Please Help! How to choose an English name for a Chinese girl?

[Hermione Yu]

Hi everyone, I'm a Chinese girl. My Chinese name is Haomiao (浩淼), [hào miǎo]. Now I meet some problems with choosing my English name. I would like to take an English name which has similar pronunciation with my Chinese name.

I have done some research about English names, and I think Hermione [hə:'maiəni] and Hermia ['hə:miə] are suitable. I don’t know which one is better, which one to choose. I’m also afraid that it will be awkward or weird if I use this name in English countries. 

My Chinese name 浩淼 means a vast expanse of crystal water. When I choose my English name, I don't mean to use something unique or rare, I just want to choose something similar with my Chinese name. I envy my brother very mucn who can simply tell his friends to call him Sean since his Chinese name is 萧. If you have better options, please tell me.

Thank you for your help!

[skylee]

There is someone called Hermia in my office. I think both names are OK.

[Shelley]

Hermione is Harry Potters friend. it has become more popular since the books and films.

[liuzhou]

Hermione is, as others have said, Harry Potter's friend.

 

Hermia is a character  from Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream.

 

Both are OK names.

[Hermione Yu]

Thank you.

I thought Hermia was a variant of Hermione.

 

[ChTTay]

I'd go with Hermione. Only because "Hermia" immediately makes me think of "Hernia".

[Shelley]

I agree that Hermione is probably better, but your Chinese name is very pretty and has a meaning to be proud of. Why don't you use that?

[ouyangjun]

Shouldn't be anything wrong with the names.  Note that I've never heard of either of those English names until now.... I'm American and have been living in China for the past 6+ years and never saw Harry Potter.... so maybe they became popular in the recent years or are more popular in other English speaking countries outside of America.  Just because I've never heard of the names does not mean there is anything wrong with them.  Having a unique name can be good, because people will remember it and you easier.

[Mouseneb]

Harmony is another option.

[Hermione Yu]

Hi, Shelley

It is difficult to pronounce Chinese name correctly. One of my lecturers called me Meow for entire term-time. So I think maybe an English name will be better.

[hedwards]

I'd personally choose something that felt a bit more like me. But, then again, I was lucky enough to have an English name that could be transliterated into Chinese in a reasonable way.

 

Thanks to Harry Potter, I think people will probably not think that Hermione is too strange, but I'd definitely recommend considering other options. Even after Harry Potter, Hermione is kind of a strange name and you may or may not get chuckles about it.

 

I'd personally go to a list of names and see if there's any that seem like you. http://www.momswhothink.com/baby-girl-names/baby-girl-names-a-to-z-listing.html has a ton of options, possibly too many choices, but you might well find something that you like more than a straight transliteration.

[renzhe]

While Hermione was made more popular by the Harry Potter books, both names are exceedingly rare in practice.

How about going with Hannah? It's a nice, typical name, and not too far off from yout Chinese name.

[fanglu]

I've noticed Chinese people, when choosing English names, often seem to have a strong desire to have an unusual name. I guess this comes from Chinese thinking about names, where possibilities are virtually endless, and so no one likes to have a name that is too common. Its different to English, where a name is a name, and there's no shame in your baby having the same name as the baby in the next crib.

[MPhillips]

Americans have been tending somewhat in the Chinese direction, for instance Mary wasn't even among the top 100 girl's names last year. (!!!)

[Hofmann]

Unless you must have something that sounds similar, why not take advantage of the water in your name for some more options?

[Basil]

Choose something easy to pronounce. It's your name, you'll be saying it a lot.

[tysond]

I am a native English speaker and I don't think Hermione or Hermia sound weird.  

They are rare, but sound like names, and have been used as names before in books/plays.  

Harry Potter is incredibly popular, and Midsummer is Shakespere's most popular play (but harry potter is about 100 times more popular).

If you pick Hermione I think a lot of people will assume you chose it because of Harry Potter.

Hermia has a bit more "classic" feel.

 

I can't think of any name in English that would suggest a vast expanse of crystal water. 

While many names have old meanings, almost nobody knows what anyone else's name means, and very few people even know their own name's meaning.

People are more likely to think of famous people with that name, typical names related to social-economic-ethnic groups, or words it sounds like.

 

 

If you want a name that is relatively popular and easy to pronounce - Hannah is a good suggestion, as is Harmony.  

 

You could just choose the name Crystal, although to me that seems like a good name for a stripper.  

[grawrt]

What about Harley? It's not a common name and is easy to pronounce. I've only met one Harley in my life and I never forgot her because of her name which I thought was so cool.

 

Whatever you choose I'm sure it'll be fine. cant be worse than Twinkle, yes I've met someone who dubbed herself Twinkle.

[geraldc]

To decide on a given name, we need to hear it in conjunction with the surname. Makes a big difference with regards to things like alliteration (if you think it's a good or bad thing).

[liuzhou]

 

Midsummer is Shakespere's most popular play

 

How do you work that out? I very much doubt it.

 

 

What about Harley? It's not a common name and is easy to pronounce. I've only met one Harley in my life and I never forgot her because of her name which I thought was so cool.

 

Her surname wasn't Davidson, was it?