Dumbest Chinese names

[elina]

I wanted to call myself 熊 since my first name means "bear" but everyone told me that was a bad idea, so I guess I was spared some embarrassment.

In my opinion, 熊 can be a surname in Chinese, no problem, but:

1. please do not let 熊 be your first name, it sounds stupid, we sometimes say 大笨熊 to show silly.

2. if you choose 熊 as a surname in Chinese, you’d better follow a good first name, “because even common names can sound funny in the wrong combination” (Yang Rui’s saying). One of my former male colleague’s name is 熊一山，I think it is not bad. You simply cannot use the name, for example, 熊下水，熊入锅，etc.

Here are some of the stupid names I've thought for myself (a white American. My surname is Nee):

毛泽西

倪大平

倪建国

If I were a woman' date=' I'd almost certainly name myself:

倪翠花[/quote']

I don’t think the names of 毛泽西 (but why 毛, your surname is Nee?), 倪大平, 倪建国, 倪翠花 are stupid, it’s pretty good.

atitarev, I prefer 吉托利，and 阿纳托利·吉挞勒夫, because:

1. 吉利 in Chinese is fortunate, auspicious, lucky, propitious

2. I think 吉挞勒夫 is easier to pronounce than 提挞勒夫

牧麥可 was a name I had for about a day before actually telling a Chinese person about it.....

For a Chinese does 麥可 make them think of McDonalds?

牧 can be a surname' date=' but it is seldom used. And 麥可 cannot make me think of McDonalds, I just think it must be a foreigner’s Chinese name.

中华百家姓一览

[url']http://www.greatchinese.net/surname/surname.htm[/url]

Jim, if you like the 魏 to be your surname, how about 魏永光?

[atitarev]

atitarev, I prefer 吉托利，and 阿纳托利·吉挞勒夫, because:

1. 吉利 in Chinese is fortunate, auspicious, lucky, propitious

2. I think 吉挞勒夫 is easier to pronounce than 提挞勒夫

Thanks a lot, Elina!

I followed your advise and changed my signature.

Regards,

Anatoli Titarev (阿纳托利·吉挞勒夫 or 吉托利)

[in_lab]

Anyway, my supposed name here is what I thought 50cent's name was: 五十角, until I found out later, to my horror, that his name translates as 50分.

On MTV the other day, I saw 50 Cent translated as 五角.

[wushijiao]

On MTV the other day, I saw 50 Cent translated as 五角.

That's good to hear.

I took for granted that your name means '武士教' and havent the fainst idea that it is after that singer. BTW. we translate 50 cent as '五毛' here.

Wow, 武士教' sounds too classy. Why not change my name to 四元, assuming current exchange rates hold?

I don’t think the names of 毛泽西 (but why 毛, your surname is Nee?),

Well, the logic is that it is like 毛泽东, but he was a 东方人, thus the 东. I am a 西方人，thus the 西. Then every time someone would say "嘿，毛泽西!", I could give them a Chairman Mao-style pose, with up air held up in the air, palm up, as if I were up high in Tiananmen square, reviewing a noisy sea of young, patriotic, and enthusiastic Red Guards who are ready to get down to business and do the country's dirty work. I didn't end up choosing this name, however, because of the obvious offense intended. Of course, there are still millions who adore him, as there are millions who adore my country's Great Teacher- President Bush.

[Lu]

A taxi driver in Gaoxiong was named Kelong 克隆 (I don't remember his surname). Lucky for him, the Taiwanese use a different word for 'clone'.

I work in the library so I see a lot of names of writers. Sometimes I come across people named Jianguo 建国 or Jianhua 建华, that is so extremely cliche that it always makes me laugh.

[chenpv]

So what's wrong with it as a first name? I used 马 as my last name, since that is the main meaning I can get out of my Polish surname.

Beirne, there is nothing wrong with it as a first name. I can give you several celebrities whose first names have '熊'------ such as '任熊' '陆锡熊'. but you know, '熊' is a charactor that needs inspiration to make a name, but, not to frustrate you, neither '马熊' nor '熊马' sounds nice.

Wow, 武士教' sounds too classy. Why not change my name to 四元, assuming current exchange rates hold?

haha, Wushijiao, I will never do that. as the Yuan revaluation goes on, what a loss would you expect!

[LiYuanXi]

Jim: If you are still around, i would advice you not to us 丁东 as your chinese name. I don't know if it is just in Singapore but ding dong actually means crazy.

Over here, we often say:"Ta you yi dian dian ding dong." means he is a bit crazy.

Don't be a ding dong!

[BaiMianBao]

This is an old thread, but I couldn't resist replying...

When learning Chinese I was prompted by some classmates to put a Chinese name on my homeworks so I settled on 白面包

It wasn't without reason. My real first name is Brad. When I was a kid I called the house of a chinese friend of mine from school. His mother told me that he wasn't home so I asked her to tell him that "Brad called." Somehow that resulted in her writing him a note that said "mian bao" (bread) called. It took him a few days to make the connection that the mysterious loaf of bread which had called him was in fact me. To this day - about 12 years later - his parents still refer to me as 'bread' instead of 'brad' whenever I see them.

So, with 面包 being the closest I ever had to a Chinese name, I just tacked on a surname of 白 - an obvious reference to my skin color that also seemed to fit the bread theme - to make the name a nice round three character name.

I've grown rather fond of the name, but I do wonder if, as a name, 白面包 is as ridiculous sounding to Chinese ears as I think it probably is?

[skylee]

I think it's cute.

[adrianlondon]

Yeah, as an English person learning Mandarin, I think "white bread" coupled with the story of the Brad/bread confusion, is cute. If it makes all your chinese friends roll around with laughter, then all the better.

I'm going to have to come up with a chinese name for myself soon, too. It's a fun process.

[Lu]

Came across the name 吴麵 (sorry, forgot the surname again). Thought that was pretty weird. This was a Taiwanese though, not a foreigner.

Someone I know went by the name of 小鸡 for quite some time, as his nickname was 'Chicken'. Luckily for him, he changed it before he came to Taiwan.

[danqi]

Well, after about two and a half years of studying Chinese and several conversations with native speakers about the subject I still don't really know what to think of my chinese name, given to me by one of my teachers:

米丹奇

Any suggestions are welcome.

[DrinkDrankDrunk]

ROFL! Oh man you owe me a new laptop and a beer.

[Gestalt]

I know these are English names, but I liked this story:

I went to Shanghai last year to train some people at a local distributor for our software.

Three of the names of the guys in the group I was training really stuck in my mind: Tiger, Spartan and Andres. Three very cool guys.

Anyway, I asked "Andres" why he chose that name, and he said that when he was about to go to school when he was very young (he was originally from HK) he asked his father if he had an English name and his dad suddenly said "Yes, your name is 'Anders' ". Great. So, he goes to school and when they do the roll-call he answers to his Chinese name and also tells the teacher his English name. The teacher says "No, it's not 'Anders', it should be 'Andres' " - and changes it!!

He's been using that name ever since

[amego]

Well F4 member 朱孝天 zhu1 xiao4 tian1 sounds exactly like 猪笑天 meaning "pig laughs sky".

[xiaocai]

I'm not sure if it is appropriate to mention it here, but this thread makes me think about 鲁迅's younger brother 周健人...