- A Story Of Name And Culture
Episode 1 Why Did I Use An English Name At The Beginning?
“Cathy. Oh no, sorry, Qian.”
I got this apology from my friends a lot in Australia over the past two years. I felt bad because they had known me as Cathy (my adopted western name) since they first met me. However, 2 years ago, I decided to go back to my roots and use my original Chinese name instead. Why? Welcome to my exploration journey.
“What’s your name?” A question which seems so easy to answer except for many new international students and immigrants. Why?
Let’s turn back the clock to 7 years ago when I first came to Australia to study. I still remember in my first class, almost all my Chinese classmates introduced their English names to others. Why? 4 reasons.
Convenience (the main reason). Lengthwise, a Chinese name usually has 1-2 characters. In terms of the phonetic symbol, we use Pinyin, a totally different system which people from other backgrounds are not familiar with its rule at all. Therefore, having a western name makes it easier for others to pronounce and remember, even among Chinese people.
Different expectation. In China, when people ask your name, you are supposed to give them your full name instead of the first name, because a first name is usually only used among close friends or family, implying emotional closeness. Therefore, some feel uncomfortable hearing strangers call their first name.
The idea of having the freedom to choose a name for yourself is liberating.
To avoid some awkward moments. For example, my friend’s name is Lu. She was worried that some people might think of loo when hearing it. Another name is Shiting. A beautiful Chinese name. However, if you link it to English, it may not sound that poetic anymore.
Back to my story, I decided to follow the majority:
“Hi everyone, my name is Xueqian, but you can call me Cathy.”
Why Cathy?
I got this name from my first English class back in China when I was 10. It’s common for our English teachers to pick an English name for every single student.
Looking back, I am glad my teacher selected Cathy from common English names. Because some Chinese people pick an English adjective as their name: Snowy, Sunny, Happy, etc. They might also choose a noun: Candy, Apple, Dragon, Warrior, etc. For people from other countries, you may find these sound weird. Why do they do that? Well, most are just because of the translations of their original names. Some Chinese do pick names based on similar sounds, such as Lin and Lynn.
Does that mean we Chinese people can pick anything we want?
Yes, basically, we can name our children anything except names from our previous emperors. In ancient China, it is even not allowed for people picking the same name as the king has.
How do Chinese parents choose names for their children then?
Here comes another interesting cultural difference. We focus on meanings much more than sounds using three following pieces of logics.
The majority of parents usually go through thousands of characters in a dictionary to find a unique name representing their best wishes for their new-borns.
For example, my name is Xueqian. 2 characters, Xue and Qian. Xue means snow. Because I was born in winter, and it snowed very heavily in my birth month. Also, we have a phrase, bing xue cong ming, meaning as smart and pure as snow. Qian means pretty, and the word, qian ying, indicating a beautiful figure. Another example is Mao Zedong, also known as Chairman Mao. Ze meaning "moist, grace, brilliance" combined with dong meaning "east".
Therefore, for any company that wants to enter the Chinese market, picking a name with good meanings becomes critical. A great example is Coca-Cola. Its Chinese name is ke kou ke le, which not only sounds like Coke’s English name but also conveys the wonderful meaning (tasty with great fun).
Also, there are two traditions which some families still follow today.
Generation name. The Chinese culture has deep-rooted beliefs. Therefore, some families also have a character included in their names to denote generational position.
Five Elements Theory (Wu Xing). They include jin (metal), mu (wood), shui (water), huo (fire), and tu (earth). Based on their baby’s birth time, the name should contain the element, as compensation, which doesn't exist in the baby.
Since then, I started to use Cathy wherever I went in my first few years. At some point, I even quite liked it due to four reasons:
This is something new, and a change is always exciting to me.
The pronunciation. It sounds sweet, which suits my personality, haha.
It gives me a sense of belonging in this new country, fitting in. Because in Adelaide, even Chinese people tend to call each other their English name.
Easy for people to remember.
However, things started to change about 2 years ago.
What happened? See you in episode 2 :)
But for now, why not start to ask your Chinese friends the meaning of their names?