Boys: Denby. Jovi. King. Snaphy. Funky. Spawn. Steen. Harve. Wolfgang.
You may all address me as ‘Tom Hill’ in future. Or ‘Loretta’.
Wel I’ve met some doozies.
Adolf Chen was an instant favourite and his reasoning was sound, “because he was such a strong leader.”
Jew Shopping was a nice try at Anglicising a Chinese name but was perhaps a little lairy for his intended aim of joining an international law firm.
Rover Lee was plain silly.
As for Thai names, they’re nicknames are verging on the ridiculous. My GF’s nickname is Ying, which means “girl”, her ex and the father of her kid’s name was Chai, which means “boy” and they decided to call their daughter Mae, erh, because she was born in Mae. No mysteries there. Then of course other family members include Lek (little) Gai (chicken), Moo (pig/pork), etc. Of course, they do like their fruit also, thus Som (orange), Ple (short for apple), then colours, Dum (dark/black), such strong, proud names. 
The interesting Thai names are the Chinese names as the Thais insisted they take on Thai names, but refused to let them use any existing family names.
And I agree with you Joesax, although on one memroable occasion I did caution “Dong” to opt for an English name before heading to the UK to do some further study.
HG
I’ve posted this before - the best one I’ve ever heard (someone had a mean Engrish teacher)
“Jenny, shorty for Genitalia.” (she chirped as we tried not to piss our pants) I’m sad to say that I forgot what her boyfriend’s name was because it was something jsut as funny.
I’ve noticed that the locals aren’t really all that good at pronouncing the various Chinese and Taiwanese words. I am constantly seeing them correcting each others pronunciation in their conversations. It looks like there is plenty of room for interpretation among them as well as to spelling and pronunciation. So I don’t feel bad when I mess it up.
I have a legal Chinese name I use for some business doc’s, but as my give name, my 1st name, is easy for the locals to say they usually use that. Makes no difference to me. Call me what they want. I’ve learned to recognize the sound of most of their attempts at pronouncing either of my names, so no big deal.
Some locals introduce with their Chinese names, some with their english names and some tell me both. I use which ever one they want. I haven’t met any of the really outlandish ones yet.
Of course while I’m on my 'scooter I am constantly assigning english names to the locals…Dip-Sh*t…Pecker-Head…etc…
Porn is a very common nickname in Thailand. Roughly translated, it means “blessing”. Seems like a perfect nickname for a child.
ButtercupHill, welcome to the faaaaamily.
[quote=“TainanCowboy”]
Of course while I’m on my 'scooter I am constantly assigning english names to the locals…Dip-Sh*t…Pecker-Head…etc…[/quote]
I neaded this one. I has ben bored for hours. :bravo:
Mrs Taffy much prefers her English name to her Chinese one - the logic being that she chose it, rather than it being foisted upon her as some superstitious result of stroke counting and the time she was born. Her Taiwanese friends and colleagues all use their English names with each other, especially the girls (Sarah, Joleen, Rebecca etc). Her male colleagues tend to go either by surnames and titles (for the higher-ups) or Chinese nicknames for the regular grunts: 小黑 Xiǎo Hēi, 大胖 Dà Pàng and 泡菜 Pào Cài (his mother is Korean).
I have a friend in England who insists on using Mrs Taffy’s Chinese name (once he had found it out), something which she feels is a little disrespectful, seeing as she has made it clear how she would like to be known. Of course, she was far too nice to ever say anything about it.
Im called Jar-Moo-Sh (James) by all of my Tawainese friends
In Thailand Im often known as ‘Poom Poi’ which is some kind of cute name for ‘big boned’ people.
That or ‘Khan Kluay’ which was a famous blue elephant owned by one of their kings in the past… 
I met some people in Thailand with funny names. Nuk, Nok, Poom, Blim, Pimmy, Blonk, Toot, Hargle, Boing… Ok I made up the last couple…
My last gf was from Bangkok and her name was Porn. I loved porn! Still do…
My current gf is from Surin (North Thailand) and her name is Yamolphatr. Nickname : Tip 
I’ve met a man who’s name is Better. Also another man in China named Dick Wang…Enough said
MrsHill refuses to have an English name. It’s one of the top five reasons why I love her. She works with Americans and makes them use her Chinese name. The only person in a staff of over 1000!
Nicknames and aliases in Chinese culture are pretty common, so it seems likely that this is less a fad and more something else.
I think it’s just a way of organizing one’s life. Having different names in different social circles reminds a person which role he/she should be playing at any given time. We all play roles don’t we? Or are we so hardcore that we are who we are all the time. 
I’ve had lots of names, both Chinese and English. My wife has as well. I think it’s quite interesting.
I just sent my resume to a woman in the US who’s name is Viable.
[quote=“myury”]I think it’s just a way of organizing one’s life. Having different names in different social circles reminds a person which role he/she should be playing at any given time. We all play roles don’t we? Or are we so hardcore that we are who we are all the time.
I’ve had lots of names, both Chinese and English. My wife has as well. I think it’s quite interesting.[/quote]As I wrote earlier, people should of course use whatever names they want to. What I object to is the idea that one should have to adopt an “English name” in order to communicate in English.
I see your point that different names sometimes go with different roles. I don’t think that this contradicts anything I said. The only point of difference we would have is if you meant by what you wrote that people should adopt a specific role for the purpose of communicating in English. But I don’t think that’s what you did mean.
[quote=“joesax”]As I wrote earlier, people should of course use whatever names they want to. What I object to is the idea that one should have to adopt an “English name” in order to communicate in English.
I see your point that different names sometimes go with different roles. I don’t think that this contradicts anything I said. The only point of difference we would have is if you meant by what you wrote that people should adopt a specific role for the purpose of communicating in English. But I don’t think that’s what you did mean.[/quote]
I totally agree that nobody should have to adopt an English name to communicate in English. I’ve met many Taiwanese who don’t have one and instead use the romanized version of their Chinese name when necessary.
Really, I have no idea why schools force kids to take English names. Maybe most kids want one anyway, for the novelty or just for a chance to be creative or express themselves.
If a kid really doesn’t want an English name, there’s always the argument that the romanized version of his Chinese name is an English name, at least as much as Tank or Apple is. Hold that thought, I had one kid in a class who didn’t want one, so my boss hastily Christened the poor guy Linda.
I like the stranger or less common names that people pick. They give a little insight into what the person might be like.
You know a bit about Revlon, Eggbert, and even Boris before you meet them. Compare with the old standbys like Andy, Frank, and Amy.
Then again, my wife had a Barry in her class. Barry?, I said, that’s a bit 70s for a kid in the 21st century. Uh huh, my wife said: B-E-R-R-Y.
Had a student at Motorola, an engineer and bright guy, who named himself “Creamson.” He was a rock and roll aficionado and liked Cream. Another student gave herself the name “Pure.” I always felt a little silly calling her by this name.
On a side note, I had a friend who named the kids in his class after place names in the US southwest like Texarcana, Dallas, Houston. Then, in another class he named the kids after famous lovers in history like Cleopatra and Antony, Romeo and Juliet, Syd and Nancy, Richard and Elizabeth, Nancy and Ronald and so on.
Bodo
I almost forgot - the girl at my local tea stand is named ‘Special’
There is one student in my bushiban whose parents have refused to let them call her by an English name - the same one whose parents refuse to let her sit through video class and make her go out to do her Chinese homework downstairs because they think it’s more important (sensible people in my opinion). What can I say except that I have more respect for those parents than the ones who have been making us crazy by picking different English names for their kindy student every single month I’ve been here (resulting in her learning to write all those different names…oy…she just starts getting one by the end of the month and then they change it another time).