Dears,
I come from China. I'm puzzled all along to have an English Name for myself. I really want one which is some cool and popular so that it doesn't sound very alien. My English learning is poor, so i came here to turn to you these learned Yankees for help.
My chinese name is Wang Youtian. Wang is my family name, means King in chinese while Youtian, my first name, can be interpreted as Someday( "You" is have, and "Tian" is day). I once thought of Someday King as my english name, but seems Someday is not an English name, though King could be a normal surname(such as Martin Luther King). So is ther some english name which is not very alien while bears some same meaning as my Chinese name??
//Bow
sincerely urs,
wang, youtian from beijing, China
Youtian,
I will now forever think of myself as a "learned Yankee". First of all, I should say that I think your Chinese name is beautiful, and here in America, ethnic names are becoming more popular everyday, so your name would certainly not be unusual here. One important question though is, what is your gender? American names are usually specific to one sex or the other, so that will determine what an appropriate "english" name for you might be. Hope we can help.
Youtian,
I agree with Flatlander that Youtian is a pleasant and pronouncable name. Also the translation "Someday King" is an interesting name. It has two meanings which you may or may not like. Firstly, it could mean that you are the "King" or "Champion" of doing things "Someday", that is never, suggesting in a friendly way that you are (or work very hard to be) lazy!
Or, that "Someday" you are actually going to be "King" or a leader of something, so you are now a prince.
It will certainly be a talking point, but you may get tired of explaining it to every new person you meet. It works better as a name if you are male. So if you are young and male and want an interesting way to start conversations with new females, I suggest you stay with it. But I will think over the weekend for a more English or American name.
Rod
Ni hao ma, You-Tian. Welcome to the board. I know you will get intelligent help with any problems you have with English here, much more so than you would at other boards. Please stay around to contribute also. We like as many viewpoints as we can get. There are also a large number of Brits and New Zealanders here as well as a smaller number of people from other countries such as Germany, Spain and Italy.
If you are male, I would suggest Eugene, since it sounds like your Chinese name. There is a female form of that name, Eugenia, which could be shortened to Genie; Eugene is normally shortened to Gene.
One warning: If you are tempted to use the SpellChecking routine don't take its suggestions too seriously. If I find it saying that I have misspelled a word I'll look the word up in the Merriam-Webster site
http://www.m-w.com. It is very good at handling misspelled words and will suggest many alternatives. The proper alternative is usually at the top of the list.
Honorable Wang Youtian,
Or Youtian Wang as you would normally be addressed here in
the United States. I mean no offense; I feel sure you have already become acquainted with our form of address.
Welcome to you.
I have some suggestions for you. The first two involve looking up names and their meanings, so that you could make your own choice. There are many books written to help
parents choose names for a new baby. These are excellent sources of names and their meanings. You could also do a
search on-line, as I just tried, using baby names as my
search words. One of the sites I found was
http://www.babynames.com/V5/BabyNames_Main.php3?content=BabyNames_Home.php3. You can click on a
letter in the highlighted alphabet line (which was half-hidden on my screen!), and get a list of names starting with that letter. I tried a couple, and did not see anything that means someday. My own name, Jacqulyn (or
Jacqueline, the common spelling) means supplanter, and I guess that is kind of close to someday. It would be James
for a male. So, that would be (if you use your imagination!) a "replacement king".
My last suggestion comes from this particular web site:
if you find a name that you like the meaning of, check with some American friends to see if it is common here--some of these names are completely unknown to me.
Note: I am guessing from the harvard part of your name that you are in the States.
Good luck to you in all you do, Dear.
> these learned Yankees
I'm not sure that all the Americans here would be happy being called 'Yankees', neverlone (sic) the rest of us in England, Canada, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, to name but a handful.
Youtian, thousands of Sinophiles across the world would love to have a name like yours, keep it
Dear Youtian: Your name is one to be proud of, and so easy for us to learn, you do not need an English name.I hope you will make more posts sharing your ideas with us. Bill Hunt
English names in general, tend to be words or phrases from other languages.. You have a wonder name -- your parents expressed fond hopes-- a "someday King"-- but if you are sure you want to have a more conventional "English name" I would second "Eugene/Eugenia" which is from the Greek-- eu is part of the root word for "good or pleasant' and is found in many English words and gene/ia is also from the Greek-- and refers to being born-- So Eugene is "well born"-- which in English, is an idiom for "nobles and royals"-- and that is "sounds" similar to your Chinese name is a bonus!
But its your name-- you should think about what you want to express... and see if you can find a name that works to create a meaning you like.
Linda is a common enough name in English-- it come from the Spanish --"pretty"
Millicent was for a while a common name among Chinese Americans in NY Parents thought it sound like "a millions cents" or thousands of dollars!
Or Maximilian if you are male.
You might like Amos as a contraction of A(l)mos(t) -- if not a Someday King, and Almost King! Or Alma if you are female.
Welcome, Wang Youtian!
Heritage and Family built the USA, dear young person. English, Irish, Dutch, German, Spanish, Italian, Poles, Czechs, Indians, Philippino, Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Pacific Islanders and a hundred other nationalities are the warp and woof of the fabric that is America.
Your family name is easy (Wang) for an American to spell, pronounce and remember and Youtian is a charming "first" name also easy to pronounce and spell. When asked what your name means it has wonderful connotations.
Carry it proudly into the 21st Century.
wow
P.S. This Old Lady of Irish ancestry is delighted you are with us. We need the young of all nations.
Good luck in all your endeavours.
wow
Ha, Thanks so much for your quick reply(wordsmiths are also efficient, i think. :)).
I'm a male chinese. I'm expecting a beautiful english name or, now as i have changed my mind a little from your posts, to be verified that Wang Youtian is just a good one?... :)
Thanks for you saying my Chinese name is beautiful, I believe you are right. I felt happy at the messages...:)
Regards,
Youtian Wang or Wang Youtian
Rod,
Thanks for your help! I'm a little moved by your words "So if you are young and male and want an interesting way to start conversations with new females, I suggest you stay with it." That's a good point I think...:)
Oh, will you think over the weekend for thinking a more english name for me? We have holidays these days for it's may day now or labor day as we call it in China. So don't labor too much, and labours should rest in these days...hehe *_*
Regards,
Y.T.
now as i have changed my mind a little from your posts, to be verified that Wang Youtian is just a good one?... Woutian, there's no question about it your name is a great one, why change it for some boring old English one? After all, your language and your culture are both older than English, so you have seniority. I am sure that getting used to having people use your names in inverted order, Youtian Wang instead of Wang Youtian, will be enough of an accommodation on your part. I say this as one who is neither learned nor a Yankee.
There are also a large number of Brits and New Zealanders hereHmm. As of June 1, there will be one extra Brit and one fewer NZer, leaving, let me just count them all up, ah, one!
Thanks Faldage,
I think I should have Eugene(or gene for short) in my collection for at least it's suggested twice here( of troy also did it)
Esp. when I looked up in www.m-w.com, the interpretation is ver much loveable. It's about a prince's story, involving three lovely countries: french, italy, and spain and austrian....and eugene is viewed as one of history's greatest generals. oh. I learned a lot and the story is good.
Thanks so much.
Youtian
============================
www.m-w.com: Eugene
Main Entry: Eu·gene
Pronunciation: yü-'jEn, 'yü-", French [OE]-zhen
Function: biographical name
1663-1736 François-Eugène de Savoie-Carignan prince of Savoy & Austrian general; fought in Italy in War of Spanish Succession (1701-03), etc.; viewed as one of history's greatest generals
Valued Jackie,
Thanks for your reply. Does your name, Jacqulyn (or
Jacqueline, the common spelling) indicate you are a lady? But I guess Jackie could be used as a name for male(only or too), for once I have a male colleague whose name is Jackie Zhang. Also, in Hongkong a motion pic star named Jackie Chan.
Thanks for the website you provided, for these days i just don't know where to surf when facing a computer with internet access sometimes.
A puzzle, in the babynames website, seems JACQUELINE or JACLYN means to protect, not supplant, while Jacoba means supplant. so i'm puzzling in comparing your letter with the website....Should I write one letter to the website to report their misplacing?
Regards,
Youtian
Pls allow me to try Valued in my address to show respect, for my ex-manager, an american lady, often uses Valued Customers in her "out of office" message as an auto-reply when she is on vacation.
hi, belligerentyouth, now i know what your name is...:)
I do think I should use wordsmith or linguaphiles instead of yankees only...hehe, for from awad news letter, seems here can be called United Nations 2.
and Sinophiles means Chinese? I guess now my glossary is increasing.
BTW, r u from scotland?
Thanks!
Truly urs, YT
Sinophiles means Chinese? "Sinophile" means someone who likes China, and things Chinese - literally a "China-lover"
here's a url for you
http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=Sinophile
Dear WWH, and all the wordwide helpers with my name,
Thanks for letting me know that my name is one to be proud of, and so easy to learn.
I once met with a Canadian family just before 1999-2000's Xmas(before Nov 25th, 1999, I remember). the parents are our english teachers and they brought their 4 children to our class.
three elders are girls and the youngest is a boy. They are very lovely, and I remember them clearly.
When our party ended, I asked the boy( sorry, I just called him the boy at that time, later I know it's very rude in the western coutries for they treat boys just like an adult gentleman) to pronouce my name, i found it's very easy for him to do and the pronunciation is very clear, pleasant to hear and just the same as we read it in our chinese way.
also, when i was in an multinational company, my american colleagues often called me Y.T., and I was educated that it's american way, for our american manager was also often called in there initials(such as abc), one for her name, one for the middle letter in her full name and one for her surname. is that true? if that's true, I just wonder what will be called to a person whose name is Walter Caddy?
Best Regards,
Y.T.
Of troy,
Thanks. I think I will not select Linda unless she is my girlfriend.
eugene is quite great and so is amos, I'm just adding them to my collection. Almost King is as noble as a king but needn't to be in office everyday, i think.
Thanks very much
Youtian Wang
Thanks, Dear Wow.
Thanks for your comments on my name, i think i'm encouraged to carry it into all the 21 century, and try 22 century.
Best wishes from Beijing, China
Honestly Yours,
Youtian
P.S.
I believe your name will be very popular in China, if not worldwide. We here often use wow as an exclaimation to express surprise, expecially out of joy, such as:
Wow, You are great!
Regards,
Youtian
Thanks Max Quordlepleen,
I now have revised my glossary.
Best regards
Youtian, not woutian
In Chinese woutian sounds like Wutian.
Wu means not have, so woutian sounds like have no day, or not Youtian
Youtian, not woutian
In Chinese woutian sounds like Wutian.
Wu means not have, so woutian sounds like have no day, or not Youtian
Sorry! I am a shockingly bad typist, my sincere apologies.
ha, i'm just kidding. don't take it seriously.
Have a good day!
Regards,
Youtian
Hi, Youtian, and welcome!
Just a bit more irrelevant
information about the name Eugene. The Spanish form for it is
Eugenio, which has the word
genio, meaning "genius", as part of it.
More brownie points for this name, perhaps?
Marianna
dear Youtian,
my suggestion is that you use your own beautiful name!
but if you are set on adopting an english/american name, may i offer:
Dawn~
it means the begining of a new day, and i find it particularly lovely;
Roi~
it refers to royalty... Roy is a man's name and is usually identified with a famous cowboy, bur Roi has an international character...
warm regards,
rintin scrabbleweed
"It's not about winning... It's about having fun!" Spongebob Squarepants
Youtian,
I agree with everyone else posting messages. Yours is a beautiful name, chosen by your parents ( I assume) as a gift to you. But, if you insist on an English name, may I suggest Arthur. OK, I am not sure what Arthur means. But King Arthur of legend is referred to as "the once and future king." Someday King reminds me of that phrase. Legend has it that Arthur never died, but is waiting to return to England in her time of need. So, Arthur may also be a Someday King. :o)
Good luck!
Catherine
Dear Youtian,
I have followed the trail of posts caused by your brave and thought-provoking question and would like to add my ideas to the conversation.
Your observations about initials is accurate and many people in an organisation will be referred to as A.B. or D.G. or as you point out W.C.
Initials are sometimes used to create an unusual and therefore memorable name, such as B.B. King.
I must say that some of the ideas so far need to be read out loud to a particular audience to check for unfortunate connotations or resonances. The abbreviated form of Eugene, while suggested for all the best reasons, will result in an anglicised name of Gene King, which will have many people of my generation immediately thinking of Billie Jean King, a prominent female tennis player.
The fashion for middle initials has long been established in America: John F Kennedy, Michael J Fox, George W Bush.
This suggests a very simplistic idea of a word play to convey the original meaning of your name: Will B King.
(i.e. one day this man 'will be King')
The internet gives us the ability to create many identities for ourselves. Maybe you should login to lots of different forums or chatrooms with each of your different possible names to see how people treat you differently.
Welcome aBoard - nice to see that I will not be the only NZ resident left on the Board when Capital Kiwi takes flight! May one ask how to tell the difference between any old McAllister and
the_mcallister?
That was great, you sound neat, welcome aBoard, and I'm so glad our beloved Max will still have "company"! If there's anything I can do for you, please just let me know--Send
Private, if you'd like. And I think that goes for most people here.
Nah, he's just transmogrifying. (See Information & Announcements)
I also thought of Arthur, the "once and future king."
The "nickname" would be Art, which is a wonderful thing to be called!
So far as changing your Chinese name, Youtian is indeed a beautiful sounding name with a beautiful meaning, and people won't have much trouble spelling it. People are more used to Asian names now, and it won't set you apart as much as you might think.
Some of my Chinese friends have kept their Chinese names, some use their Chinese name for their middle name. Lin came to America at the age of 12. She chose Kara as her first name, and Lin as her middle name. The only reason she changed it was because Lin is pronounced differently than it is spelled. Her family still calls her Lin.
Sunan kept her name. Frank changed his. Jeff's parent's gave him an American name when they arrived, as did Mosanna's parents (but Mosanna is not an English-language name. It just sounded American to them.)
Wang is a very common name here in Los Angeles. I just looked it up in the telephone book: 250 Wangs are listed for the City of Los Angeles. (The City of Los Angeles is only a small part of the vast area that is referred to as Los Angeles.)
However, if you choose to translate it, King is a fine name.
For many, it is a part of the process of becoming American to change your name. My father was Waldo Dario Mario Cassaretto when he arrived in America in 1930. By the time he died, he was Oz Glover. It happened through marriage (his mother remarried), and through the other children giving him friendly nicknames, because Waldo sounded foreign to them (remember, this was a long time ago. "Foreign" isn't really an issue these days. It doesn't matter much to people any more.)
Keeping your Chinese name and using a nickname is also good. My father never changed his name legally from Waldo to Oz. His last name was changed from Cassaretto to Glover because his mother's second husband adopted him.
Sorry to go on so long!
Sorry to go on so long!
No need to apologize. Your post was very interesting. Welcome aBoard, and keep 'em coming!
French Pie asked, in puzzlement,
Capital Kiwi is leaving?To which AnnaS, secret agent extraordinaire, replied from under cover:
Nah, he's just transmogrifying. (See Information & Announcements)To which I respond: "How will I know when it's happened, AnnaS?" I hope you have an answer by early August!
I see the_mcallister is leaving Zild in 2002. West Island or The Land of the Long White Pom, we wonders, precious?
Dear All,
Thank you very much for your cordial and impressing posts. I have read them through and I could feel the kindness and wisdom of you all.
I'm here posting this question not because that I'm going to completely remove my original name, but because that I want one English name. So I'm just looking for an English name which is very English and very common, and as a normal naming process goes, just very tailored for me.
My teacher gave me my Chinese name when I was in secondary school when he was drinking with my father. Now I'm going to internet to talk with you about another one.
As you can see, some new posts came up with some new good names. I hope I could see more. I think I will conclude what my English name should be some time later. Maybe some long, but it's good to wait for a while for a very sweet thing, I think.
It will be a very common, very English, and some nice (for myself only) name
I thank you all for your help and I'm really eager to see more.
Yesterday, when I'm here writing to your, the power is off suddenly. Now I wrote again. If you see it, that means today everything is ok.
Best regards,
Wang Youtian
1.Girls r right
2.When u find girls r wrong, u r wrong
3.Never forget the above 2 points
Wang Youtian,
1.Girls r right
2.When u find girls r wrong, u r wrong
3.Never forget the above 2 pointsYou'll do FINE in the United States!
If you want an English name, others will have to help.
If you want an American name, you can't go wrong with Joe!
it's good to wait for a while for a very sweet thing, I think.
You are wise beyond your years, I think.
So far, people have suggested names which reflect certain connections to your Chinese names, but you mention that your English name will be a very common, very English, and some nice (for myself only) name , so I'm now chiming in with common, popular-but-not-the-fad-of-the-year names for men:
Adam
Alan, sometimes shortened to Al
Benjamin, usually shortened to Ben
David, often shortened to Dave, and extremely popular on this board
Gregory, usually shortened to Greg
Kevin
Michael, usually shortened to Mike
Robert, usually shortened to Bob, but sometimes to Rob
Steven, or Stephen, usually shortened to Steve
Thomas, usually shortened to Tom
These are all names I would consider for my own sons. If you like the sound of any of the names, you can use it with confidence that it will be a very common, very English, very nice name.
Looked up some of Sparteye's nifty suggestions in a names-and-meanings book. Herewith what I discovered:
Adam is Hebrew for "man of red earth."
Alan, (Al) several meanings : from the Gaelic meaning "Handsome"; from the Celtic meaning "harmony and peace"; from the Norman meaning "harmony."
Benjamin, (Ben) from Hebrew meaning "son of the right hand" or "fortunate."
David, (Dave) from the Hebrew meaning "beloved." Which you have certainly become to many on this Board.
Gregory,(Greg) from the Greek meaning "watchfull."
Kevin (Kev) is an Irish name meaning "handsome by birth."
Michael, (Mike) from Hebrew meaning "who is God-like."
Robert, (Bob, Rob) from Old German meaning "bright fame."
Steven, or Stephen, (Steve) from Greek meaning "crown or wreath" as in the wreath that crowns the brow of an athletic champion, traditionally made of laurel leaf.
Thomas, (Tom) from the Hebrew meaning "twin." The apostle Thomas was supposed to be a twin and the first bearer of the name.
And for my American suggestion - Joseph (Joe)- it is from the Hebrew meaning "an increase or addition".
Another good American name is John (Johnny) which means "gift of God" or "god is gracious"
wow
My teacher gave me my Chinese name when I was in secondary school when he was drinking with my father.
my teachers never drank with my father...
as several people have said, these days people don't expect non-natives to take a local name in western countries.
i would go one step further and suggest that it can sound a bit too cute and old-fashioned.
also, that choosing a name often doesn't work. what people end up calling you is often the name you end up taking.
feel free to educate us in chinese names, rather than expect the reverse.
have you ever noticed how names go with personalities?
from reading your posts, i would say you are an arthur, if it came to a nickname. wisdom is important with this name, and from your obvious wisdom when it comes to women, you should feel free to take this name.
David, (Dave) from the Hebrew meaning "beloved." Which you have certainly become to many on this Board.Far be it from me to deviate from a thread or anything
, but which David were you referring to, wow? (
now yer in trouble
)