that’s whacked

English names for Chinese people

Wednesday, Sep 15. 2004  –  Category: ChinaBlog

I’ve noticed something interesting here… a lot of people choose their own English names. Maybe people born now are given English names by their Chinese parents, but people who are in their 20’s & 30’s probably weren’t given English names 20 or 30 years ago, so they have chosen their own names sometime during school or working for western companies. It’s kind of neat getting to choose your own name… of course, it also creates for some interesting ones.

The biggest one I’ve raised my eyebrows at: we met a girl at a bar named Cinderella. I kid you not. I asked her if she had to be home at midnight, but I think the joke was lost on her… alas.

Ones I happen to like: one guy in our group has the name Forrest, which is kind of cool. I dunno if he took it from Gump, but it’s a neat name by itself.

Best name I’ve heard so far: a Solaris x86 engineer here has the name ‘Echo’. I love it… it reminds me of the Bourne series (Bourne Identity, Supremacy, Ultimatum). Cain, and Delta are too hardcore - but Echo is a sweet name.

Some twisted part of me wants to meet a pair of twins with the names Alpha & Omega. That would be awesome…