Is Doreen a good name for chinese girl? whats the meaning of it?

[DoreenKang]

Hi everyone.

 I m a Chinese girl . Now in college. I gonna go to US for graduated school next year. I need to pick a english name. My chinese name is 东媛（dong1 yuan3) . I once picked Doris . But then i find out it means a blonde which obviously i m not.

So ,i wonder whats the meaning of Doreen? or give me some advice .

 

BTW really sorry for my poor english , it may be a little confusing.....

[Melanie1989]

Your English is fine! Doreen apparently means "gift", according to google anyway. You won't find many people called that these days, it's quite old fashioned (but imo, that;s not a bad thing). It's pretty sweet, but i don't think it sounds very nice, to be honest. 

 

But as long as you like it, other's opinions shouldn't matter.

 

What kind of name are you looking for? I always thought Darla was a beautiful name, but then i am Buffy obsessed.. It's quite rare, as far as i know.

[skylee]

I have no strong view about another person calling herself Doreen though I would not choose it myself.

I know one Dorothy (ex-boss) and two Doris (one a co-worker and the other a family member, neither is blond).

How about Dahlia?

[daofeishi]

 

. I once picked Doris . But then i find out it means a blonde which obviously i m not.

So ,i wonder whats the meaning of Doreen?

 

Picking a name in English is very different from picking a Chinese name.

 

In China you often choose a name based on whether or not the name has a meaning that is lucky or fits the person. That is not the case in Western countries. The English language contains many words that are used as names, and those words have no meaning to people beyond being names. When people hear names such as John, Christian, Lucy, Jeanette, Doris,  Tracey, etc, no one thinks that those names have a meaning. 

 

Of course, Western names do have a history, and they usually had a specific meaning many years ago. Often, those names were words in languages like Latin, Greek, Hebrew or Old German, but over the years those words changed and became part of English, and now only exist in English as names that people call their children. Beyond that, the original meaning is not something that people think about in their daily lives. "John", for example, comes from the Hebrew phrase "God is gracious". I didn't know that until one minute ago, because I had to look it up in a name dictionary. I know many people who are called John, but to me or anyone else, it is never relevant that the name "John" comes from a Hebrew phrase used centuries ago. Many people called John are not even religious, but their names are not a problem to them. 

 

The same is the case for you: When people hear the name Doris, no one thinks that that means "blonde". It really doesn't occur to anyone, and there are plenty of non-blondes named Doris, like this woman, this woman, this woman, and many others. 

 

What is more relevant to people nowadays is how the name sounds to a modern English speaker aesthetically speaking, and possibly personal connections to the name (such as whether or not someone in your family had the name, or you know someone who has the name already,...) 

 

To me, Doris and Doreen sound a bit old-fashioned. There is nothing wrong with that, of course, but there are not that many people who have those two names anymore. If you like the names, there is nothing to stop you from using them, but you should not just think one-sidedly about etymology or "meaning" when choosing your name. 

[Lu]

Daofeishi says it well. As long as you pick a real name (not 'River' or 'Apple'), the meaning doesn't really matter. You can be called Bianca even if you're dark-haired and Barbara even if you're not barbarian. 'Doreen' is not much used these days, but it's a fine name. And it sounds like Dongyuan, so that will be convenient. The same goes for 'Doris'.

A small piece of advice on your English: when you use punctuation, like a comma (,) or a period (.), don't put a space before it, but put one space after it.

Wrong: Bianca is an Italian name ,it means blonde .But a Chinese woman can still use it .

Right: Bianca is an Italian name, it means blonde. But a Chinese woman can still use it.

Do this right, and your written English will look better immediately.

[Demonic_Duck]

"Doreen", "Doris" or "Dorothy" all sound old-fashioned to me. "Dahlia" sounds kinda badass, even though its meaning is a kind of flower.

 

"Badass", by the way, despite the fact it contains the word "bad", is actually a 褒义词. I think you should pick "Dahlia".

 

I also like "Daria", but I think that's mainly due to the absolutely brilliant cartoon of the same name.

[renzhe]

"Darla" is another old-fashioned but real name.

I actually ran into an old acquaintence named Doreen last week. Lovely name and a funny coincidence. She's not blonde either.

Though, when it comes to choosing a name to make foreigners' lives easier, I usually recommend sticking to names that actually make people's lives easier. In other words, common names.

An interesting tidbit people might not know -- you can't typically guess if a child will be blonde or not. Many kids in Europe are blonde until the age or 10 or so, after which it changes to some shade of brown. Happened to me. So it makes little sense to base a name on expected hair colour.

[Shelley]

I don't know why you would want to change it. Most Chinese girls names are very beautiful.

 

 

P.S. I agree that Doreen is old fashion, very old fashion here in UK,  not heard much among young people at all.

[michaelS]

Another thing to consider: pick a name you can pronounce without stumbling. Or at least practice it a lot

 

My grandma was called Doreen, never met anyone else with the name

[Kamille]

What matters is the way the name sounds and the feeling it gives to people when they hear it but definitely not it's meaning. The meaning of a name is completely irrelevant in most of the western countries I know (if not all of them). 

 

My advice would be to do this kind of research on google and take a look at grids of this kind. Doreen and Doris are both fine. Doris might only be more common, which is most of the time a good thing. 

[Lu]

But if you want to pick a name by popularity, I think it might be good to look at a popularity list from your own year of birth. (Here's one for 1990, for example) And make sure to check with native speakers. Aaliyah for example is a nice name, but to my knowledge it's mostly used by black people and therefore would look a bit odd on a Chinese woman.

[Matty]

I've never met a person named Doreen, I can't actually think of a female D name I like.

 

As others said, forget about the meaning and just choose a real name that sounds nice and isn't too complex.

[Kamille]

But if you want to pick a name by popularity, I think it might be good to look at a popularity list from your own year of birth.

 

Err yeah of course. Indeed.

[DoreenKang]

Thank you a lot, everybody! I've go through all your comments, you are all friendly and patient, I really appreciate your help! I'm in US now. BTW I decide to use my own Chinese name at last, It represent how I am all these years. Thank you guys for sharing your opinion. Now I know how to put the punctuation, how to choose a name.