Chinese pseudonyms

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

When I deal with the Peoples Republic of China, I often come across the strangest names. I listed my company’s employees from various PRC locales and found the following. Obviously, these are not their real names but business pseudonyms that these folks use when dealing in the language of international business. But rather than take names like Bob or Susan, they use various . Some of these I listed are kind of beautiful in their own weird way and some are downright hilarious, especially when paired with traditional Chinese names like Wang.

BTW: No disrespect is intended by this. I just found it interesting.

Most of the last names have been changed to protect the innocent
Aces Lim
Aggie Cai (Must’ve gone to Texas A&M)
Agile Guong
Air Yu
Apple Shan
Avis Zhang (He’s got a brother named Hertz and a cousin named Dollar)
Bear Chan
Beetle Wong
Beyond Fen
Blank Song
Brave Xiang
Brown Shu
Buffett Liu
Cloud Lei
Cool Leng
Dew Oh
Easy Tao
Eleven Pang
Elf Zhang
Fake Wan
First Ji
Fish Xie
Flag Meng
Fly Fang
Fog Liu
Fox Hu
Gang Chan
Glass Yung
Given Hu
Green Fan
Handsome Shi
Healing Wang
Hero Xiao
Hippy Zang
Honda Ding
Ice Huang
Jet Huong
Kunta Gong (his parents really liked Roots)
Leaves Ye
Leech Weng
Lemon Qiang
Lion Liu
Lucid Liu
Luck Jiang
Melon Cao
Mould Gong
Ocean Weng
Panda Dang
Phantom Pan
Pink Wang
Rain Kuang
Reach Zhang
Real Yu (I’ve been searching for the Real Me for decades and here he is…in China! Whodathunkit?)
Reason Wang
Saga Sung
Seaman Dang
Seal Guo
Seven Weng
Shadow Pang
Shine Shi
Smart An
Solo Woo
Starry Ho
Steel Wang
Strong Lin
Sweat Wang
Tivo Hou
Track Zhu
Volcano Yen
Warrior Huang
Wind Hu
Winner Shin
Wish Chan

2

Like you mentioned many Chinese people give themselves “Americanised” names to make pronunciation easier for foreign coworkers/customers. But are these anymore unbeliveable then Mercedes, Shaquille, LaTissue or any other of the American made up names?

3

When I taught English in China, there were a couple of students who I pulled off and firmly suggested that they change their names. I’m struggling to remember them, but there was one girl named “Pippi,” (pronounced in the most unflattering way, PEE-pee). There was a guy named Steel, and when I suggested he take some other name, he said he wanted to retain a name that showed his strength (he was a muscular guy), he thought of “Rock.” Hm.

There were a few nonsensical names, too… I can’t recall what they were, but imagine me introducing myself as “Flarb” or “Shnar-Shnar.”

4

Some of them are actually pretty cool, like Cool, Saga, Beyond, and I kind of like Given, but I have to question some of the other selections. Sweat? Fake? Mould!?

5

Too…many…jokes… :: head explodes ::

6

Foreign grad students in the U.S. frequently take typical English or American names. My mother had a Chinese woman who called herself “Mabel”. I knew an Indian woman who went by “Daisy”, and at the last place I worked there was an “Alex” (who has since gone back to hi true Chinese name). I’ve never seen any really weird names, though.