Advice for choosing a normal sounding Chinese given name?

[Cake]

How do I pick a natural sounding Chinese given name? What are the"rules"?

 

I've been in China for almost a year now and I've been using 阳光 as my Chinese name. needless to say, I always get smiles because of it. However, lately I've been becoming a bit better at Chinese language and growing to dislike this name so I've decided to change it.

 

I want a name that sounds normal to Chinese people in hopes of fitting in a little better, but also with meaning. Pleco tells me which characters can be used as surnames, but I don't know how to pick a given name. Does having two surnames as your whole name sound strange? How can I find out if a name is natural sounding and may be used while browsing characters. Also I heard that some names sound old fashioned, similar to how Beatrice and Ethel sound old on English.

 

I also do not want a phonetic copy of my name because I don't want that.

 

Right now I'm leaning towards choosing 利明，how would that be?

 

I was considering this name because I like both characters individual meanings and it is really close sounding to 黎明。

 

I'm a 25 year old guy so I also want to avoid names that are too feminine, I also don't like that are too macho like 强。

 

Thank you for your help

[Shelley]

As you are in china, have you got any friends you have known for awhile? It is always a good thing to ask a native speaker to give you a name based on your character and other things you might want/need to take it to account.

Seek out a friend or teacher and ask them, if its horrible you don't have to use it

[大块头]

Note that if you choose a typical Chinese surname and given name, you will be asked seemingly every time you introduce yourself why you picked it. Personally, I think a better strategy is to create a two or three character name that is a shortened form of the Chinese transcription of your first and last name. For example, Bill Gates (“比尔·盖茨”) would become “盖比尔” and Harry Potter (“哈利·波特”) would become “波哈利“.

[889]

I couldn't disagree more. Choose a Chinese Chinese name. Not a hairy barbarian one.

 

Names in Chinese carry the same sort of baggage they do in English. That is, your name is an element of your character, at least as others see it. So choose wisely.

[Geiko]

 

12 hours ago, Cake said:

I've been using 阳光 as my Chinese name. needless to say, I always get smiles because of it.  (...)

I'm a 25 year old guy so I also want to avoid names that are too feminine

 

I was going to say that 陽光 wasn't that bad, because the main character of the Taiwanese drama I'm watching right now is called 陽光, but it's a female character, so yes, maybe picking another name would be a good idea

[lips]

 

So your Chinese surname is  (has been) 阳?  It is an uncommon surname.  Unless you explain it or write it out, people would think that it is 杨, which is much more common.

 

Anyway, 利明 is a good name.  NTTAWWT, 明 is commonly (very commonly) used in names.  利 is a more common surname than 阳. 

 

[大块头]

On 5/27/2017 at 9:28 AM, 889 said:

I couldn't disagree more. Choose a Chinese Chinese name. Not a hairy barbarian one.

 

Names in Chinese carry the same sort of baggage they do in English. That is, your name is an element of your character, at least as others see it. So choose wisely.

A hairy barbarian will always be a hairy barbarian, however. Choosing a culturally-Chinese name that suits your identity is fun, but I'd argue it can backfire. At best, it will only be a fig leaf to cover your foreignness. At worst (i.e., you and your Chinese friend get carried away and choose something too fanciful), your name will be the only thing people remember about you and few will take you seriously. The safest bet is choosing a name based on the Chinese transcription of your foreign name and having a Chinese friend review it to make sure there aren't any unintended meanings or connotations.

[LiMo]

1 hour ago, 大块头 said:

A hairy barbarian will always be a hairy barbarian, however. Choosing a culturally-Chinese name that suits your identity is fun, but I'd argue it can backfire. At best, it will only be a fig leaf to cover your foreignness. At worst (i.e., you and your Chinese friend get carried away and choose something too fanciful), your name will be the only thing people remember about you and few will take you seriously. The safest bet is choosing a name based on the Chinese transcription of your foreign name and having a Chinese friend review it to make sure there aren't any unintended meanings or connotations.

 

I fail to see how this method is better than just asking a Chinese friend to put a lot of careful thought into a name for you, giving all the caveats the OP did above. It's not a "fig leaf" or anything, and if you check it with multiple people then the supposed backfire ought to be pretty unlikely. A nice name is a nice name and assuming it has been chosen correctly will suit you even despite your "foreignness." How is a name based on a phonetic transcription less of a fig leaf than a real Chinese name? It's going to scream foreigner in a more obvious way without anything to recommend it: it's neither more memorable for you because it's probably pretty far off the true pronunciation even if it is a transliteration, and unless it's very common it won't be familiar to Chinese people either because it doesn't fall within the general category of "real name" characters that people expect, so you just have the worst of both worlds. Ask for a real name, check it with multiple trusted sources, and don't sweat it too much because chances are you'll be able to easily change it at a later date if the need arises.

[Shelley]

I don't see it being any more of problem for " a hairy barbarian" having a Chinese name as it is for the many Chinese people called Brian, Andy and Annie for example.

 

I repeat my earlier advice and that of LiMo, ask a friend or teacher to help you choose a suitable name, embrace it and be proud of it. Learn how to write it fluidly in characters..

[大块头]

2 hours ago, LiMo said:

How is a name based on a phonetic transcription less of a fig leaf than a real Chinese name? It's going to scream foreigner in a more obvious way without anything to recommend it: it's neither more memorable for you because it's probably pretty far off the true pronunciation even if it is a transliteration, and unless it's very common it won't be familiar to Chinese people either because it doesn't fall within the general category of "real name" characters that people expect, so you just have the worst of both worlds.

A name based on the phonetic transcription embraces your foreign status, it doesn't attempt to hide it in any way. I'd even argue for using the full phonetic transcription (e.g., “比尔·盖茨”), but that creates administrative hassle when name entry fields can only hold three characters. I also found that some Chinese people would become annoyed or confused if they had to deal with names that were longer than three characters ("太长了！"）.

 

Most phonetic transcriptions are built using a common set of characters, so I don't think getting the characters straight would ever be a big issue (e.g., “膝盖的盖，比较的比，哈尔滨的尔”). I only have the experience of using my Chinese name, however.

 

1 hour ago, Shelley said:

I don't see it being any more of problem for " a hairy barbarian" having a Chinese name as it is for the many Chinese people called Brian, Andy and Annie for example.

An unfortunate difference between mainland China and western countries like the US is that immigration and assimilation is much more common in the west. For example, it's almost impossible for a non-Chinese foreign-born person to become a citizen of the PRC. You don't see many non-Chinese immigrants in China giving their children culturally-Chinese names (in any case, they are more likely to refer to themselves as "expats", not "immigrants").

 

In any case, I'm committed to my Chinese name. I've already ordered a few hundred business cards! :-)

[Lu]

That's all very well if your name is Bill or Harry, but if the transcription is more than two characters you end up with something bastardised anyway. And if you're going to shorten it to fit the three-character model, you might as well pick some nice characters while you're at it. And thus a good Chinese name is born.

[Shelley]

When I said Chinese people were adopting western names i actually meant people living in China, sometimes I think they do it because they think it easier if they are dealing with English speaking people for business or because there was a sort of craze going round that a western name was "cool"

 

Have to agree with Lu, I think it really would be better to choose a good chinese name. You can be creative, if your name in English means something for example it might mean Gift you might find a nice combination of characters that sound and look good.

[LiMo]

@大块头

I think this once again comes down to personal preference. I find it very hard to identify with your view point and it isn't really something I've heard before, I can see where you're coming from but I think for most people it either comes down to not really knowing where to start, in which case they just go phonetic, or they really want a "real" Chinese name and will just put the effort in to eventually acquire one. Hiding ones foreignness versus embracing it is, again, just kind of a strange idea for me. Getting a nice Chinese name isn't necessarily about hiding ones foreignness as it is attempting to adopt and integrate into the culture in a positive way. You make good points about assimilation and immigration, but it's all a little too well thought out for me.

 

Good on you with the business cards by the way, I was thinking of investing in some myself. Students need business cards too, right?

[Shelley]

The link post below is from the Skritter weekly email, it explains what I was trying say about Chinese people choosing English names.

 

https://blog.skritter.com/2010/05/chinese-peoples-english-names-中国人的英文名字-zhongguoren-de-yingwen-mingzi/

[lips]

Just re-read the topic title again, "normal sounding Chinese given name", so the OP must have a separate surname.  My bad.

 

It would be better if the surname is known as well.  Some combinations may sound funny.

 

"normal sounding", I assume that excludes transliteration.  Since the OP talks about meaning, I also assume that he/she does not want merely a name in the Chinese language.

[dwq]

On 5/30/2017 at 8:09 AM, 大块头 said:

but that creates administrative hassle when name entry fields can only hold three characters

If that happens, the system is defective as it should at least handle people with 复姓 like 欧阳 or 爱新觉罗, if not transliterated names.

 

[Cake]

Thank you everyone for your thoughtful replies.