Name in Chinese?

[Skillty]

Hofmann what about 何也乐 like Lu said.

 

What does 燁 stand for?

[Demonic_Duck]

何也乐 = 何也樂, it's just the simplified form of the final character.

 

(Note that I'm not a native speaker and not good at picking Chinese names, but Skylee is both.)

I thought Skylee was a native speaker of Cantonese, not Mandarin. Not that that means she's any less qualified to come up with Chinese names, though native Cantonese speakers will tend to choose different kinds of names than native Mandarin speakers.

[skylee]

Re #22, thanks for pointing out that I am a Cantonese speaker.  I know that for many people, being a Cantonese speaker implies that I am inferior, i.e. "less qualified", as if I can't speak Mandarin. #22 is not the only recent post that says this.  Anyway, I wish you very good luck in your study of Mandarin.

[Demonic_Duck]

Huh? Try re-reading my post, I never said anything about inferiority.

 

Of course it doesn't mean you're not qualified to speak Mandarin, you're just as qualified as anyone else of your ability level (to be honest I don't know exactly what your level is, but I assume it's high as you seem very knowledgeable about Mandarin). However, you're not qualified in the same way that a native speaker is. Neither is Dashan, and no-one's going to tell you his Mandarin is poor.

[skylee]

Thank you very much for your response.  Good luck.

[Hofmann]

燁

[ouyangjun]

Re: #22, I don't follow why a Cantonese speaker would not be as qualified as a "Mandarin" speaker to pick a name....

How about a Shanghainese speaker or a Sichuanese speaker living in Shanghai and Sichuan? Mandarin is not their first language by that logic, so would they not be as qualified to give a Chinese name? I know some older Shanghainese people who can barely speak Putonghua, but they managed to give their kids Chinese names that are used today and spoken in Mandarin. If you didn't ask them where they are from you wouldn't know from their name if they are from Guangzhou, Shanghai, etc. Other than in Hebei near Beijing most places have their own dialect and Putonghua/Mandarin is not their first language. By that logic only Beijingers would be the most qualified. I just don't follow the logic on how Skylee as a native Cantonese speaker would be any less qualified.... Cantonese is a 方言, same as Shanghainese, Suzhounese, Sichuanese, etc...

 

Edit:  I guess my point is, is that Cantonese is Chinese... Shanghainese is Chinese... Putonghua/Mandarin is Chinese...

[roddy]

It didn't take much research to find out that there may actually be regional differences in the names given

南北东西的文化差异居然也能在姓名上体现出来。比如，北京人女性多以静为名，哈尔滨人女性多以淑为名。  

Seems a bit like everyone's jumping on The Duck for saying something he specifically said he wasn't saying.

[ouyangjun]

Roddy - actually you're right... I seemed to have glazed over the part where the duck said she is qualified to come up with a Chinese name.

 

 

 

Not that that means she's any less qualified to come up with Chinese names, though native Cantonese speakers will tend to choose different kinds of names than native Mandarin speakers.

 

So agreed, there. Cantonese is native Chinese and she can come up with a Chinese name.  

@Demonic_Duck - sorry about reading that out of context

 

 

 

It didn't take much research to find out that there may actually be regional differences in the names given

Quote

南北东西的文化差异居然也能在姓名上体现出来。比如，北京人女性多以静为名，哈尔滨人女性多以淑为名。 

 

To the second point about regional differences...  I don't doubt that would've been the case years ago, especially prior to the reform and opening years.  But with the amount of migration that has taken place in China, access to the internet and pop culture, etc. I'd be willing to bet the connection to the name and the region is more obscure these days.  I've never heard one of my Chinese friends hear a name and say, "Sounds like he/she is from 什么什么地方".  I've only heard comments to really "hillbilly" 土包子 sounding names, where it is a good bet that the person came from the countryside (this is my Shanghainese friends thinkings.... they can be come off a bit snobbish at times).  I have heard them laugh at guys names that sound like girls names, but that's a different story....  In risk of offending anyone I will refrain from putting any of those names here.  

[Lu]

Perhaps it's not so much that X name means you're probably from Y region, but more like surnames: if your surname is 陈, that doesn't mean you're necessarily from Taiwan, and 杨 doesn't mean you're from Hong Kong, but there are comparatively a lot more 陈s in Taiwan and 杨s in Hong Kong than elsewhere.

[imron]

Really? That's not something I've noticed (or maybe it's just that I know plenty of 陈s from mainland and not many from Taiwan).  I did find that Taiwan had many more 林s though.

[陳德聰]

I recall 陈 being one of the most common surnames I encountered in Taipei, but that might be a confirmation bias type thing since I am a 陈 and people like to do that thing where they're like "oh I'm a 陈 too!".

 

As for 何也乐, I prefer 晔 for a girl's name and 烨 for a boy's name over "也".
 

[晔/烨]乐 sounds a bit closer to the name Jelle in my mind than 也乐 due to the shift of weight (this is the only word I can think of to kind of mean what I am trying to say, sorry) in the two syllables.

[Demonic_Duck]

晔 can be used in male names too, I used to have a young male student with this character in his name. It also has the rather fun property of confusing the hell out of many native Chinese speakers (a lot of them will attempt to pronounce it as "hua").

[Lu]

Really? That's not something I've noticed (or maybe it's just that I know plenty of 陈s from mainland and not many from Taiwan). I did find that Taiwan had many more 林s though.

Yah, 林 would have been a better example. Anyway, point is still the same.

I like 烨 in a name, and it is a bit closer to how Jelle sounds, but if you use that, you lose the meaning of 何也乐.

[OneEye]

I recall 陈 being one of the most common surnames I encountered in Taipei, but that might be a confirmation bias type thing since I am a 陈 and people like to do that thing where they're like "oh I'm a 陈 too!".

 

No, you're right. I think it's the most common surname in Taiwan by a long shot. Taiwanese people laugh when I say 陳某某 to refer to random 路人.

[陳德聰]

I too laughed haha.

Edit: Also regarding the "meaning" of 何也乐... I find that while these types of names are kind of cute and have some artistry behind their selection, to me they come off a bit tacky. It's just a personal preference for me, but I'm not a big fan of names that sound like a sentence.

[lingo-ling]

何悅樂?

[Skillty]

What does that mean Lingo-Ling? How do you pronounce it?

[Lu]

Hé Yuèlè, 悦 and 乐 both mean happy, 何 is the surname and doesn't really have meaning here. Imo this name is a bit much, with two happys, but I'm still not a native speaker.

[Demonic_Duck]

If you're still struggling to choose, here's a potentially useful tool:

 

http://name.renren.com/

 

Using this, you can find out how many people already exist with a particular name on the social networking site "Renren". It will also give you info on gender ("女生" = female, "男生" = male). So for instance, searching for "何悦乐" gives you:

"人人网上姓名为 何悦乐 的用户共有6人，其中 女生83.33%，男生16.67%"

"In total 6 Renren users have the name 何悦乐, of which 83.33% are female, 16.67% are male".

 

"何晔乐", "何也乐" and "何烨乐" all bring up no results.

 

I certainly wouldn't discourage you from using an unusual name, and even if a name brings up no results it can still be a perfectly native-sounding Chinese name - there are thousands of characters to choose from and combine, and many Chinese parents deliberately choose rare characters to give their child a unique name. There's even an argument to be made for deliberately choosing an un-Chinese-sounding name (it normally runs something along the lines of "you're not Chinese, so your name shouldn't/doesn't need to sound Chinese either"). However, this tool can help you distinguish names like "Tom" from names like "Moon Unit" (the name of Frank Zappa's daughter) - that is, distinguish safe choices from choices that will either make people think "cool!" or "weird!"