Is my Chinese name appropriate?

[ZC]

My English name is somewhat difficult to pronounce for native Chinese speakers, so one of my Chinese friends suggested that I use the name 马睿明. This looks fine to me but I am worried that he is playing a joke that goes over my head. Can someone with a bit more language and cultural context check to make sure it checks out.

[Jim]

Although I'm not a native speaker, nothing about it seems obviously a joke and using my tried and tested method of just searching for the personal name element it seems there was at least one real historical person called Ruiming: https://baike.baidu.com/item/萧睿明. If you do a similar search you'll find a few contemporary companies use it too. It's also the personal element of the Chinese name of a foreign WHO representative: https://baike.baidu.com/item/蓝睿明. So I'd say fine; of course, the search method isn't 100% guaranteed but a combination of that and asking a couple of Chinese acquaintances and checking no-one laughs should put your mind at rest! 

[889]

To no particular agreement, I've suggested here before that it's good to pick a name with attractive characters that aren't a challenge to write. Call it the 习近平 rule. One that you can not just write out with ease, but "spell out" as well.

 

No problem on that basis with 马 or 明. But do you really want to live with 睿 for the rest of your Chinese life?

[imron]

37 minutes ago, 889 said:

But do you really want to live with 睿 for the rest of your Chinese life?

This one is easy to spell out - 睿智的睿 (I know someone with this character in their name, and this is how they explain it).

[Lu]

As long as the character is not terribly uncommon, all names are easy to spell out. 睿智的睿 is not inherently more difficult to spell than 一匹马的马 or 学习的习.

睿 is more difficult to write, of course, which might be an issue if you encounter many people who speak Chinese as a second language, or Chinese people with limited education. Or if you yourself don't like to write complicated characters.

[ZC]

Thanks for the help! I'm a little bit comfortable with writing characters, so the issue of writing my name is pretty minor, but it is definitely something to take into account. I said it to a couple of acquaintances and my name didn't make anyone laugh or cringe so I think it looks good.