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Hi all! I'm a Chinese-Canadian 20-year-old female who's never had an English name. My Chinese name is Ruoqi Yang, and since kindergarten I've gone by a nickname that my parents used at home when I was small. They thought I'd just switch back to Ruoqi eventually, but somehow I just never did. The nickname seems way too nickname-y now – I've gotten "oh, that's my dog's/cat's name!" more times than I can count.

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But I also don't want to switch back to my Chinese name, because I don't particularly like the way it sounds in English. Besides, a LOT of different characters get the same pinyin spelling 'ruo' and 'qi', which means that a quick search will turn up thousands of people with apparently the same full name as me. As someone who wants to become a published author someday, I wish my name was something more distinguishable.

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So, I've been looking for a new name for school, work, and possibly my writing career. ('Ruoqi' will then be reserved for family and close friends). Since the nickname I had starts with 'K', I want the new name to start with 'K' for continuity. I want my name to lean gender-neutral, as super feminine names don't quite sit right with me. Right now, I've narrowed it down to two names:

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Kellyn (KELL-in) – This name really clicked with me. Someone important to me was named 'Kelly', and I'd love to honour her in my new name. Kelly is slightly too commonplace though, and I like the way that the '-yn' of 'Kellyn' sounds.

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Kylin (KYE-lin) – Similar, but I like this name because it is a variant spelling of 'Qilin', the famous Chinese mythical beast which also contains the ‘qi’ in ‘Ruoqi’. So the name would both pay homage to my Chinese heritage AND be a pronounceable English name! *See edit.

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What are your thoughts? First impressions on the two names? I like the cultural background of 'Kylin', but I (and my parents) prefer the way that 'Kellyn' sounds and feels, as a name. But is 'Kellyn' a distinctly Irish/Celtic name? Will people wonder how in the world someone who looks 100% East Asian ended up with the name 'Kellyn'? (Just like I'd be a little confused if I met a white person named 'Yuqing' or 'Donghan', I wouldn't want to create this kind of confusion about my name.) Any variations on these names are also welcome.

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Thanks a ton for your input!

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EDIT:
Thinking about it more, I would actually change the spelling of 'Kylin' to 'Kylen'. I think that 'Kylin' is a bit too literal in its meaning. To a Chinese person, if I named myself the anglicized spelling of 'Qilin', it would be like if I named myself 'Dragon' or 'Unicorn' or something. So I would change the 'i' to an 'e', so the connection to 'Qilin' is more subtle.

This message was edited 3/15/2022, 8:07 PM