Hi

How do I go about giving myself a Chinese name? I don't want to be named by a Chinese.

Good question, I don't know if there are any rules but I guess you would like something that sounds familiar when spoken as well as the meaning of the character is not too 'dumb' :)

For example, my given name is Mats which has nothing to do with carpets but is a several hundred years old swedish short version of Mattias which has some old greek background.
I'm not sure I would like to be called 'horse'-something though :)

You can try doing what I did and find out what your name is commonly translated into Chinese as, and then go about turning that into a name that follows the format of a real Chinese name.

My first name, Stuart, is often translated into 斯图亚特 (sometimes also 斯图尔特). I replaced the first two characters of that name with a Chinese surname to create 徐亚特.

The last thing to do is ask some Chinese friends how the name sounds or whether there's anything about it that's inappropriate.

The best thing that could actually happen is that you were given a Chinese name by an educated Chinese scholar or a good friend who knows your character well enough to chose the right "characters" :) to write your name.

Since you dont want to be named by a Chinese you can give yourself any silly name you want.

If you want to sound like a foreigner, choose a transliterated name.

If you want to have a most-likely strange sounding name, choose two characters you like and put them together.

If you want an authentic chinese name, copy an existing chinese person's name.

leachuan, good idea, maybe one can find something that sounds nice and fit, is there maybe some site that has a list of names?

Why don't you want to be named by a Chinese person?

Thanks for all your comments.

I think the best option is to take a Chinese persons name, in the same way as Chinese people often take names like Tony, James and so on.

The reason that I don't want a Chinese person to name me is I had some bad experience.

Are there any relatively common Chinese names that sort of translate to 'free spirit'? That would suit my personality.

then what about ur family name?
it is usually forms the first character.

I have been told by my Chinese teacher, that the characters in your name shouldn't have the same tones, and if one of the characters in your name have many strokes then the other(s) should have few.

I have changed my Chinese name several times over the year and have finally got one I'm satisfied with. I started with a transliterated name and now have a name that encompasses the meaning of my English name, part of the original pronunciation, other attributes that I wanted to include, a reference to my nationality, and well-balanced pronunciation and writing. It's not as easy as it sounds.

I would say unless you want a transliterated name like the Chinese for Mary or a wacky foreigner name, do get a Chinese person to choose for you. But not just anyone (like a student or a teacher you haven't known for long) - I asked someone who had a deep knowledge of Chinese culture, literature, and philosophy, and knew me well. Also always ask for other opinions around you because there will invariably be differences in how Chinese people perceive your name.

For me, I didn't like the "Lo" sound for Robert (and would also be the same for my surname), so I took a name that just had the same consonants (Rui-Bang) and called it close enough. But that was with my (Taiwanese) wife thumbing through a dictionary for character options. Almost had Rui-Bai, which is hilarious if you're Jewish.

Did similar for my daughter's name, but we were much more liberal on "sound alike", but with Stephanie, you have a lot of sound choices to chose from.


But no matter how you choose, make sure you run it by a native speaker, otherwise you'll end up with a name that matches a popular toilet-paper brand or something.

I went with 艾伦 (ài lún) as it is a close transliteration. To a Chinese person it sounds like a foreign name but doesn't mean anything strange, which is fine. As a bonus at the time it was easy for me to write!

I understand why many Asians choose western names, but I personally would much rather learn their 'real' names than use the quite often strange sounding English names that they have chosen. I suppose that's why I went the transliteration route for myself, I suppose everyone has different reasons though.

Is 乐 and 天 common characters in names or do they just sound weird to a Chinese person?

Just to add, if you may work regionally in the future, worth checking your chinese name for feel with hong kong / taiwan / japanese locals also. And changing your name in the future could be a pain, documents wise. Just take your time, and think will I want this name in 5 / 10 years times too ...

Alan, actually 艾伦 is my wife's name! But I have seen it translated as Alan on Google and what-not.

Since we don't know your real name, your new alias on this forum shall be 阿南尼魔斯. 😃

Just joking.