Chinese names and gender

[Guest]

Hi,

I would be thankful for some feedback on the name 艾米 (the full name is 周艾米), does this name strike you as male or female or gender neutral?

Thanks!

[Peter2010]

In my opinion, 艾米 does not sound like a typical Chinese name and I can't tell the gender. Instead, 周艾 sounds pretty good and would make more sense (艾means beauty).

[OneEye]

Sounds like a transliteration of "Amy" to me.

[imluffy]

艾米 is the transliteration of Amy.

Another example,someone's full name is 李杰克，and his English name is Jack.

[Hofmann]

Really?...I thought 艾 meant mugwort. And 艾米 looks like one of those insulting names parents give to infants believing it will avoid misfortune.

Edit: ...until I looked it up in 國語辭典. Now I see the "beauty" definition.

[Guest]

The suggestion 周艾米 came from a person in Shanghai who thought the name would sound artsy and mysterious

Maybe another name would be better then, the English name to be translated is Emmet which is a gender neutral name ( http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/0/Emmet ).

Not looking for the general transliterations for Emmet/Emmett http://www.chinesenames.org/name-translation/e/e17.htm which are directly male Chinese names as I understand it.

Perhaps a name derived from the meaning of Emmet would be easier if I'm looking for a gender neutral Chinese name? Emmet means universal, strength and ant (as in the insect

Thanks again for your help!

[Lu]

Perhaps something with 宇 (universe)? I've seen that one in male and female names.

[Guest]

Lu: Have you seen it as a single character or only as part of names? Wouldn't know what other character to pair it with to make a Chinese name that sounds Chinese...

[imron]

Google images tells me 周宇 works as either a female or a male name.

[Kenny同志]

周艾 is a very good name-殷梨亭就曾对杨不悔说过她青春少艾.

see 艾

[abcdefg]

周艾 is a very good name

MIght lead to some rude jokes and confusion. Sounds somewhat similar to 做爱, especially if you aren't precise with the tones。

[Kenny同志]

Well, yes, that's likely.

[imron]

especially if you aren't precise with the tones。

and you then confuse your finals on top of that, -uo is not -ou (and if you're that far gone it probably doesn't matter what name you choose anyway)

[Guest]

Isn't 周艾 a female name though? Think I might rather go with 周宇, anyone else have a take on that name??

[Guest]

Tried Imrons way of using Gooogle images to check the name 周艾 and most of the images were pictures of western models, seemingly not tied to that many Chinese people except for 周艾若.

[Lu]

周艾 doesn't sound particularly male or female to me, so it might work. I don't really like it as a name though, but I can hardly disagree with the native speaker here.

[Guest]

Ok thanks for the input.