this post was submitted on 10 Mar 2026
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It’s the English name I recently chose because people kept having difficulty pronouncing my Chinese name after I arrived in England last year. I really like it, but I’d be interested to hear how it comes across to others, especially Anglophones.

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[–] notsosure@sh.itjust.works 5 points 20 hours ago (4 children)

I like to use the real name of people, because that is more personal, after all, parents have given their children names for a reason. But perhaps that is simply a European thing, many Chinese people simply adopt another name, perhaps given names do not have so it should be meaning in China?

[–] socsa@piefed.social 4 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

There is a very real bias against Chinese/SEA names in the west, whether it is intentional or not. Chinese students and expats know that they are far more likely to get eg, interviews and dates if they put a western name on their resume or dating profile.

[–] 5too@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

That makes sense - I'd always assumed they did it so people wouldn't trip all over a pronunciation style they're not used to

Some people hate the names their parents gave them. So did I and I legally changed it as soon as I could.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 3 points 18 hours ago

I agree with the sentiment, however, some names in some languages are practically unpronounceable for 99% of native [insert language] speakers, and hearing your name butchered over and over or seeing people struggle over it gets tiring quickly.

I have experienced this myself in English speaking countries. My name is not impossible to pronounce, but stumps half the people when they try to read it the first time. They will also mishear it and call me something similar. Usually if it's a colleague or someone I'll be talking to more than once I will let them know if they got it right. It's not difficult. But if I'm talking to a customer on the phone or ordering a coffee, I go with something easy.

I remember I had this classmate from Mongolia. She had one of those unpronounceable names. She would get very upset that nobody could say it right. There must have been some very specific sounds that only mongolian natives can pick up and reproduce in her name, because I've seen absolutely nobody, ever, from any background or nationality, be able to say it right. If you ask me, many did, and I could honestly not tell the difference between her pronunciation and that of most people. But she was outraged. It took her several months to get over it and accept nobody ever would get it right. She didn't pick a new name, but resigned herself to the butchered version of her name.

So yeah. More power to Cliff if that's a name they like.

[–] Mothra@mander.xyz 2 points 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago)

Apologies for the comment I just edited out- I got attacked by Internet goblins. It was meant for another lemming on this post.