New Post
Search
HelpEnglish Names Chosen by Chinese Students
I spent the past summer teaching English in a smallish city in mainland China. The students at the private school often chose their own English names. The names listed below are among the more bizarre and I am sure I've forgotten some...
Enjoy!
Girls:
Nebula -- 20 years old
Rainbow -- 14 years old
Kiwi
Lampicka -- 13 years old, she told me her English teacher in regular school (who is Chinese) gave her this name. Pronounced Lamb-Peek-Ah
Cookie
Shine
Maygan
Sunny
Icey -- about 45 years old
Paddy
Cherry
Boys:
Horsey-Ma -- His surname is "Ma" which means "horse" in Chinese
Wonderful
Wavedance -- 15 years old
Dream -- about 30 years old
Porpoise -- 16 years old
Honey-Bee -- 18 years old and about to go to Canada to study in college
Strong
Jerry-Su
Kobe -- I had three students with this name. Kobe Bryant is extremely popular there
Imagine -- 20 years old
Dandy -- 18 years old
Honestly, it was difficult to say some of these names with a straight face half the time :P
Enjoy!
Girls:
Nebula -- 20 years old
Rainbow -- 14 years old
Kiwi
Lampicka -- 13 years old, she told me her English teacher in regular school (who is Chinese) gave her this name. Pronounced Lamb-Peek-Ah
Cookie
Shine
Maygan
Sunny
Icey -- about 45 years old
Paddy
Cherry
Boys:
Horsey-Ma -- His surname is "Ma" which means "horse" in Chinese
Wonderful
Wavedance -- 15 years old
Dream -- about 30 years old
Porpoise -- 16 years old
Honey-Bee -- 18 years old and about to go to Canada to study in college
Strong
Jerry-Su
Kobe -- I had three students with this name. Kobe Bryant is extremely popular there
Imagine -- 20 years old
Dandy -- 18 years old
Honestly, it was difficult to say some of these names with a straight face half the time :P
Archived Thread - replies disabled
1
Replies
I once taught two Chinese brothers called Fen and Joe. Joe's Chinese name was Chou, so he picked something that sounded much the same. I thought Fen was using his Chinese name, but he said he just paged through the dictionary until he found a "name" he liked. I'm glad he didn't go a bit further into the single-syllable F words ... but I didn't tell him that!
1
Theres a mother on another website I frequent with a daughter named Shine.
Maygan is nice but spelt Maegan.
Maygan is nice but spelt Maegan.
1
LOL. I think I would laugh every time I called roll.
1
Ooooh.....
Wow.
*cough* And they all sound like whores. *cough*
Wow.
*cough* And they all sound like whores. *cough*
This message was edited 11/21/2009, 10:05 AM
1
Excellent.
1
Do they only use these in English class? I like Kiwi as a nickname, and Dandy is deeply amusing.
1
For the most part, yes, I think they only use them in English class. Tried to explain to them that these names would never be acceptable in the Western world, but alas...
1
Must be a fun class. Dream and Nebula would make cool MNs.
:P All the Chinese students here pick boring names. I think I knew a Grace, a Connie, Stephanie, and Kacie. Most boys just kept their Chinese names.
:P All the Chinese students here pick boring names. I think I knew a Grace, a Connie, Stephanie, and Kacie. Most boys just kept their Chinese names.
1
You'll always be happy in class. They sound like translations of their names or words that describe them.
1
Haha, well I did always look forward to receiving my class list every day just to see what crazy names would pop up next. Some of them are translations of the meaning of their Chinese names; for example, there are many Chinese names that literally mean "sun" or "beautiful" or "strong". For the most part, however, the students just chose things they liked, such as a kiwi.
1
Those are creative names! Most of the Chinese people I know who use English names picked stuff like Anna or Sharon.
1