trusmis Posted August 10, 2005 at 02:31 PM Report Share Posted August 10, 2005 at 02:31 PM Recently I needed to fill several forms in english for an university in Taiwan. One of the fields read: "chinese name". I already have a chinese name that some friend give to me : 橋迪 But I don't know if I can use this name in official documents. It's something like baptise myself. Need I to ask to the embassy to give me a name or something like that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted August 10, 2005 at 03:19 PM Report Share Posted August 10, 2005 at 03:19 PM Could you just leave it blank or write "Nil" or "NA", if you don't want to make it official? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trusmis Posted August 10, 2005 at 03:23 PM Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2005 at 03:23 PM I do like that name. I want to know if I can baptise myself in chinese or I need to get my chinese name from an official source. What do you do? (I guess most people in this forum has chinese name already) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trusmis Posted August 10, 2005 at 03:28 PM Author Report Share Posted August 10, 2005 at 03:28 PM what do you do -> what did you do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
冷清 Posted August 10, 2005 at 06:09 PM Report Share Posted August 10, 2005 at 06:09 PM I think you can use 朱迪 instand of 橋迪 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
盤古 Posted August 10, 2005 at 07:02 PM Report Share Posted August 10, 2005 at 07:02 PM A friend of mine adopted a Chinese name and made it "official" when he applied for a working permit. Now his Chinese name is on all official documents. BTW, you can use just about any Chinese name as my friend's was 白龙 Bailong (white dragon) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenlan Posted August 10, 2005 at 10:44 PM Report Share Posted August 10, 2005 at 10:44 PM No, you don't need a name from an official source. If that is your Chinese name, it is your Chinese name, period. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geraldc Posted August 11, 2005 at 12:17 AM Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 at 12:17 AM I think the Chinese name just applies to overseas Chinese etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
in_lab Posted August 11, 2005 at 12:41 AM Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 at 12:41 AM If you like your Chinese name, then feel free to use it. Eventually, when you get an ARC or other ID, it will become your official Chinese name. Having a Chinese name is a little strange, but I also feel strange introducing myself by my English name. (More than a few Chinese go by their English name, but I just can't make the Chinese to English switch as smoothly as they can.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madizi Posted August 11, 2005 at 01:13 PM Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 at 01:13 PM You just have to be careful when choosing your offical Chinese name, because you'll have to use it forever. I mean, you can change it anytime, of course, but doing that you can cause confusion among your friends and officials. I've got my Chinese name 马笛子 from 1997 on (one teacher in Jinan gave me that name, she made it from my first name, Matic) and I'm completely satisfied with it although some people have funny thoughts about it. Besides, choosing name is in Chinese culture more importaint matter than in West. It is your destiny (like old Romans said: "Nomen est omen"). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trusmis Posted August 11, 2005 at 02:51 PM Author Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 at 02:51 PM Then I think that I have to think it twice before selecting my chinese name. I think that even when teorically chinese people can select any character for their children's names, they use some tipical ones (let's say the pool of character for names). So if I choose some of that tipical characters, I'll appear to be chinese (at least before you see my face). I think that it will be better choose characters outside that ones. Then, there are 2 choices: - Select characters based in the sound - Select characters based in the meaning (but something like white dragon seems too much for me). What did you choose ? Sound or meaning? I guess that choosing both is superb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madizi Posted August 11, 2005 at 04:55 PM Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 at 04:55 PM You're right, choosing both is the best. I am lucky, because my Chinese name is phoneticaly similar to my name (Matic) and it also has meaning (Horse Flute). Beside that, 马 is real Chinese surname. The only one thing from which every Chinese can see that I'm foreigner is my name: 笛子 (Flute). But I think that you don't need to seach for every price a name which is phoneticaly suitable and has meaning. Many of my friends has Chinese surname (first character) and then phoneticaly transcribed their original first name (the other two characters). For example: 白林达 -- Bai is Chinese surname and 林达 is transcription of name Linda. Hope this helps! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Long Zhiren Posted August 11, 2005 at 07:02 PM Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 at 07:02 PM Unless your citizenship papers (eg social security, birth, marriage, etc) of your own country (whre you are a citizen) requires it, nobody's going to care if it's official or not. Let the genealogy sleuths take the anguish. Many Chinese names used to fit set genealogy tables. Now they are quite random. Foreigners' names won't cause more confusion than there already are. If your name does happen to coincide with an existing Chinese genealogy table, you might even get into trouble. You've hit the jackpot, you're on the CCP's no-fly list! For that matter, what are the "official" Chinese names for Gregory Peck, Arnold Schwarzeneggar & George W Bush? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trusmis Posted August 11, 2005 at 09:25 PM Author Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 at 09:25 PM Yes, that indeed helped Thanks a lot. I'll relax and simply look for something to find confortable with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trusmis Posted August 11, 2005 at 09:26 PM Author Report Share Posted August 11, 2005 at 09:26 PM find -> feel Sorry, very late at night here ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lu Posted August 21, 2005 at 04:26 PM Report Share Posted August 21, 2005 at 04:26 PM Yes you can baptise yourself, I did and it worked just fine. Note that although on the mainland it's very common to have a one-character personal name, in Taiwan almost all people have a two-character personal name. Qiao Di would be an unusual name in Taiwan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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