Choosing my Chinese name. Need Help

[Penelope13]

您好！so I'd thought I'd ask a quick question about choosing a Chinese name! I have been studying Chinese for about a year now, and am hoping to go to China in the near future. I have decided on my surname being 李, because it sounds somewhat like my last name. For my given name I was thinking maybe 竹, since I really love bamboo and find it beautiful. I didn't know if the given name would be bad to choose since if it is pronounced in a different tone it could mean 猪...... any advice? Should I go with 竹 as my given name or does it not sound right as a name? Thank you in advance!

[Penelope13]

If 竹 doesn't sound like a good given name, do you think you could give me a few names to choose from that sound good with my surname? I am a girl by the way. Thank you so much! 

[arrow]

I'd recommend 李歆竹, cause it rhymes better and more of a girlish name.

[少 霆]

While deciding a Chinese name, I would first suggest that one of the most important fundamentals to learning this language is to never forget the importance of social norms and experience with native speakers. i.e. Make Chinese friends. 

 

With that that being said, I've seen 3 different ways of people getting Chinese names.

1) they pick something or get help picking something that sounds similar to their name, a transliteration. For example the Chinese name 汤姆 for Tom. Or 玛丽 for Mary. My first Chinese name was a translation of my English name which is Connor 康纳

2) the other way is to select a name based off of who you are. For example I have a friend who's Chinese name is 王书翰。The Wang is a surname and ShuHan represents books and calligraphy and he is quite up into the literary side of Chinese. So this name suits him. 

3) Lastly, in correlation with what I said at the beginning about Chinese friends, once you make some solid friends-not merely acquaintances- then are you able to casually ask them or straight up ask them for a name suggestion. This way, you have trust that they will select for you an honorable name, as well as the fact that they feel honored to suggest for a friend a new name. 

 

This is is such the manner that I received my Chinese name. Although I'm learning still the context of why it's a good name, everyone still will ask me "who have you that name?" "Wow, what a cultural name!" 

文少霆

 

if you would like a suggestion still, let me know, I have come across several beautiful girl names. 

[Johnny123123]

"竹" is uncommon in Chinese name，A name with “竹”  doesn't reads smoothly,sometimes weird.

 

[lips]

Google is your friend.

[arrow]

Quote

"竹" is uncommon in Chinese name，A name with “竹”  doesn't reads smoothly,sometimes weird.

Uncommon? I did a little search in my company's contact list, and 12 results showed up, 10 of which took form of ？？竹 and the rest were ？竹？.

Weird? Actually my granny has “竹" in her name and I don't recall that anybody seemed to feel weird about it at all.

 

[Daniel Tsui44]

“梅兰竹菊” 四君子

“松梅竹” 岁寒三友

All those are common in names.