Foreigners in China have Chinese names. How do they pick their names?

Question

I want to pick one name for myself. So can you give me any suggestions on how to give yourself a new name? Thanks.

孫坦夢
孔途明
孔天夢

The Chinese name generator got me these names. How do they sound to the Chinese natives? Good? Weird?

Answer 1

Go to: http://www.mandarintools.com/chinesename.html and enter your name. It will give you a few suggestions with the meanings. Then I suggest you also run it by a few Chinese natives.

Answer 2

Normally, they would select chinese characters commonly used in names that phonetically resemble your own name.
Out of the 3 names you listed, the second one 孔途明 would be the most realistic. Amongst surnames, 孫 ranks 12th & 孔 ranks 83rd in the last survey.
If you like, contact me direct at the following address and I'll suggest something with explainations and references to suit your needs.

Answer 3

There names are normally picked for them..It is not a task that one takes lightly..to give someone a chinese name takes lots of thought and intuition....that said...the one I use on this avatar was an old joke with some mandarin interpreter friends of mine.

Answer 4

It depends :
- the best way is to ask a Chinese to give you one according to the one you have now : Mickeal become Maike or the French Romain becomes luoma ( meaning also Roma the capital of Italy )
- or you can choose the one you want if you want it have a special meaning in it like : beauty, strength...
- or like me, if your name has a meaning translate it in Mandarin. My name means blue sky so I translate it and my Chinese name is Lantian ( lan : blue and tian : sky or day )

Answer 5

There are two ways, one is by phonetically chosing a name that is close to your original, In my chinese classes my name is rui4 an1 瑞安, for Ryan, but Ryan means little king in gaelic so I could have chosen 小王 xiao3wang2 meaning little king. You can also just choose a name that you like without regards to your real name.

Answer 6

The same way Chinese people with foreign/non-Chinese sounding names pick their names I guess.

Answer 7

what's your name right now? Usually they play off their real names

For Example
The name alexander, the Chinese prounouce "xander" as "shan da" which means big mountain.

Maybe you could figure out what symbolizes you the best and go from there

Answer 8

Foreigners in China are twisted from eating too much dog meat. They make up names based on their personal traits. For example, your Chinese name might be 肛門愛.