My daughter’s English name is Zara. Neither me nor my wife are Taiwanese, so our Chinese family names hold little meaning. I’d prefer to go with mine, which is 康, as I will be naturalizing soon.
扎拉 (Sà lā) or 颯拉 (Zhá lā) were obvious choices for given names, but a local colleague suggested they weren’t good and sounded foreign.
Looking for any suggestions for good Chinese girl name that would go well with 康 and also be meaningful. (Phonetically similar to ‘Zara’ would be a bonus).
Thank you.
Definitely not 扎拉. The kids’ll call her salad ‘til the end of her days. 
Is there anything wrong with a foreign-sounding name for a foreigner?
Have you looked at Taigi names as well?
My wife vetoed the English name Philip for our son because of
Oh God, I am so glad I didn’t update her ARC then… Had no idea it meant “Salad”. She would hate me forever (or at least till she turned 18 and be legally allowed to change her name)…
The Chinese name is carefully chosen by locals. The amount of strokes and meaning are important in the ‘fate’ of the child.
I am not great at naming, but I think if you’re riffing off an English name that isn’t easily translated to Chinese then you’ll want to base it off just one component of the name. You can take that Z sound and use it to name her 子…something. Or something 子. Sorry, like I said, I’m not good at this. But starting with 子 seems like a good idea. Great character to have in one’s name and easy to write.
What about this one? It’s the official translation of Zara.
Personally, I have no issues with any Chinese names (strange or foreign sounding). As long as they don’t have some distasteful meaning, it’s fine if they are just sounds and hold no meaning whatsoever. With that being said, there’s a good chance I’ll be living here for a while. And, the only thing I am most worried about is :
I don’t mind Taigi names. Just don’t know where to find them.
I don’t want to be a downer but I think you are looking in the wrong place by asking this forum. If you are planning on staying in Taiwan her Chinese name will be important, you should do as the locals do and ask a qualified person.
I think that if she is born and raised in Taiwan, it likely doesn’t matter if she doesn’t have the Han look. They will first assume her to be a foreigner from the start. The name is the last thing they see cause if she looks foreign, it will ‘fit’ if you know what I mean.
@greves is great with Taigi resources. Do you have any suggestions @greves?
My Chinese name is 馬可. It’s the official translation of my Italian name, Marco. I’m a foreigner, it’s going to sound foreign and I’ll fight tooth and nail to keep it foreign-sounding even upon naturalisation.
The thing about this is kids will always figure out a way to pun your name into something stupid and mock you with it. If they can think of nothing else they will simply say your name stupidly. It’s just a rite of passage. But you certainly don’t want to give them some insanely easy ammunition like salad.
You should ask a local friend to help you select a name. Reject anything that seems too highfalutin or hard to write. Something nice, normal, pretty, easy to pronounce.
I know foreigners’ forum is not the place to get advice for Chinese names but I know some guys here are pretty fluent in Chinese.
At first, I did try asking all of my “4” local friends/acquaintances I know. None were too eager to help. One said Zara is a difficult English name to find a Chinese name for. Others asked me to “google” it or visit a fortuneteller.
I have asked my Taiwanese boss too. He said he’ll try. I am waiting to hear from him.
Yes, that’s one of the ones I found. The one used by ZARA company. I was advised against that by the locals.
康子秀 sounds quite nice to me. I just looked up some name suggestions starting with 子.
IIRC there are websites and apps that help you calculate the number of strokes and the “quality” of any name that you enter. It should be the right number of strokes, etc. That is one option.
Visiting a fortune teller might seem ridiculous but at least you would get a quality option, that you can still reject.
The naming gurus usually provide you with a list of approved names to choose from.
I don’t think it’s necessary, really. My mom just slapped a name on me willy nilly but it’s served me well.
Her birthdate in Chinese characters?
Yeah, well that’s the thing. Maybe it’s just me, but I think she looks sufficiently Han. 
My wife is a Filipino and she often gets confused for a local too. It’s funny whenever we are in a tough spot, locals instantly ignore me to speak to my wife, not knowing that her Chinese is actually worse than mine.
Yes, I would prefer that too, for myself. As an adult, I don’t care if my Chinese name instantly recognized me as a foreigner. I prefer that, since I AM a foreigner and I could never be confused for a Taiwanese, in this lifetime at least.
Awww.
I stand by my suggestion! For what it’s worth, my naming sensibilities are somewhat locally informed. I just don’t really put a lot of stock into the stroke number and fate thing. It’s more important to me that it sounds nice and is easy to write.