Throughout the centuries, names have been translated by the number of syllables. It is out of respect of other countries cultures.
Unlike English, there is no alphabet in Chinese language. For instance, there are 3 syllables in this name, Roberta. There will be 3 Chinese characters to represent it.
For names ending with a letter, such as b, d, k, l, m, p, s and t, are considered an additional syllable often. For example, there are 3 characters to represent a name, "Bridget" because of a "t" at the end of the name.
Certain characters can only be used in a male or female name. Therefore, we also base on the gender to use different characters when we translate your name.
Showing posts with label Names. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Names. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Married Women's Last Names
Every time when I need to fill out some official forms for the government or bank, I always get this comment, "Wow...you have a long name."
Why? Because I have my Chinese and English names plus the hyphenated last name which includes my maiden and husband's last names. Why did I do that? I will tell you later.
In the Chinese society throughout over 2000 years of history, women don't change their maiden name to husband's last name.
In the old Chinese world, men had several wives. They even greet their wives by their maiden names. This applied to the royal families, too.
A lot of Asian countries had been influenced by the Chinese culture. You will find this same practice to other Asian as well.
Nowadays, some women may add their husband's last name in front of theirs, like my mother's generation.
Before I got married, I didn't expect to change my maiden name to my husband's. But he wanted me to do so and understood where I came from at the same time. So, we finally came to a compromise to keep both names by hyphenated them.
In modern China, adding husband's last name is getting rarer and rarer. Like my sister, she never thought of changing her last name before and after getting married. Part of it because the position of women in the society is rising. But to Chinese women, keeping their last names had been old traditions for thousands of years.
Why? Because I have my Chinese and English names plus the hyphenated last name which includes my maiden and husband's last names. Why did I do that? I will tell you later.
In the Chinese society throughout over 2000 years of history, women don't change their maiden name to husband's last name.
In the old Chinese world, men had several wives. They even greet their wives by their maiden names. This applied to the royal families, too.
A lot of Asian countries had been influenced by the Chinese culture. You will find this same practice to other Asian as well.
Nowadays, some women may add their husband's last name in front of theirs, like my mother's generation.
Before I got married, I didn't expect to change my maiden name to my husband's. But he wanted me to do so and understood where I came from at the same time. So, we finally came to a compromise to keep both names by hyphenated them.
In modern China, adding husband's last name is getting rarer and rarer. Like my sister, she never thought of changing her last name before and after getting married. Part of it because the position of women in the society is rising. But to Chinese women, keeping their last names had been old traditions for thousands of years.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Name Change
I was going through my card holder last week to archive some of the old name cards. And one of them caught the attention of my husband. So, I explained to him that that was my Aunt Pat's name card when she owned that company. When I told him that she always loves to change her name, my hubby raised his eyebrows.
It may sound very strange to a lot of people, including the Chinese. My Aunt Pat is a 200% superstitious person. She pays a fortune to her favorite fortune teller every year of the "Fung Shui" of her house and office. She also goes to him for her name and her children's names. If the fortune teller tells her that this name doesn't sound right or not match her date of birth very well, she will follow the instructions of him to change the name(s).
As you all know changing name just like changing your identity, you need to go through a lot of processes in the government to get it done. My aunt never thinks that this is a trouble at all. As long as she got her name changed as the fortune teller told her, she feels very comfortable to go through all these troubles. Believe it or not, I can't even remember how many times that she changes her name. And she is not the only one. There are Chinese out there doing this.
It may sound very strange to a lot of people, including the Chinese. My Aunt Pat is a 200% superstitious person. She pays a fortune to her favorite fortune teller every year of the "Fung Shui" of her house and office. She also goes to him for her name and her children's names. If the fortune teller tells her that this name doesn't sound right or not match her date of birth very well, she will follow the instructions of him to change the name(s).
As you all know changing name just like changing your identity, you need to go through a lot of processes in the government to get it done. My aunt never thinks that this is a trouble at all. As long as she got her name changed as the fortune teller told her, she feels very comfortable to go through all these troubles. Believe it or not, I can't even remember how many times that she changes her name. And she is not the only one. There are Chinese out there doing this.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
100 Chinese Last Names
My mom sent me quite a lot of my old stuffs that she dug out when she moved to a new place. And I found this list of 100 Chinese last names which I figured that a lot of people will be very interested in it.The subscript is the Japanese pronounciation. And I circled the BIG 5 in red. Those 5 are the most popular surname you can find among the Chinese. And of course, mine is one of them. :-)
Enjoy everybody.
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