Name our children

[DaoistGate]

My husband is Chinese. I'm American and speak both languages. We want our children to have bilingual names. We named our daughter is named 迈涯 (Maiya) but literally wore out a dictionary finding her name. The only other few I can think of are 凯利 (Kaili) and 丽娅 (Liya). We're stumped on boys names. Anyone have any other recommendations or resources for bilingual Mandarin-English names?

[Outofin]

Many Chinese children born in the US have 2 names. I personally feel it often turns out easier and nicer to have 2 separate names, which don't sound simliar or mean similarly.

If you want "one" name, choose the English name first, because English names are chosen while Chinese names are invented. People can find creative ways to invent a Chinese name that sounds like the English name and still manages to mean something.

[DaoistGate]

With all respect, we're interested in picking only one name. I know some people won't agree with this, but I feel that when a child grows up with two cultures and two languages, it is important to emphasize the fact that he/she is one whole person (and not two halves) especially with names, which are associated with personal identity. Since our children are the product of the overlapping of cultures, I feel their names should be the same. My husband also does not have an English name, and my Chinese name is a direct transcription of my English one.

The problem with picking an English name first is that there are so many sounds in the English language that don't exist in Chinese. I guess what I'm looking for is a Chinese name whose Pinyin is directly acceptable as an English name, even if it means inventing a name. The way I did it last time was to write down all of the sounds that exist in both languages on note cards (not as horrible as it seems since there are only what, 400+ unique syllables in the Chinese language, and a large number don't exist in English). Then I shuffled them around to create combinations. It took a very very long time.

[chrix]

With all respect, we're interested in picking only one name. I know some people won't agree with this, but I feel that when a child grows up with two cultures and two languages, it is important to emphasize the fact that he/she is one whole person (and not two halves) especially with names, which are associated with personal identity.

I grew up with two cultures and two languages, and having two different names to go along with each culture/language didn't do any harm to me personally, I think it was rather helpful.

But of course it's your decision...

[DaoistGate]

The ability to move seamlessly from one culture and language to the other is a great gift, and one that I envy on a daily basis. I know that having a name that fits with the culture is important. I'm not saying that having two names is harmful, I just see an appeal to names that fit in both places. For a kid with two cultures, two racial identities, and two languages all to juggle, giving her just one of something seemed like a nice idea. I just want to help her find things that she can be 100% of, instead of always 50% this, and 50% that, especially when we are in China where it is always brought to her attention (every day people call out on the street to our "小混血儿").

[chrix]

I personally think you could give her that impression as a parent much better than through a name. A name won't change much, but the example of her parents will... It would also help if you had friends and relatives who would tell her that she belongs in both worlds...

[DaoistGate]

I couldn't agree more that what you teach your kid is more important than what you name them. I do all I can on that front. Soliciting (or giving) parenting advice is opening a whole new can of worms. At this point (and in this forum) I'm just looking for bilingual names. There are extensive lists of Spanish-English and French-English bilingual names on the internet, but I can't find a Chinese-English equivalent.

[renzhe]

This is because European names tend to come from the same source (often it's the Bible), and Chinese and European names don't.

That and the languages you listed are all close relatives of each other and share much of common culture, whereas Chinese and English are as far from each other as they could possibly be, and share very little in terms of common history, beliefs and culture.

Any name you find that makes sense and sounds native in both Chinese and English will be a very unusual exception.

[chrix]

As outofin said, Chinese names are invented by the parents, while English names are chosen.

You won't find many useful lists of bilingual names for that reason. There are some Chinese transliterations of English names, but if you used that in lieu of a Chinese name, it would sound terribly unimaginative...

[DaoistGate]

I know that the two languages have no common roots, and I agree that using a Chinese transliteration is a bit dull.

I have a good friend whose son is Italian/Chinese named Leo （Pronounced ley-oh like the Italian). I'm not sure which characters he uses (I'd guess it's 磊欧) but we don't have that name ( at least not pronounced that way) in English.

Like you said, there's only a handful of exceptions. I'm just hoping that someone else has put some thought to the idea and come up with some crossovers that I missed.

[chrix]

You could use any one or two characters as a name in Chinese, you can be totally free (as long as the name is socially acceptable) as a parent in coming up with a name, even one that sounds like an English name.

[Outofin]

I guess what I'm looking for is a Chinese name whose Pinyin is directly acceptable as an English name

I think that's a good idea too. Many Chinese names sound good in English, (maybe just me,) such as Song, Hui, Ling, Chang, Tao, Lu, etc, etc. Some American products and websites have adopted pinyin as their brands, such as Ning.com, Qi (a new display technology).

[scottishlaura]

My Chinese husband and I (white British) have three sons and gave up on doing what you are attempting to do ie find one name that works in both languages, such as "Anna". Instead we picked English names that we knew would transliterate into Chinese relatively well and then my husband went on a hunt for good characters with the matching pronunciation. So we have Ethan/YiHeng 义恒, Dylan/DeLun and Corben/KeBen (chinese yet to be decided).

The other thing you can do is pick a name in English whose meaning can be translated into a word that works as a name in Chinese ie Jade/Yu, but I can't think of so many like this.

For boys names that work in English and Chinese as one name, off the top of my head I can think of Andy AnDi, Danny DaNi, Jack JiaKe (not so good), but not many more. Out of interest, are you expecting another child or just thinking ahead?

[anonymoose]

How about Ben? Just don't choose a fourth tone character.

[xifbk]

I wonder if giving them an engish name and a chinese transliteration may achieve the opposite of what you are intending to do, ie if you give them a name that sounds good in english and is pronouncable in chinese, what you are doing is saying to white people your name will sound normal, and to a chinese person your name will never sound right or fit in.

I suggest getting the inlaws to choose an appropriate name (:

[Lu]

I think scottishlaura has the best idea here. It's possible to come up with a name that works both in English and in Chinese, as she shows, but it's really hard to come up with something that also works in pinyin. Dylan and Delun is at least pronounced the same, and when written in Chinese, it will be written in characters anyway, so pinyin is not an issue anymore.

A woman I know has two daughters, who have Dutch names and Chinese names derived from the Dutch. Their names are a bit special in Chinese, but it still works.

[rob07]

Bilingual names are cool.

A Chinese girl called 艾敏娜 once asked me to help her choose an English name. The pinyin of her name was Minna which not only works as an English name but also means love (it is Teutonic in origin) so it was a pun on her family name as well. I thought that was pretty cool. (Note that 娜 can also be pronounced nuo2 but she pronounced it na4.)

I'm also reminded of this guy I used to know who kept talking about his girlfriend Lynne. For various reasons, I assumed she was a Westerner, but when I eventually met her she was a Chinese girl called Lin. Never did find out what the character was, maybe 琳.

I agree with Lu and scottishlaura that as long as the names sound the same in both languages, no one will care about the pinyin. Lee is another name to consider, it can be used for either boys or girls. There seem to be quite a few Chinese men called 力 and at least a few li characters that would be appropriate for girls.

[HerrPetersen]

I know a pair of (100% Chinese) cousins who are called Lina and Nina. I don't know what hanzi are used. I could ask and check however. Sorry no boys names

[DaoistGate]

Scottishlaura -----> For Dylan have you thought of using the character de (德) plus one of the 'lun' characters)? My husband is Daoist, so I'm biased on this one. No baby at this point, it's just something interesting to think about. Plus, couple I know (Spanish/Chinese) is struggling over names, and came to me for help so it's in my mind lately. They're having a boy.

Rob07 ---->Minna is nice, and could also be mi + na (谧娜 perhaps?)

xifbk ----> I don't want a transliteration of an English name. I want a name that works equally well in both languages. Basically, I want a Chinese name whose pinyin is usable as an English name. I'd let the grandparents pick a name, but I'm not too excited about any of the cousins' names they picked ( 周元一， 周元清 and 周元飞). Plus, her generation marker is "元" which is not very pronounceable in English.

[BrandeX]

How about Lee?

In our case my wife wanted to completely toss out the Chinese name, even though I was for it. My idea was actually a standard Chinese name written in Pinyin. You don't necessarily need a name like "Bob" or "Jimmy" to have an English name. It just has to be written in "Letters". If you can be a "Janiqua" or "Shanaynay" or what have you here in the states, then something like "Mai" or "Wenjing" or whatever works just as well imho.

On our daughter's Chinese birth certificate it says: "Isabelle" and everyone here calls her "Izzy" or "E-see" depending on the individual's accent. I presume even in the USA her standard nickname will continue to be "Izzy" for the rest of her life, so in this instance it works out pretty well I think.