Comments on: Refrigerator, Rambo Top Our List Of Favorite Chinese-Chosen English Names

By: mitchell.771

mitchell.771 — Mon, 03 Nov 2014 05:48:43 +0000

I remember a guy named Supermarket, I had a student named Seven (no explanation was ever given), the best direct translation I ever heard was Icy Vista.

By: GerFTW

GerFTW — Fri, 31 Oct 2014 16:41:41 +0000

Beste one what i see was “semen” but he say “Simon” :’)

By: Pu Li

Pu Li — Sat, 25 Oct 2014 08:51:53 +0000

I’ve had students called Kalashnikov and Konputer.

My favourite though was Lu Ting. I gave him the name Stan, but his sister said it sounded dull. Consequently I put together a list of popstar names, Tito, Axel, etc. He chose Slash.

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 24 Oct 2014 06:14:27 +0000

Along the same lines, I used to have a student named Pudding, because she like to eat pudding.

By: Joe Blow

Joe Blow — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 05:28:26 +0000

Yeah, my teacher in China named me 扬延昭. Chinese people always giggle, but it’s great. It’s gotten me to the front of the line at restraints and when I had to renew a visa.

By the way, my uncle’s name is Gary. People always said he looked like a movie star and he got a lot of women when he was younger. That’s not so bad.

By: shoeguy

shoeguy — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 02:55:43 +0000

i’m in the shoe business….one of the best I’ve heard was a guy who worked for a polyurethane rubber company who decided to call himself Urethane Lin.

By: Kill Me

Kill Me — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 05:53:52 +0000

I had a trio of high school girls named Ghost, Killer, and Death. My favorites of the other students I’ve had include Streetcar, Freeze, and Warming.

I’ve noticed two other types of “English names” here as well: Those which are kinda just letters put together (Yivia, Vincil, etc.) and those which are just Japanese names. Every few months I meet someone who’ll tell me “my English name is Yumiko/Yuki/etc.

By: Gary Wei

Gary Wei — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 01:07:27 +0000

Actually, this is a cultural issue. Name is something that related to a nation’s culture. For example, “强”, often appeared in Chinese names, cannot be merely translated as “healthy” or “strength”. There are also many examples that foreigners choose a Chinese name that we think are funny. But who knows, maybe decades later these funny names could become common. My teacher ever told me that my name “Gary” matched a person like creepy uncle, instead of a guy in his 20, but who cares? I just like it and will continually use it.

By: wha...

wha... — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 01:03:51 +0000

You need to realize that at NO point are we surprised or scared by these names. We think they are funny, and to some people, show a lack of language ability. When we choose foreign names in language class in America, our teachers help us choose APPROPRIATE names in the target language. To be sure, people are free to call themselves whatever they want, and the rest of us are free to laugh.

By: Brett

Brett — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 01:03:24 +0000

As an English teacher for little kids I had to adjust to China quite a bit. The kids coming into class named Du Du, Ka Ka and Pi Pi always made me giggle a bit. Then came the next wave of kids whose parents I think didn’t know how to spell correctly and named their children Wensy and Clear…though Clear was a very good student. I’ve taught a couple Ultramans and also a lot of Disney princesses, but my favorite hands down was Hamburger. His mom named him Hamburger because it’s what he liked to eat.

By: Simon C

Simon C — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 22:08:12 +0000

one of the waiters at Papa John’s in Shi Mao is called ‘Undead’

By: name

name — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 20:34:23 +0000

Roxanne is nice, but Gleam is pretty cool too.

By: Roxanne Shao

Roxanne Shao — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 17:43:42 +0000

I have deep feelings on this matter… Because my previous English name was “Gleam” and I chose this word just because its meaning matches with my Chinese name. But my teacher pointed that my previous name was not proper and my Chinese-American friend also said my English name was funny… So I’ve changed the name into “Roxanne”. And I really love the new name! :p

By: Allen He

Allen He — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 16:50:31 +0000

I have ever seen a familiar report about Chinese-chosen English name which makes me laugh for a while. It is a very interesting phenomenon that some Chinese people choose special names and those names always make native people surprised or scared. I guess that one of the reasons is that they want to make themselves different from others.In China, we often pick some features with valuable meaning as one’s name but it seems ridiculous in westurn countries. About myself, I picked Allen as my name because of some special reasons while I am not a guy. It will actually cause some small troubles so I am confused about changing it or not. At least, Allen is much better than Lovely or Sunny.

By: Enzo Mao

Enzo Mao — Tue, 21 Oct 2014 15:41:30 +0000

It is quite interesting. And in my writing class, some classmates call themselves Happy; Love
and so on. And one of my friends named Seven, just because her Chinese name pronounces like seven.