Why Chinese People Have English Names
A friend brought up an interesting point regarding my last post. Why do I keep calling this Chinese woman (who I happen to now be married to) by the English name, Sarah? The name “Sarah” has no legality. It’s more like a nickname. She still has to write her Chinese name on any forms or applications. It’s pretty common, though, for younger Chinese people to have an English name. Sometimes, it’s a translation of what their Chinese name means. Sometimes, it’s phonetically similar (like Li Li becoming Lily). But most of the time, they just pick a name they like and go with it.
When I first started teaching, I was a little naive about how this name-picking worked. I thought students took it seriously, revered their English names, and kept them for the rest of their lives. All of my ILP students were assigned an English name, after all. Of course, a lot of ILP teachers didn’t give this much thought and simply named students after boyfriends or celebrities. Some poor kid was given the name Gordon, because a girl wanted to name him after a Mormon president. And I thought, “Man, what an unfortunate teenager.”
Years later, I found out just how disposable these names were. Older students changed their English names all the time, bouncing between crazy vocabulary words and pop singer monikers until they found something that fit. Famous artists like Jay Chou and Jolin Tsai meant lots of kids wanted to be called Jay and Jolin. Others picked less favorable names like Ice Lemon, Banana, Crystal Bear, and Car. Then when they realized these weren’t that great, they quickly changed to something else.
But having an English name—however silly—really helps in communicating with foreigners, because we’re terrible about pronouncing or remembering Chinese names. Even Chinese friends will call each other by their English names, since it is easier than having to say their full Chinese names. Out of respect, you are supposed to address someone by their full name (or their family name + their title), so a more casual English name is a popular alternative.
Responses to “Why Chinese People Have English Names”
Comments RSS Feed – All CommentsJared Stein — 24 July 2011 @ 5:29 pm
My most memorable English name experience came from the Sophomore non-major class I was roped into teaching in the evenings. I had broken them into small groups, gave assignments, then went around the room visiting with each. A very tall, quiet boy introduced himself to me as “Cart”. Presuming it was a product of a slight, and not unusual, British pronunciation I asked, “Oh, you mean ‘Cat’?” Thinking of Cat Stevens.
“The animal!?”
So “Cart” it was.
I also had a Mickey, a Leia, a Sipping (yes, the verb), etc.
My favorite English names were those that were translations of the Chinese names, when their names had meaning. For instance, I had a Sky and a Summit. Conversely, my students took my last name (Stein = stone) and translated it into a Chinese name for me, which I quite liked but have since forgotten.
Clark — 25 July 2011 @ 9:05 am
Sipping? I love it!
Hopfrog — 28 July 2011 @ 8:31 am
My memory is failing me, the funniest one of these stories I ran across was either in someone’s blog, a Hessler book, or maybe even your book Clark, but it involved a name a high school girl had given herself…..”Easy”. The teacher started to make an attempt to explain why this was not a good english name to have and got flustered real fast in doing this, so then said the heck with it, “Easy” it is.
It’s so funny going into doctor’s offices or the dentist with my wife and they have to call out her chinese name… not one has ever come close to pronouncing it. I called my wife by her english name in the beginning of our relationship, but it always felt kind of odd, so at home we use her chinese name, actually her chinese nickname which is easier to pronounce.
Clark — 28 July 2011 @ 9:40 am
Hopfrog, that was MY book!
When we went to get Sarah’s immunizations, everyone at the office completely butchered her Chinese name. I knew her as “Sarah” before I knew her Chinese name, though, so that’s what I always call her.
Hopfrog — 29 July 2011 @ 9:07 am
I’ve read a ton of books and blogs from English teachers in China, and have read a ton of these antecdotes about the names, so for the one that stuck out the most to have come from your book, says a lot about your book. And, nice coincidence, I see you’ve just posted some info about your book. I’ll post some more thoughts there.
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