New Members auroraborealis Posted January 8, 2020 at 05:38 PM New Members Report Posted January 8, 2020 at 05:38 PM Hi! I've been studying Chinese for quite some time but I still don't have a Chinese name. I read the great sources mentioned on this forum and I think I'd like to get a Chinese name that is similar to real Chinese names but also has at least some phonetic resemblance to my real name. I once got a Chinese name from a teacher in China (it was 马雅文 if I remember correctly) but my Chinese teacher back home told me she thinks it's a weird name and sounds like the ancient Mayan culture which has nothing to do with me I'm from the Northern Europe. So by some googling I came up with this by myself: 马明霞 Any opinions on the name? Is there something I should know about this name? Thanks a lot in advance! Quote
New Members auroraborealis Posted January 8, 2020 at 07:13 PM Author New Members Report Posted January 8, 2020 at 07:13 PM 对，I am a woman. Quote
calibre2001 Posted January 9, 2020 at 12:42 AM Report Posted January 9, 2020 at 12:42 AM At first glance, 明虾 came to mind. So be careful with the tones. Quote
Leslie Frank Posted January 9, 2020 at 10:34 AM Report Posted January 9, 2020 at 10:34 AM So... does your actual name sound a bit like 马明霞 ? You know how usually the first character in a Chinese name is the person's surname, right? 明霞 is the name of the Olympics gold medalist female diver; her full name is 伏明霞. If you don't mind the association with a sports figure, then it seems like not a bad choice. What @calibre2001 said is something to take note of, since it's easy to taper off the tones making the first tone for xia more easy to roll off the tongue, but as long as you are mindful of xia in the 2nd tone, then 马明霞 seems to have nice meanings. (As an aside, plenty of famous ppl w/the surname 马: Yoyo Ma, the cellist; Mary Ma, a businesswoman who was key in the acquisition of IBM's PC division when she was chief financial officer of Lenovo; Jack Ma, cofounder of Alibaba Group, just to name a few.) Quote
calibre2001 Posted January 10, 2020 at 12:33 AM Report Posted January 10, 2020 at 12:33 AM In case people are unclear about which 霞, you can tell them 林青霞的霞. Brigitte Lin should still be popular. Quote
EnergyReaper Posted January 10, 2020 at 01:34 AM Report Posted January 10, 2020 at 01:34 AM On 1/9/2020 at 1:38 AM, auroraborealis said: but also has at least some phonetic resemblance to my real name Cus you didn't tell us your real name, I could only guess "雅文" has met your requirements in this point. So, I reckon you could use a cool two-character surname. Considering that you are a woman, IMO, I think 雅雯 is better than 雅文. I will give some example: 司徒雅雯、南宫雅雯、纳兰雅雯、上官雅雯 Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and select your username and password later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.