Míngzis That Sounds Like Western Names

[Junzi]

Hello,

 

First post on this board here, so I’m not sure if this is the right place for this but anyway, here ya go!   

 

So, my wifey and I are planning to have a baby – wohooo! – and now I’m facing a few thousand challenges, one of which would be the name of our sweet little future emperor/empress.  As my wife has Chinese origins and I’m of German background, we’re seeking to find a name that works both ways – so when Nǎinai and Yéyé are calling the kid it’d sound the same like when Grandma and Grandpa are calling him/her. So, after spending probably waaay too much time on going through all sorts of Chinese syllables, here are a few possible names that I hope would work:

 

 

Ladies first…

 

安娜 / Anna

A nice and simple name which works in incredibly many languages and to my amazement even has a similar meaning in Chinese as in the Western counterpart. The Latin/Greek/Hebrew Anna means “grace” while the Chinese 安娜means “peaceful and elegant” or “calm and graceful”.

 

戴安 / Diane

Diane, the Roman goddess of the moon, finds her equivalent in 戴安, “honor peace”.

 

佳宁 / Janine

Janine, who is “graced by God”, and a lovely French name, could be 佳宁, “auspicious and tranquil”, in Chinese.

 

祐莉 / Julie (Julia)

A Latin favourite since the days of Caesar, can turn into 祐莉, a “blessed jasmine” flower.

 

美丽 / Melly (Melanie)

Derived from “dark” or “black” in Anchient Greece, 美丽 is simply “beautiful”.

 

尊雅 / Sonia

While Sonia for “wisdom”, 尊雅 stands for “honor and elegance”

 

天娜 / Tina

Originating from the Olde English tyne it means “river”, while 天娜 stands for the “graceful heaven”

 

 

Alright, and now the gentlemen…

 

大卫 / David

The “beloved darling” David becomes 大卫, a “large guard”.  

 

路义 / Louis

Louis, the “renowned warrior” walks the noble “path of righteousness” as 路义.

 

祐廉 / Julian

The “youthful” Julian is “blessed and honest/clean” as 祐廉.

 

查理 / Charlie

Charlie, the “free man”, is on a mission to “search truth/reason/logic” as 查理.

 

 

* Well, all the above ‘translations’ are more guesses really, as I had to rely on some online tools – my Mandarin is unfortunately not up to the task. So, to the community here that can actually speak Mandarin, what do you think about these names? Do they sound good in Chinese? Did I get the meanings right? Are some of them possibly even common among Chinese? And lastly, are there other names you can think of, that work in the same way?

 

[skylee]

I like Janine and Julian.

[Hofmann]

I advise against trying to do this. I don't think the value in having his/her grandparents saying a name that sounds like a Western name as great as having dignified names in Mandarin and whatever languages you prefer to speak at home. You will find much better names if you remove the requirement that the name in Mandarin sounds like the name in English/German.

[imron]

I agree with Hofmann that you'd be better off having separate names that are good in both languages.

 

Your child will have separate names for both sets of Grandparents, it won't matter if each set of Grandparents have their own name for him/her.

[somethingfunny]

The Chinese Grandparents also won't necessarily use the given name either but rather a cute 'nickname', so if you were to go for Tina or Anna, they would probably call her “小娜”， “小娜娜” or “娜娜” (or probably just "小胖胖").  Which then goes agains the entire purpose of doing this in the first place and makes the restriction you originally placed on yourself redundant.  I don't think there's necessarily a problem with what you're trying to do, this is just a warning!

[anonymoose]

I'm not sure that 天娜 is a good name. Apart from it not sounding very close to Tina, it does sound like 天哪.

Also consider 丽安 Leanne, 笨 Ben.

(Just kidding about the last one.)

[Angelina]

笨蛋

It can be the Chinese version of both Ben and Dan (Daniel) hahahaha just joking

I like the meaning of 霓 and the child can have the alternative name Nina.

[vellocet]

I never thought that Dawei sounded anything like David. 

[Kamille]

I like Janine/佳宁 too. It's one of the few that sounds good both in Mandarin and English and that keeps the sounds really close.

You could go for 嘉宁 too, it's also a good name.

[Lu]

I've seen the Chinese names 东娜 and 娜定 being used for actual Chinese girls/women, they sound just like Donna and Nadine. You could consider those too.

 

Although I agree with other posters that there is nothing really wrong with having both a German/European name and a different Chinese name.

[Junzi]

Hey, thanks for all your responses!

 

It shall herewith be confirmed that Ben, Dan and Tina definitely won’t make the list, hehehe! Same fate as poor Günther I guess… 滚蛋!

 

But to clarify, the grandparents were just one example actually. The general idea is more about choosing a nice name that works interchangeably in both languages. Just like a English-German couple would chose names for their children that work in English as well as in German.

 

I’m not a fan of having separate names for different languages. I mean, imagine an English Jack who calls himself Jürgen whenever he’s in Germany. You’d think he’s silly and pretentious – or a spy.   I live in Southeast Asia and I’m always puzzled when Chinese pick some random “Christian names” as their English alias – sorry Candy Tan and Maximus Ng. Likewise, if the tables are turned, a Ju Peng Schmidt or a Kah Choong Müller doesn’t sound so natural either. And lastly, I’m really not so fond of transliterated names that only mean gibberish, e.g. when a Chris turns into 克里斯, which then means something like “gram in Sri Lanka” should Google Translator have this right. So I’ll stick to our plan and try to chose something that works smoothly across the language barriers!

 

So far we got the following girl names:

• 安娜 / Anna
• 戴安 / Diane
• 东娜 / Donna*
• 佳宁 or 嘉宁 / Janine*
• 祐莉 / Julie (Julia)
• 丽安 / Leanne*
• 美丽 / Melly (Melanie)
• 娜定 / Nadine*
• 霓娜 / Nina
• 尊雅 / Sonia

 

…and the following names for boys:

• 大卫 / David
• 路义 / Louis
• 祐廉 / Julian*
• 查理 / Charlie (Charles)

 

* The marked names are those that got commented on and pass as acceptable Chinese names. Any others from this list that you find either good or bad?

[Demonic_Duck]

I don't think you can accurately say there are any names that work in both Chinese and European languages. The best you'll get is a superficial similarity, and if you require that similarity to be particularly close, you'll most likely end up with mediocre names in both languages. You could always simply use the pinyin of the Chinese name for a Latin alphabet equivalent; alternatively, I'd agree with what others have said, that you shouldn't worry too much about the names sounding exactly the same. "Jack" and "Jürgen" is something of a false analogy; English and German names basically work the same (forename-surname), are both natively written in the Latin alphabet, and are rarely substituted for names in the other language. Not to mention, if they are substituted, it's normally for a name with the same etymological origin (which tend to be easy enough to find for common names). None of this applies for Chinese and English/German. That's why children of Chinese descent who grow up in western countries often have two very different sounding names, regardless of how well integrated they are into their adoptive culture.

[imron]

Likewise, if the tables are turned, a Ju Peng Schmidt or a Kah Choong Müller doesn’t sound so natural either

And that's why you don't do this.

 

You have Jürgen Schmidt who also has the Chinese name 徐捉根.  For his German name he can take the surname of the German parent and for his Chinese name he can take the surname of his Chinese parent, and you don't really ever need to intermix the Chinese and German.

 

The general idea is more about choosing a nice name that works interchangeably in both languages.

I can appreciate that, but 'nice name' and 'works interchangeably in both languages' is going to be hard.  I'm not sure what it's like in German, but unlike English, Chinese names typically have strongly associated meanings.  Most parents will choose names carefully and they often carry their hopes and desires for the child.  Children will compare names at school and talk about why their parents chose the names they did. ‘Because it sounds like a German name' is a pretty poor story for your child to tell.

[Junzi]

Please don't get me wrong. I totally understand what you say and wholeheartedly agree that "because it sounds like a German name" is a very bad story to tell. I'm trying to find a balance here. That's why I went through numerous possible characters and dismissed a ton of potential matches until I came to the above list, which only contains names made from Chinese characters which I feel have a good, auspicious meaning.

The girl names all have "feminine" attributes, wishing them beauty, elegance, peacefulness, etc.

安娜 -> “peaceful and elegant”

戴安 -> “honor peace”

佳宁 -> “auspicious and tranquil”

祐莉 -> “blessed jasmine”

丽安 -> “beauty and peace”

美丽 -> “beautiful”

娜定 -> “elegant and calm”

尊雅 -> “honor and elegance”

And for the boys are a bit more moralistic in their nature, wishing them to be good gentlemen when they grow up.

大卫 -> “great guardian”

路义 -> “path of righteousness”

祐廉 -> “blessed and honest”

查理 -> “search truth/reason/logic”

All of the above seem great to me - if I got the meanings right, that is.

[Hofmann]

The general idea is more about choosing a nice name that works interchangeably in both languages. [...] So I’ll stick to our plan and try to chose something that works smoothly across the language barriers!

Most of your Chinese names do not "work" because they are either tasteless or contrived. Especially those that are obviously transliterations like 安娜 and 大衛. They are throwaway names that are given to Westerners who haven't taken the time to choose a "real" name. If any names in your list were proposed for my kid I would veto every one of them except maybe 祐廉. The kid would be made fun of and their parents would be ridiculed for being so illiterate/uncultured. So, please, don't give your child a throwaway name.

[Angelina]

I was going to joke about David, but some people might not find it funny

[somethingfunny]

I have to agree with Hofmann here.  I have a two options when people ask me for my Chinese name, I can either go for the phonetic transliteration which is basically just nonsense, or I can go for the name my first Chinese teacher gave me.  She actually made a list of a few names based on my birthday and my personality and let me choose.  It's pretty much the best conversation starter I've got and sounds nothing like my English name.  I know the circumstances are different, but it's always nice when I can explain to people the meaning behind my name.

 

Have you considered how the surname is going to work?  Something like 大 isn't a surname, and if you stick something an approximation on the end its's going to make it very difficult to get the sound of the whole name to match up.  For example, let's say your surname is "Franklin", then your going to end up with:

 

David Franklin, and

范大卫

 

Which, in my opinion, is starting to stretch the whole 'similar sounds' thing a little bit too much. 

[Lu]

I'm not sure what it's like in German, but unlike English, Chinese names typically have strongly associated meanings.  Most parents will choose names carefully and they often carry their hopes and desires for the child.  Children will compare names at school and talk about why their parents chose the names they did. ‘Because it sounds like a German name' is a pretty poor story for your child to tell.

I wonder if this will really be a problem. China and Taiwan have plenty of people with extremely common names or names that sound a bit 土, or what they call in Taiwan 市场名. It's nice to have a very well thought-out, unique yet easily remembered name that is very meaningful for both you and your family, but most people get by just fine with a regular name. I doubt all the 伟s, 芳s, 爱国s and 建国s mind much. 'It also works in German' is not that bad an origin story for a name imo, and anyway the OP is clearly taking into consideration that the meaning needs to be good too.

 

I agree with Hofmann about 大卫, 路易 and 查理, those are not Chinese names but rather transliterations without more thought going into them. That said I have met actual Taiwanese men named 杰夫 (Jeff) and 凯文 (Kevin), so it's not entirely unheard-of.

 

I also know of a half-Japanese kid named Kai, that one can work in Chinese too as 凯. But wait for a native speaker to confirm this works.

[DernierVirage]

What about 丽丽 (Lily)? I guess that it works well in Chinese and English. As regards Julie, one of the OP's choices, would 菊莉 be acceptable as a name? 

[oceancalligraphy]

 

 

I wonder if this will really be a problem. China and Taiwan have plenty of people with extremely common names or names that sound a bit 土, or what they call in Taiwan 市場名.

 

The term is 菜市場名 (or 菜市仔名 in Taiwanese), meaning "food market name." It comes from describing a name so common that if one yells it at the food market, many people will turn their heads.

 

I think sounding 土 and having a 菜市仔名 are two different things. 土 has the connotation of being from the countryside, or lacking in sophistication. A 菜市仔名 may be common, they still follow the meanings associated with the words. That's why the names are popular: they have good meanings behind them and they also sound good.

 

I'm not a fan of transliterated names into Chinese, unless that's the purpose. Transliterated names never sound quite right in Chinese. The last name needs to be taken into consideration, which you haven't mentioned. It's not just about the given name, but the flow of the entire name. 

 

I wouldn't choose 美麗 or 大偉. I'm having a hard time figuring out how 尊雅 sounds like Sonia, and also find the word 尊 in a person's name a little odd.

 

Have you asked the grandparents their thoughts?