September 13, 2004

Chinese names

My buddy James Seng (sometimes known as Ching Hong Seng) gave into my repeated requests and wrote up a fairly detailed explanation of how Chinese people get non-Chinese names. The short answer is: there are many ways. The essay is the first I have found that explains (in English) Chinese naming, much less how folks like James get non-Chinese names.

One quibble I have with James' essay is that he calls these names "Christian" and "English". Many of them could be considered Christian names, but I am now in fairly frequent contact with Chinese people whose names are "Merlin" and "Linus". OK, maybe those are "English" and "Christian", respectively, but I think it is easier to classify them as "dweeby" in the positive sense of the word. ☺ Posted by lookit at September 13, 2004 08:57 AM