Choosing a chinese name

[aeitodd]

Hi! I'm studying Mandarin and would like to choose a Chinese name, so am looking for advice on which names sound nice to a native speaker! I'd like a name which has a young and maybe slightly unusual feeling.

 

At the moment I am thinking of choosing either 杜若滢 or 杜晨曦. If anyone has any thoughts about which of these sounds best that would be great, 谢谢!

[Publius]

杜若滢 +1

[Mandarincave]

Both names are very good, from perspectives of meaning as well as young and feminine impression.

If really need to differentiate, the tones of 杜若滢 is 4, 4 and 2, and that for 杜晨曦 is 4, 2 and 1.  As the former with two consecutive 4th tone, the latter seems to me comparatively a little bit easier to pronounce.

While having said that, people will normally call you abbreviated name like:

杜总
小杜
小滢
小曦

the above will not impact much on your everyday life and so it will not be a big issue.

All in all, both are very good names.

[889]

Can you pronounce 若 well? Myself, I'd avoid it because it's one of those sounds I've never been able to really master.

[suMMit]

On 4/1/2022 at 9:18 PM, 889 said:

Can you pronounce 若 well? Myself, I'd avoid it because it's one of those sounds I've never been able to really master.

Wait a second, (I assume) you pronounce 过，活，火，剁，所，错，etc well, why should 若 be different? 

[Babylon]

these names are kinda complicated and sounds like a girl

[889]

It's not the vowels, it's that r. I always stumble over 热 and 日 and such, and do my best to avoid them. E.g., use 礼拜天 instead of 星期日.

[suMMit]

On 4/2/2022 at 8:03 PM, 889 said:

It's not the vowels, it's that r. I always stumble over 热 and 日 and such, and do my best to avoid them. E.g., use 礼拜天 instead of 星期日.

I like to use 礼拜天 because it sounds so old school?

 

I'm sure my R's are not perfect, but I've never felt much trouble with it. I was instructed something like: position your tongue in the same way as zh-,ch-,sh- but don't make contact with tongue tip, then keep the tongue locked in position with no movement as you make the r- initial.

[Lu]

The way I was taught the r was very effective, but will unfortunately only work for a very small subset of people:

Say je or Jean like in French

Say drie oktober as it is pronounced in the Leiden dialect

The Chinese r is between the French j and the Leiden r.

[889]

Yes, I was also taught the French approach towards the r, since my Chinese teacher and I both spoke French to some degree. With the result that Chinese people are always guessing I'm French.