What is your Chinese name?

[芳芳]

HI everybody!

I now better understand why chinese people are so eager to introduce themselves to me using their chinese names, which I found at first irritating because I thought it was only a fashion to do it the american way.

I was given a chinese nickname wich is not used at my office (they are all able to pronounce "florence" the english way. I've never seen anbody being able to pronounce the french way, but I gess that's already satisfying).

But out of my work, I give the name of 芳芳（Fangfang, perfume perfume) which is old fashionned but funny, and then people remember it easily (and it's closed to the way I'm called in France: Floflo).

And anyway, as soon as I am not Chinese, do I really need to have a real chinese name?

[confucius]

That's too funny! My aunt has a French poodle named "Flo Flo"

[芳芳]

thanks for comparing me to a poodle!

...

[confucius]

Flo Flo is a cute dog, but she's very old just like my aunt. She has a nice chocolate brown color and used to be able to walk backward on her hind legs. I remember playing with Flo Flo when I was a little kid.

My aunt's first name is Florence but she goes by "Flos"

Anyway, I never thought I'd see the name Flo Flo in print and it's so funny that this is what you are called in France and my aunt's dog is a French Poodle.

[芳芳]

Good then to be assiociated to this lovely dog. Well, "FLo FLo" is the way my parents call me, but friends usually go with "Flo".

[smithsgj]

> friends usually go with "Flo".

lmao [deliberate?]

[Guest 北洋大臣]

杜弘毅

弘毅者, 子曰 : 士不可不弘毅, 任重而道遠

[芳芳]

lmao [deliberate?]

gne???

'sorry, didn't get. 'must be 'cuz of my saurian brain which is quite tired by euhh...chinese banquets results in those days...hem

[smithsgj]

go with "Flo"

Go with the flow (=co-operate; do whatever is in the best interests of everyone concerned)

[芳芳]

ahaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!

How good in english am I to do such wordgames unintentionnaly!

[Quest]

a good pun there!

[pazu]

I was sick of friends' date=' colleagues and students making a hash job at 'sinicising' my name, so took a chinese name which is completely unconnected with it. I admit it sounds more like a place name than a person, but I've met at least one chinese person with exactly the same name, plus it has the advantages (for me) of being easy to pronounce and write, snappy and memorable!

Jinshan (金山)[/quote']

Oh I don't know you are the 字霸。

I think a good Chinese translation of an English name, should follow the rules below:

1. match the English sound

2. match the Chinese custom

3. no use of difficult characters

4. better to choose words with some philosophical or abstract ideas, rather than being "rich", "healthy", "strong", etc.

Do you know guy this guy? Christopher Doyle's Chinese name is 杜可風 (Du Kefeng), which I think is very good.

1. Du matches Doyle; Kefeng matches Christopher

2. Du Kefeng is exactly a name made in accordance to the Chinese style

3. Du is quite a common surname, Kefeng is easy to write

4. what's the meaning of "Ke Feng", it can be something like "can be wind", which may sound weired to your ears, but to me the combination gives me an impression about wind, flying, freedom, blue sky.

I like it.

This is so far one of the best Chinese translation of an English name I've seen.

[tara]

Anyone....got an English translation for the following name: -

Yang Li Chuen (the "li" is mei "li" de "li") and (the "chuen" is "chuen" tze de "tze") - i think that is correct.

I know or I think other translations of Yang Li Chuen are as follows: -

Hokkien is Yu Lay Khoon

Cantonese is Yong Lai Kuan

[confucius]

Laila Yang. "Laila" was originally a Hebrew name and is currently in use by Muhammed Ali's daughter.

"Lily" would be my alternate selection if she wanted it to sound more like Mandarin than Cantonese.

"Leilani" has a Polynesian flavor to it and is popular with girls in Hawaii.

[tara]

"Leilani" has a Polynesian flavor to it and is popular with girls in Hawaii.

TQ Confucius.....I favour Leilani.....

[confucius]

You're welcome! (Here in Chinese Language Forum, we say "3Q", not TQ)

[tara]

You're welcome! (Here in Chinese Language Forum, we say "3Q", not TQ)

ok....3Q Confucius.

what about "yang yen ling" - have you got any English translation for that? the "yen" is the swallow bird....3Q again....

[Ian_Lee]

Confucius:

Leilani pronounces the same as the phrase "You crawl over here" in Cantonese.

When I suggested this name to my wife for our first baby daughter, she scolded me.

Hmmm.....And never use the name "Doreen". Whenever a girl says her name is Doreen in HK, we will watch her chest to see if gravity has affected the boos.

[little_golden_panda]

i know i've written an essay, but it should be interesting reading... emphasising the "should".

my chinese name is 段恋 (duan4lian4).

how, just, weird, and embarrasing?!?

exercise?? come on!! my parents named me this becasue it would be easy to remember!!! what an idiotic reason for a name!!!

my english name is Lian. it's pronounced like Leanne. i quite like it. and the fact that i didn't have to choose another "english name" (which is a topic not discussed much here: chinese-->english names...).

i find that when chinese people choose "english names", sometimes, it's by quite a bad method. like picking names out of a hat (it has been done!). or random stuff, which sometimes isn't bad, but you get names like Honda, and Mango (who are both my friends), and East (that one's cool, i think. ).

When my dad was in Uni, his english name (cos it was cool to have one in those days...) was da4wei4. like in David. cos he was good looking like Michaelangelo's David.

*gag*

anyway.

there was a big cufussal over the naming of my brother, who was born in 1997, in england.

his english name is Liam Bob Julian Duan. how long can you get??? he's going to hate us when he's older. but we named him Liam, well, my mother named him Liam because she thought it would be cute (in the whole chinese mothers way) to have Liam and Lian as son and daughter. my god does it get confusing. especially at the doctors. his name is Bob because we call him宝宝. and Bob "sounds like" 宝.

those two names were only wanted my my mother. me and my father wanted to name him Julian. cos it's an english name, and in chinese it can be Ju1 Lian4. meaning something like young horse (according to my dad)?

but my mother just tagged it onto the end. now my brother's gonna be slammed in school for having a ten page name. lol.

and his name in chinese is Duan4 tie3lu3. i don't know the cahracters for his chinese name because we don't use it very often at home. but what a horrible sounding name!

yeah, that's all i have to say.

oh yeah, i'm little_golden_panda becasue when i was in china, my nickname was 金子小熊猫.

[little_golden_panda]

and what was that thing about doreen?