Names are very special words that belong to a person and make them stand out among everyone else. Our names identify us and tell others who we are or where we come from. After many years of living in China, I have made lots of Chinese friends and met many locals who have introduced themselves with a western or English name (as it is commonly referred to). Some of them have gone through the process of choosing an English name because of their jobs, since they may be working in an English environment.
I spoke to some of my Chinese colleagues at Teda Global Academy to get some insights on the name choosing process and what got them to decide on a particular English name. Here are their stories.
Famous people in POP culture
Cindy Li
Cindy has a cute story about her English name. When she was learning English, her very first foreign teacher gave her this name after noting that she looked like Cindy Crawford, a very famous American supermodel. To Cindy’s amusement, she said she couldn’t see the resemblance to the famous model but she did like the name. From that day on, she has been using it as her English name.
Jackie Leng
Before leaving China for his studies in New Zealand, Jackie’s cousin asked if he had already chosen an English name. He hadn’t, so he started to look for names of famous basketball players but none of the ones he chose were approved by his cousin. She then suggested that he pick a name of a well-known movie star that was popular among westerners. So the name of Jackie Chen came up. Jackie adopted this name and it’s been with him for 18 years now. He’s been happy with his choice.
Cheryl Xue
American movies with a strong female lead are also an inspirational idea for a name. For Cheryl, it came from one of the characters from the movie Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous. She found that one of the actresses from the movie was strong and beautiful and had a unique name. Besides liking how the name sounded, Cheryl’s name is close to the way her Chinese name is pronounced too. Another fact about her name is that, at least in this part of China, Cheryl hasn’t heard or run into someone else with her particular name.
Cheryl Xue
Inspired by literature
Chris Sun
When Chris was a young student in 7th grade, she noticed in the very back part of her English book there was a list of many English names. She said that the name “Christina” stood out, and she found it so beautiful that she decided to use it whenever she was in an English environment. Because Christina seemed a bit of a long name, she decided to shorten it to Chris. This has been her English name to this day.
Chris Sun
Catherine Si
While in middle school, Catherine’s first English novel she read was Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. The main character in the novel was named Catherine who was described as a beautiful woman with a strong personality. Reading through the story, Catherine grew fond of this character and later decided to use this name in her first email address. Many years later, when she was being interviewed for work at TGA she was surprised to hear the principal calling her “Catherine” While this was not officially her English name at the time, Catherine decided in that very moment to make it her own.
Catherine Si
Catherine Si
A simpler approach
Sunnie Sun
Sunnie works in an area where she meets every visitor, student and teacher at her school, so “Sunnie” was the perfect English name for her. Also being part of her Chinese name Sun, this was the perfect choice for an English name. “I love to greet people with a big smile and receive them with a warmth of sunshine as my name implies,”, she says
Sunnie Sun
Joanna Cui and Effie Sun
Joanna had also a similar situation to Sunnie’s. Her English name also derives from her Chinese pinyin name. And last but not least, Effie chose her name by searching for the most popular girls’ names on Google. She liked the name Effie as it was easy to pronounce and spell.
Joanna Cui
Effie Sun