It is said that the British dad is the owner of a construction firm, and he receives a lot of job resumes every week, including many applications from Chinese students. After reading more, Lao R deeply felt: most of the Chinese students who came to intern were very attentive, responsible and polite, but their English names... It often makes the whole company feel very confused!
How to say it, this generation of Chinese students, are their own English names, of course, to fully show the sonorous and powerful Chinese characteristics, if you fall into the pit, you only need to blame yourself.
However, when we give our next generation an English name, we must be careful, because they have a long life, will definitely cooperate with foreigners, or live abroad, carrying an embarrassing English name to go south and north, the child is likely to blame the parents!
In recent years, the demand for English names for Chinese children has been increasing. BBC reported a news: a 16-year-old British girl made a website to help Chinese parents name their children in English, easily making nearly 50,000 pounds!
But if there is no guidance from the locals, if we have our own whimsy, it is easy to bump into the minefield of cultural differences, and many good names in the eyes of our countrymen, put here in the British locals, will give people the discomfort of wanting to say hugh....
The name is destined to accompany the child for a long time, and parents should be cautious for the child's social and self-identification. Old r listed the following minefields, you can take a seat to check, their (previously) English name is safe?
For English names that are ambiguous, the meaning of the words should be confirmed in advance
In our Chinese, each word has its own meaning, so everyone is particularly concerned about the meaning of the name. But in fact, most English names are only from tradition, and do not have an exact meaning in themselves, and even the British have to look up the dictionary to find out the source of the root. But don't look for rare names because you don't feel the sense of meaning is enough! In particular, there are some special English names that may themselves be ambiguous in English or other languages. English names with negative colors will make people feel uncomfortable!
For example, Lao R has received Chinese interns called Dong and Dick, both of which have the meaning of "Tintin" in slang, and also make people in the company want to scratch their heads...
There are also those called tigers, dragons, fantasy, and dreams, all of which give the impression of not being very elegant as small sites.....
I have a few British friends who complain that they don't understand why so many Chinese girls are called "echo"? echo is not a name at all, "Zhang Echo", "Lee Echo", where is the reason for popularity?
There are also many Chinese girls called candy, do they want to give people the impression of "candy girl" for a lifetime?
The most memorable thing is that some people still know a Chinese girl named Fanny, which is actually the meaning of female genitalia...
And it's not just us people, even the stars will go into the pit and give strange English names.
For example, Wu Yanzu named his daughter raven, which Chinese means "crow", which will really surprise people in the English-speaking world.
Zhang Weijian's English name is Dicky, in fact, there is a weak, sick, abnormal work meaning; Ma Huateng's English name is pony, why do you call yourself "short stallion"?
Even foreign celebrities have been shot for naming babies. The most special names are given to the most special children, for example, tom cruise named her doll-like beautiful daughter suri, which means "thief" in Japanese.
Gwen Stephanie Gwen Stefani's daughter is called zuma. zuma is the name of Malibu Beach, which sounds pretty good, but it's also the term "gastrointestinal symptoms"...
Donnie Breston's son is called denim, which means "denim", why not velvet?
Barbara Hirsch barbara hershey's son is named Free, meaning "free," but I bet he'll be derided as a "free" child. Later, probably unable to bear it, when the child was nine years old, Free's name was changed to tom.
For example, here's a piece of advice: don't blindly pursue tall, special names, it's easy to be self-defeating! It is safer to choose normal English names, even if they are pure English names that have little meaning.
Spell out the names of the words to synthesize
The most devalued in the English-speaking world, the most criticized by people are those who use words to spell out synthetic names, children with such names, when they grow up, may feel that they can't lift their heads... Why is it downpriced? Isn't it nice to have a special meaning? That's how poetry comes from? But the British will feel that the synthetic name is too much like a screen name, a nickname, and especially unorganized.
For example, the most ridiculed is Kanye West and Kardashian's daughter North West, although West is actually a surname, but it is even pronounced as a word "Little Northwest"; there are two other siblings Saint West "Western Sage", and Chicago West "West Chicago", both giving people the impression of "low-cost denim".
Rock musician Frank Zappa's daughter is called diva muffin and is a "muffin goddess"!
Jay Z and Beyonce's children are called Blue IVY "Blue Ivy", Alicia Silverstone's children are called Bear Blu "Blue Bears", and Nicole Richie's children are called Sparrow Midnight "Midnight Sparrows". These "poetic" names sound tacky to the British.
There is also the daughter of celebrity chef Jamie Oliver called Poppy Honey Rosie, which is also sweet and psychedelic to the end.
Looking at Chinese celebrities, such as angelababy's "Angel Baby", it will really make the British think that they are the pseudonym of the goddess on some unsightly small website...
In fact, the safest and most stylish way to name is to use existing, normal English names. With hundreds of them for you to choose from, you really don't have to use your writing skills and imagination here.
The English name full of age sense directly increases the age of the child by 50 years
Although normal English names are the safest, there is also a common misunderstanding: it is easy to choose some particularly old-fashioned English names Chinese. I'll try it myself! For example, "ann" is too medieval! In the UK, people just look at the name ann and think that the owner of the name is over 60 years old! And the spelling of "ann" is also old-fashioned, and everyone automatically writes their name as anne, or annie.
We Chinese English names, consciously or unconsciously, we will choose those seemingly classic names, but are considered by contemporary British to be "grandma names" and "grandfather names", such as: grace, bonny, dorothy, audrey, edward, arnold, robert, carl, guy, etc., will directly increase the age of the child by 50 years.
Therefore, one way to want an English name that is not old and does not surprise people, one way is to use the modern abbreviation of the old-fashioned English name, and it is suddenly grounded.
For example, Huang boss Eddhi Sheeran, the root of ed is the old-fashioned edward, but the shorthand ed is a popular boy name in contemporary times. This number of roads also includes:
Alexander becomes Alex, Sandy,
Arthur became artie
Elizabeth becomes eli, liz, bessie,
Charles becomes chuck,
dorothy becomes dot, dottie,
Henry becomes Harry, Hank,
raymond becomes ray,
James becomes Jamie
Robert becomes Rob, Bert, Bob,
Samuel becomes sam, sammy
Victoria becomes tori, vick, vicky
Timothy becomes tim, timmy
Wait a minute.
Cut your age by 50 years now!
Huang boss ed Sheeran
Use the names of fictional characters or mythological characters, and you will be embarrassed to commit cancer!
There are also many parents who like to get inspiration from celebrities, myths, or fictional characters. But be careful that some names will make everyone think of the object of reference at once, so the child may have a hard time getting rid of the meaning of the original name for a lifetime.
For example, the names of the gods from Greek mythology, zeus, thor, athena, greeting and saying "hello, Zeus", "hello, Thor", "hello, Athena", that The English people's embarrassing cancer will be committed, be careful of no friends!
Naming from fictional stories has the same effect. For example, recently there have been a lot of little girls called Peppa "Pecci", but the problem is that Peppa is really not a common English name, and calling this name will definitely make people think of the little pig. Elsa "Elsa" is also more because of Frozen, which will also give the impression that the child's parents are a little too fond of watching cartoons... Also, in recent years, there have been many little girls named daenerys "Daenerys", and the "Mother of Dragons" of The Game of Thrones has appeared all over the world.
The name composed of overlapping phonetic characters is difficult to change
A particularly popular way to give Chinese babies English names is to use overlapping characters. In China, we often give children Chinese nicknames, so it is logical that English names are stacked. But the old man asked several times: "Why do these Chinese students have the same name as pandas?" ”
In their foreigners' impressions, Chinese pandas are all stacked characters! For example, the much-loved Sweet, Panpan, Dada, Jingjing... Therefore, those children named lulu, susu, ruru, kiki, cici, mimi, nana, can not help but give people the impression of panda-like child, although thick and cute, but what if one day your child wants to run for prime minister? This "human design" is a bit difficult to change.
Of course, many Chinese parents want their baby's Chinese name and English name to be linked, which is really not easy to do. But here's a way: instead of changing the nickname into an English name, use the pronunciation of the last word or two in the Chinese name as the English name. In fact...... In foreign countries, people will think: you are a Chinese, why do you have to have an English name? Keeping a Chinese style name is actually cooler! The British will find you exotic and personal. For example, ruyin, beidi, and ming, ying, wei, are all good Chinese and English common names. But be aware that this generic name must be easy for foreigners to pronounce. If it is a sound that cannot be pronounced, such as xiaojia, qianzheng, etc., the child will have to explain the pronunciation and spelling for a lifetime, which is very troublesome!
The most popular name, be careful of the duplicate name on the street
Well, after pointing it out, you understand:
Do not use ambiguous names in English names
Don't create your own synthetic names with words
Don't use the names of fictional characters or mythological characters
Don't use old, dated names
Do not use superpositions or names that foreigners cannot pronounce
So much "don't"! So what other names are safe and modern? At the end of today's article, the editor from the UK's largest mother and baby website, bounty, gives you a list of the 100 most popular boy names and 100 girl names in the UK in 2019! Choose these names, at least you can't make mistakes!
However, it should be noted that the top 10 or even the top 20 names are very easy to encounter duplicate names! For example, the most popular Olivia, amelia, ella, oliver, george, and name collisions in the past two years are highly likely! It's also best for everyone to take a detour.
Checklist: The 100 most popular boys in English in 2019
From the UK's mother and baby website, the numbers after the name are a change from the 2018 rankings
The 100 most popular girls in English names of 2019