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HK Girl Talk – by Jin Wong – is a blog of the author's randomness and her being fascinated by all the interesting cultural phenomena in Hong Kong and China.

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Q&A Wednesday: What Are the Weird English Names of Chinese People?

45 Comments Posted by Jin on October 26, 2011

No matter it is Hong Kong, China or Taiwan, Chinese people seems to have very weird English names.

Mainland Chinese, in particular, have very weird English names. Sometimes, a lot of people think that they get an English name just the the sake of having it, or perhaps the country is being invaded by western culture because of its booming economy and the increasing foreigner influx.

Here, I want to share with you some very ridiculous English names of Chinese people from Hong Kong, China and Taiwan.

My all-time favorite is Vitamin Chen. He’s a very charming dude. He must be a healthy freak (i.e. Vitamin C) as well.

Here’s my friends’ experience:

—

Dawei: I knew two twin sisters in Hong Kong called Kinetic and Energy.

Butler: I interviewed a girl in Shanghai recently and her name was Station.

Stephen: “I met a Water Chan before.”

Vivien: Not just Mainland Chinese. There are Wasabi, Nitrogen, Apple, Ginger, Salad… I met them in Hong Kong!

Fili: There was a Taiwanese girl I met once with a last name Kao (“高” in Taiwanese Pinyin, it means “Tall”) who chose the English name Kinky. Kinky Kao, perfect.

Stephane: Hong Kong people have first name such as Porky or Leslie. I also know a Nori Chan, probably makes all the Japanese girls laugh when he says his name.

Tyler: Best one I have ever heard was a Singapore girl by the name of Cream Soon.

Florence: I have a student in my class wanting to make his name Chris, but as there are 2 other Chris’ in that class, we decided to call him Christmas instead!

VK: Silence works at the Subway in downtown.

Munjee: I know a guy named Dicky Hung. I’m gonna use his name when I meet people in a bar.

—

What are the weird English names of Chinese people you’ve seen?

Language, Q&A Wednesday Weird Names

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45 Responses to Q&A Wednesday: What Are the Weird English Names of Chinese People?

Sally October 28, 2011 at 3:13 pm
My favourite is Failure…

Reply
- Jin October 30, 2011 at 2:31 am
  Haha. So if people would ask, ‘How’s the project going, Failure?”
  
  Reply
Wai Shing Lee October 28, 2011 at 3:32 pm
All real and non-phonetic names from my phonebook.

- Algo
- Cani
- Cheneil
- Joke
- Kenix
- King
- Koey
- Kodi
- Mansfield
- Miffy
- Pinky
- Ricco
- Sancia
- Santos
- Samboov
- Slinky
- Sonki
- Steed
- Sunny
- Swindy
- Yamy
- Yuki
- Zenith

Reply
- Jin October 30, 2011 at 2:32 am
  Thanks for sharing, Wai Shing. I like Joke the most.
  
  Reply
Jeppe October 28, 2011 at 4:35 pm
Hill
Sugar
Kaling
Luna

Reply
- Ana October 28, 2011 at 6:04 pm
  Strawberry
  Cocoa
  Godjer
  
  Reply
  - Jin October 30, 2011 at 2:33 am
    Haha. These are good ones.
    
    Reply
Rebecca-Icy Chu October 28, 2011 at 6:33 pm
i have some friends called
chili
data
happy
joker
xabi
daro

Reply
- Jin October 30, 2011 at 2:33 am
  Happy Data Joker.
  
  Reply
Ryan Charem (@RyanCharem) October 28, 2011 at 8:40 pm
contacts from the office
purple
morning
keen

Reply
- Jin October 31, 2011 at 9:42 am
  “Hi, what’s your name?” “Morning.”
  
  LOL… thanks for sharing Ryan
  
  Reply
MKL October 28, 2011 at 10:01 pm
I know a guy in Taiwan named “Helicopter Chung”, Can you beat this?

In addition, saw these first names: Rainman, Good, Cloud, Bird, Command, Tough, Mask, Honda.

Not sure, what caused these people to accept such names, but I think they will hardly be big business men in Europe. If I imagine someone calling and saying: “Hello, my name is Helicopter Chung..” I would be like: Excuse me?

Reply
- Jin October 30, 2011 at 2:36 am
  LOL. I couldn’t keep laughing when I saw “Helicopter Chung”. It’s a 4-syllable first name!
  
  Reply
DS October 28, 2011 at 10:59 pm
Not just China. In Korea I found the weirdest names. Had a student called Mikhail Gorbachev. No joke.

Reply
- Jin October 30, 2011 at 2:39 am
  Wow…maybe your student is a remote family member of the former leader?
  
  Reply
Kelly October 28, 2011 at 11:23 pm
Refrigerator – actually was given that name by a fellow teacher because he had the ability to use the word in any sentence he spoke…correctly.
Semen – I believe it started out as “Simon” but was mispronounced so often that eventually the spelling changed too.
And my recent favourite – H. That’s it, just H. He’s like 7 and he’s already too cool for a full name!

Reply
- Jin October 30, 2011 at 2:41 am
  They are funny ones. Does it happen in China or other cities in Asia? I think that a lot of people just use names that they think look cool but not really care about the meaning.
  
  Reply
Munjal October 29, 2011 at 9:43 am
Met a Yoyo Yin last night.

Reply
- Jin October 30, 2011 at 2:43 am
  I played yoyo all the time when I was small.
  
  Reply
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J. Alexandre Gruss (@AJ_Gruss) October 31, 2011 at 10:26 am
HJ,
Rain,
Snow,
Action (a sales guy),
Eureka,
Eubisia (no idea how she googled that)
Tank, (i kid you not and he was rather skinny)

Reply
- Jin October 31, 2011 at 10:29 am
  Thanks for sharing, AJ! I like Action, must be an aggressive sales
  
  Reply
name October 31, 2011 at 1:16 pm
I had students named :

Spicegas , Hometown, Hitler.

The best was a pair of girls who always sat beside eachother, one was named Pussy the other one was named Monster. They always talked so I often had to say “Pussy Monster!” to make them stop.

Reply
- Jin October 31, 2011 at 1:17 pm
  Hahahahahahahahahaha, I almost spilled out my coffee. Thanks for sharing!
  
  Reply
Paul October 31, 2011 at 1:36 pm
Sunshine (a guy)
Handsome
Fabio

Reply
- Jin October 31, 2011 at 1:40 pm
  Oh… he would say, “Hi, I’m Handsome”.
  
  Reply
nxtdemo October 31, 2011 at 2:29 pm
I have these from my LinkedIn connections (all real people):

* Friendly
* Johnothan
* Koboer
* Viral
* Wellwin

Reply
- Jin October 31, 2011 at 5:38 pm
  OMG. Viral? Hahahahahaha.
  
  Reply
alygerharter October 31, 2011 at 5:52 pm
i know someone named cherry chen. she recently made a facebook, and when she realized how many cherry chens are on the internet, her reaction was “maybe i should have chosen another name….”

Reply
- Jin October 31, 2011 at 5:56 pm
  I know a girl named Cherry too, pretty common
  
  Reply
Stone October 31, 2011 at 10:01 pm
I used Stone as my English name, simply because, in my Chinese name, there is a character which means “stone”. I know Stone is often used as last name, do u guys think it’s weird for first name though?

Reply
- Chinese Love November 2, 2011 at 8:53 am
  My Chinese co-worker was also named Stone. It’s a unique name…it’s not too weird.
  
  Some of my other co-workers in Shenzhen had names like “Gloomy,” “Fantasy,” and “Lust” – now those were weird. I would say those are more like names for the Seven Dwarfs.
  
  The weirdest China English name I ever encountered was “Icmi”.
  
  Yes, you read that right.
  
  Having said that, my first try at coming up with a Chinese name for myself backfired. I thought it was a cool name, but it was really weird in Chinese. I shared the whole story here…http://www.my-new-chinese-love.com/chinese-name.html
  
  So “Stone” is actually a reasonable name, all things considered.
  
  Reply
- Jin November 2, 2011 at 2:11 pm
  If your Chinese name contains a character that means “stone”, then naming yourself as “Stone” in English is fine, at least the reason is quite fair.
  
  Reply
  - Peter November 11, 2011 at 8:32 pm
    My English name is Peter, which means ‘a large stone’… so my Chinese name is 大石头 (Big Stone)… and subsequently, also the name of my company (Big Stone Group) and charity foundation (Big Stone Foundation).
    
    Reply
    - Jin November 11, 2011 at 8:40 pm
      Peter means ‘a large stone’? I didn’t know…! But yeah, that’s really cool, you got the whole group named Big Stone
      
      Reply
Capn November 11, 2011 at 9:24 am
I know a girl who couldn’t choose between Daisy and Mary, so she called herself Dairy.

Reply
- Jin November 11, 2011 at 9:52 am
  Ahahahahahahashahaha. Thanks for sharing Capn.
  
  Reply
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Peter November 11, 2011 at 8:29 pm
I had a student
first name: Bill-Gates-Rockafeller
surname: Wang
—–
A female student named ‘Hills’
—–
And the strangest I’ve had: a boy named ‘Earwig’

Reply
mich November 12, 2011 at 9:42 am
From Taiwan:
MacGyver Hsu
Fish Liao
Teacher Chair (the art teacher at our school)
Manpower Li
Chemical Wu
Handsome Li

Student names:
Oreo
Chubby
Vinky
Kerwin (apparently this sounds like the chinese name for Optimus Prime)

Reply
- Jin November 12, 2011 at 9:51 am
  I like Manpower and Chemical!
  
  Reply
J November 21, 2011 at 4:16 pm
Toto To
Money (really tempted to ask if they were related to Lil Wayne’s young money record label)
Promise (see this person better think twice when they promise people things)

Wealthee

King

-just a few, enjoy

Reply
- Jin November 21, 2011 at 4:18 pm
  Thanks for sharing J.
  
  You know what, “Toto To” sounds like you/re spitting.
  
  Reply
Chen Yi March 3, 2012 at 11:54 am
Some of them are Chinese names translated to English literally =_=
My name is Chen Yi, in English it means “(Bird) Wings Chen”. It doesn’t make sense XD

Reply
- Jin March 6, 2012 at 4:43 pm
  Yeah. Direct translation often just doesn’t make sense. That’s a cool name, though!
  
  Reply