation...

there are a lot of other ways...

您怎么称呼？

您贵姓？

您是。。。？（or 还没请教您是。。。？）

or

请问+（您是？/贵姓？/怎么称呼？）

ancient ways could be 阁下高姓大名？etc

[xuechengfeng]

你姓甚麼叫甚麼﹖

what about this, common or not

[Guest Yau]

你姓甚麼叫甚麼﹖

It really depends on the person you meet, but i can say this is not a safe word that may offend some one.

However, it should be very okay if you ask like this:

未敢請教閣下高姓大名? (When saying it, you can cove up your hands)

It's a typical ancient and humble way to ask the name, literally means "I dare not ask your great name", commonly found in a wuxia novel. But I can assure that all chinese will be amazed at your knowledge on chinese and answer you happily.

For more daily expression, simply say:

您叫甚麼名字呢?

您怎麼稱呼?

[Quest]

"您贵姓?"

If you ask me that, I would only tell you my last name.