Do you have an "official" Chinese name? [poll and discussion]

I had a student whose complete Chinese name consisted of a total of 13 strokes. Mine = 38 total strokes.

35 for me.

Could be worse! I could be a 蕭.

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This would be ā€œgreatā€ name: 倪儽棒

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Not as great as your original name, Keoni! You share the same name as a beloved renowned notorious journalist writer bloke here in Tawan! :laughing:

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Was told by immigration in Kaohsiung once a Chinese name adopted by a foreigner means nothing even though it was on my ARC…Then looked on the back of my wife’s ID card, and behold my Chinese name is on it with no English. So, I guess my wife’s ID card has some meaningless Chinese characters thrown on then?

As far as I can tell, it means a helluva lot more than you may have initially been led to believe.

For me, the following all use my Chinese name: some bank accounts/credit card, Masters/Doctoral diplomas and transcripts, MOE professor certificate, drivers license, lease agreement, work permit and contract, some health documents, local online retailer accounts …

Mine has 45 strokes…

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Mine was the standard translation of my first name and the first syllable of my last name that happens to be a common Chinese Surname. My name is a Biblical name that some Chinese may use.
It’s common enough that they know my English name even before I tell them.
I believe my name like my children’s names had the added stamp of approval from the shell throwing at the temple, the village fortune teller and the Chinese almanac.

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My friends kid has 5

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My Italian name already has an official translation.

é¦¬åÆ.

Taiwanese are always bewildered when I tell them I don’t have an English name.

Last name censored.

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I don’t understand why they like to use ke not kou, which seems to be closer to the co in the name

How about 馬口 (Horse Mouth)? :horse:

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because in Middle Chinese, which was the language first used to translate the Bible, åÆ is read as khóo (IPA: kʰɔ)

Most translation of Biblical names that doesn’t seem to make sense would make perfect sense if you read them in Latin and Middle Chinese of any kind, such as Taigi or Cantonese.

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I guess then you guys can finally say straight from the horse’s mouth :stuck_out_tongue:

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I voted yes by choice. The only time I was told that I absolutely needed a Chinese name chop was for registering my scooter ownership (both second hand then later when I bought a new one). It might be different now.

Local friends helped me choose mine. I told them I wanted something that didn’t sound foreign, e.g. å²č’‚å¤«, but I wanted it to sound as close to my English name as was feasible. They provided several options and in the end I went with the characters with the least strokes, so my full Chinese name has 18 strokes in total.

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If Steve is transcribed into Taigi, åøēŸ„ę­¦ (Si ti-bĆŗ) looks like a good choice.

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Middle Chinese? äø­ę–‡ļ¼Ÿ

Interesting, couldn’t care less though. Ha ha. Cause we don’t use Middle Chinese here and now, do we?

I use Taigi all the time.

Middle Chinese/Classical Chinese is äø­å¤ę¼¢čŖž or ē¶“å…øę¼¢čŖž, btw.

We have a Taigi Corner.

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I have a name given to me by my first-year Mandarin teacher, years ago. I use it here because I think it’s neat and it’s not like I can introduce myself using it in the west. So I suppose it’s by choice, but if I didn’t already have one then I might have been forced to use a transliteration or otherwise choose a name. I also have a different name in Taigi since apparently pronouncing the characters in Taigi sounds weird/possibly dirty, but my teacher won’t tell me what it sounds like…

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