Choosing your Chinese name

[ansileran]

Well, this is what I came up with : 董晓明 or 董晓娜.

I picked 董 from the most common family names because it's the one that sounds the closest to the beginning of my family name (actually, first syllable of my family name would be pronounce like 头 but I don't think it's a Chinese family name...). My first name means "dawn", that's why I picked up 晓.

I don't really know what to chose for the last character.娜 would make it sound a bit like a nickname I had before, but I'm not sure if it really is used in Chinese given names or if it's only to help transliterate non-Chinese names...

Would any of those pass as a Chinese name ?

Thank you so much for your help !

[skylee]

董晓明 is good.

I think 明 is a very good word for names, easy to pronounce, with very good meanings and suitable for male and female.

Actually I was going to suggest 惠明 to MGMT. 惠 is not a very common surname but it is not rare either.

PS - 明惠 would also work wonderfully. 明 is also a not so common surname.

[Jane_PA]

Are ansileran and MGMT the same person?

[MGMT]

No, we're different people. I'm just "hijacking" ansileran's thread because I stumbled on it (sorry!)

Thank you for your help, skylee! Could someone tell me how I should pronounce that, and what it means, please? (I'm talking about the names suggested in skylee's last two sentences; unless I misread, I think those ones applied to me, not ansileran?) Other suggestions are welcome too, of course; I'm completely lost so I'd be thankful for any help.

[skylee]

Hi, MGMT. I did suggest those two for you.

惠 (huì) - meaning; pronunciation

明 (míng) - meaning; pronunciation

[doraemon]

董晓明 sounds a bit too manly, I think 董晓娜 would be a better choice. You could also choose other common feminine endings such as 慧、英、萍 etc.

[Jane_PA]

The following Chinese characters mean flowers and are used as Chinese female names oftenly. But, to choose which one also depends on your family... to make the comination sound beautiful...

梅 pronounced mei2, it means plum flower, not the flower of the fruit plum... See the picture: http://www.fzrm.com/plantextracts/plantextractsimages/plantextractimages/Plum_Flower.jpg

This name was popular in China, particularly combined with 红(hong2),meaning red, or 冬（dong1）meaning winter because this flower blossoms in winter and the popular color is red. So, usually if a girl called 冬梅, may indicate she was born in winter. But this name is not popular recent years because naming girls with flowers or once so popular names are out. Chinese parents would like to name their children a very unique name now.

玫 pronounced mei2, it relates to rose.

茉莉 (Mo4 Li1), means jasmine. Not very popular used as Hong2 mei2 or Dong1 mei2, but still is used.

兰 (Lan2), means orchid. It was very popular, I might say even earlier than Hong mei. 玉兰 yu4 lan was a popular combination, yu4 means jade, which is another a popular character for girls.

莲 (Lian2), means lotus. Similar popular like Lan or Hong Mei, but it also depends the combination.

菊 (Ju2), means chrysanthemum. This may indicate the girl was born in the fall.

In addition to name their babies uniquely, don't like to repeat other's names in China. Another trend in recent decades is parents would not like to name a girl a very girly name like flowers, unless a very special combination making it distinct. Very flower name may sound like from the countryside and the parents didn't have too much education....But I may say, a westerner has a very countryside style name may have some dramatic effect... Whatever, just FYI.

If you like to know more, let me think what I can recall...

[MGMT]

Wow, thank you so much to both of you!!

Skylee, that website is great, and I love the meaning of that name! But unfortunately after listening to the 惠 sound several times, I find myself unable to say it properly. :mellow: So I may pass on that particular combination, but keep 明 with another given name if possible.

Jane_PA, that's amazing information, I'm speechless! That flower is beautiful and I was born in the middle of winter, so I may go with 冬梅 (or would that be 梅冬?). I also like 玉兰 and 莲 quite a lot, though. Just to check, those are all given names, right? So would 明 work as a surname with those, or would it sound ridiculous/make no sense? Because I like not only its meaning, but the way it looks and sound as well. I don't know if I can try to pick the surname randomly from a list (and ask you guys if it's ok), or if there are only a few that can go with those given names...

(Hee, well I think it'll be obvious to all I'm not Chinese, so I don't mind if it's a bit old/countryside, it could even be nice! I'll let you know if there's any weird reaction from people. ;))

[Jane_PA]

Hi MGMT:

It should be 冬梅，not 梅冬。 hehe，Chinese would be surprised that you have such a very Chinese name. Maybe just like I call myself Jane, which is not popular among westerners in recent years...

Mei2 pronounces like May, so the pronounciation should be fine.

Do you have any special interests in certain flowers? I can look for those related Chinese names.

[skylee]

I had a colleague with this name and I found the name amusing / a bit odd, really. But then she had no choice in her own name and we don't usually use Chinese names at the office so it was fine.

[Jane_PA]

Jane_PA, that's amazing information, I'm speechless! That flower is beautiful and I was born in the middle of winter, so I may go with 冬梅 (or would that be 梅冬?). I also like 玉兰 and 莲 quite a lot, though. Just to check, those are all given names, right? So would 明 work as a surname with those, or would it sound ridiculous/make no sense? Because I like not only its meaning, but the way it looks and sound as well. I don't know if I can try to pick the surname randomly from a list (and ask you guys if it's ok), or if there are only a few that can go with those given names...

I just remembered, many years ago, two westerns played a small show in the most popular Chinese TV program then by using CHinese. They spoke very good Chinese. Their names are 大山 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashan)and 玉兰。That show made a very dramatic effect in China. 大山 became a super star since then. You can look at the wiki. But I don't know where 玉兰 it is now. One of the effects was they used such common Chinese names and made Chinese general public feel so close to the westerners. That time, China was quite isolated from the outside world. Most of us never had seen a westerner in person, not mention to listen to a westerner who could speak Chinese so well.

Yes, what I listed are all given names. i、If 明 is a surname, I mean a family name, it must be a very rare one. I don't remember I ever met with a person with this surname... I think Skylee gave your suggestion in Chinese way, family name + given name。董 is family name，晓明，晓慧 are given names.

You may choose a Chinese family name which is close to your western family name's pronounciation.

[rob07]

I don't really know what to chose for the last character.娜 would make it sound a bit like a nickname I had before, but I'm not sure if it really is used in Chinese given names or if it's only to help transliterate non-Chinese names...

For what it is worth, I once met a Chinese girl with this character in her name and she said that when it was pronounced na4 it was most often used for transliterating foreign names but when it was pronounced nuo2 it was quite a standard character to use in a Chinese name. However, in her case she pronounced it na4 anyway because her parents thought that sounded better when they gave her the name.

[MGMT]

Hmm, ok, I think I get it now, thanks.

You may choose a Chinese family name which is close to your western family name's pronounciation.

That's a good idea in theory, but I'm French and my family name is a long one and already a bit weird in France, and basically unpronounceable by non-French Westerners, so I'd rather have a completely new Chinese name. But I take it the association doesn't matter as much between family name + given name as it does between the two sounds of the given name?

That's so interesting about Dashan, I've never heard of him before! Yeah, I figure our original names would already give quite a bit of trouble to foreigners, so I/we may as well pick simple regular ones in other languages!

I can pronounce 梅 and 兰 with no problem (I think). 红 and 冬 are giving me a bit more trouble, but much less so than 惠, so I think if I pick something relatively simple for my surname (such as 李 for instance), it should be ok... I adore poppy flowers and cherry blossoms from Japanese cherry trees if that yields any result. And I was born on the first snowy day of the year if that also inspires you!

[ansileran]

@rob07 :

I probably won't use that one, since I was only interested in it because of the na4 pronouciation...

@doraemon :

Well, I sure don't want people to think that I'm a guy. I think I'm going to choose 董晓慧 then. I realy wish to avoid flower characters in my name because I think they are a bit too girly (at least for my).

@MGMT :

Don't worry about hijacking the topic ! We are looking for the same thing afterall : a suitable Chinese name. I'm French too and my family name is a nightmare to pronounce for anyone but French and Italian people. It also is much too long to be tranliterated into Chinese... My advice would be for you to pick up a common Chinese name which sounds like the first syllable of you real name. It should be easier to recognise that way and you really need to be able to respond to it, as people are going to call you by your last name a lot.

Here is a list of common family names :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_Chinese_surnames

If you need to find more about pronounciation/meaning, you can use this online French-Chinese dictionary :

http://www.chine-nouvelle.com/outils/dictionnaire.html

Just copy the character you are looking for.

By the way, 冬dong1 would be pronounce "dongue" in French. 红hong2 and 惠hui4 are harder. "h" would be pronounce somewhat like the way the English "h" is pronounced at the beginning of a word ("H aspiré") immediatly followed by the French "r" sound... So, in French, it would be : 红hong2 -> "hrongue" and 惠hui4 "hroué" with the "H aspiré". Hope this helps !

[MGMT]

Merci beaucoup ansileran! Great website; I was using an English-Chinese dictionary, but it's nice to have one in French directly. Yeah, as you describe, the "hr" sound requires too much work for me to use in my name! (I already have trouble enough pronouncing "h" in english! ) You're right, "dong" isn't that complicated actually, it's only the accented "g" sound that surprised me at first (we'd put more emphasis on the "on" part in French).

Well, following yours and Jane's advice, I should actually use 兰 (Lan2) as my last name; it's not in the wiki list, but when I was checking the first names Jane suggested on this website earlier, the first definition it gave me was "surname Lan". Would that work?

[Jane_PA]

That's a good idea in theory, but I'm French and my family name is a long one and already a bit weird in France, and basically unpronounceable by non-French Westerners, so I'd rather have a completely new Chinese name.

I understand this. You don't have to choose the whole prononouciation, but only the first syllable of your western family name. For example, a western guy's family name is Smith, he may choose the Chinese family name 史(shi3). All Chinese family names are short to one or two characters, there is no good way to match the whole western family name...

[Jane_PA]

I adore poppy flowers and cherry blossoms from Japanese cherry trees if that yields any result. And I was born on the first snowy day of the year if that also inspires you!

Poppy flowers? 罂粟？(ying1 su4). This doesn't look like a good name in Chinese...

Cherry blossoms is called 樱花(ying1 hua1). 樱 could be a female name. Another often used Chinese girl name is 英(ying1), which has many meanings. One of them could be flower petals. So, even from the sound, ying1 is an often used girl name.

I know some Chinese girls called 雪 (xue3) or 晓雪（xiao3 xue3, 晓 means early morning）because they were born on a snowy day or in the winter. 冬雪could be a name too.

Yes, how to choose first names also depends on the family name importantly. Because you don't want to have a funny combination since most Chinese characters have some meaning.

[MGMT]

So taking "lan2" from my western surname, and using my favorite of your suggestions, I get these:

1. 兰冬梅

2. 兰晓雪

3. 兰茉莉

4. 兰晓明

5. 兰晓梅

Would any of these work? (That last two I simply made up because I liked the way they sounded, but they probably don't sound like names at all!)

[doraemon]

MGMT, I actually think you're last two options sound the best! LOL. Except like I suggested to ansileran, 晓明 sounds too much like a guy's name. I suppose No.1 sounds quite alright as well, but IMO 兰 is a pretty hard surname to come up with a good name to go with it. I think something like 兰晓婷, 兰晓萍 or 兰晓燕 sound quite good. But I don't like the character 萍 all that much. I don't know, I just feel that a 2nd or 4th tone character best finishes off the name.

Oh yeah, what about 兰雪梅? I've heard of a couple of girls with 雪梅 as their name. It goes well with the 'winter' theme you seem to be interested in.

[ansileran]

@MGMT :

Doraemon seemed to think 晓明 sounds too manly, that's why I gave it up, though I agree with you : it sounds nice, it's not too hard to pronounce and meaning is fine too. And it does exist as a Chinese first name (found someone called 董晓明 when I googled it).