How to sign Chinese name in English?

[Chris+XiaoXia]

My SO and I are currently filling out documents for the K1 visa. But we are now stuck in deciding how to sign her name in English. She had never signed her name in English before so we are entering in uncharted territories. She said that in China, the signature order is "last name" + "middle name" + "first name". Thus, she should sign her name that way. But I told her that in the U.S. most people use the "first name" + "middle name" + "last name" sequence so she should follow that pattern.

 

Can anyone shed some light on this?

 

Thanks

[bubbafred10]

My SO and I are currently filling out documents for the K1 visa. But we are now stuck in deciding how to sign her name in English. She had never signed her name in English before so we are entering in uncharted territories. She said that in China, the signature order is "last name" + "middle name" + "first name". Thus, she should sign her name that way. But I told her that in the U.S. most people use the "first name" + "middle name" + "last name" sequence so she should follow that pattern.

 

Can anyone shed some light on this?

 

Thanks

164722[/snapback]

Signature is very personal and I have seen them written both ways, although I cannot read most of them. Some even look like initials with scribbled extensions. It should be consistent as it is a personal identification.

[david_dawei]

You are correct on the difference in order...

 

Here's my recommendations for all documents:

 

1) Anywhere on any form, always put the Family name (last name) in ALL CAPITALS. For the rest of the form , including the given name (first or middle) put in mixed case.

 

2) When you have to put the name together in a block then use one of the two approaches, using a comma in the latter one:

 

a. Yue PING

b. PING, Yue

 

3) Signatures on documents that are in english : First Name then Last Name. As any US document would expect.

 

Since a signature is usually cursive, it does not make sense to apply the ALL CAPITALS to it... But since most chinese do not know the cursive writing, just have her spell it in pinyin as First Name then Last Name.

 

4) For a document in chinese, if they are signing a block in chinese, then I recommend they sign it as they normal would (Family name + Given name); then follow it with the name in english in parens in the same order to help reinforce it : (PING, Yue)

[Dean Hall]

What middle name?

 

In the old days, not so long ago, this understanding of the Chinese "middle" name caused some of us some problems.

 

To quote Donasho from a 2004 post : Be very careful how you fill in Chinese names. It is extremely rare for Chinese to have a middle name. Normally there is a one syllable last name and a two syllable first name. On the forms, write NONE for middle name, or if there is room, NO MIDDLE NAME.

 

The post from DavidZixuan is excellent where he suggests all caps for the last name, small caps for the first name.

 

Ultimately, the answer lies within her passport. I chose to do all documents exactly as her name was written in her passport.

 

Example: Last Name (Surname): NIE

First Name (Given Name): ZHANG LAN

 

Hope this helps,

 

Dean

[david_dawei]

Very good clarification Dean...

 

I recall reading someone at CFL who even ended up with a middle name on the visa and, of course there was no middle name !

 

From the beginning, I attempted to avoid this confusion by always having my SO write her given name (which is in two characters) as a single word.

 

Her given name is really in two characters: Zi Xuan.

 

But everywhere, we wrote, Zixuan.

 

The few exceptions were where it asks for the telegraphic code on a P3 or P4 form... then we wrote the code followed by the pinyin character in parens...

 

Follow Dean's advice on the NONE / NO MIDDLE NAME ...

[Guest Gene]

Her Signature on all documents should match her Signature on her passport.

 

Most important here is Consistancy, if she scribbled a smiley face at the end of her signature on her passport then she should do the same on everything else

[frank1538]

My SO and I are currently filling out documents for the K1 visa. But we are now stuck in deciding how to sign her name in English.

164722[/snapback]

I have a dumb question. Based on your timeline, you are preparing the initial submission, so I'm assuming you're talking about the G-325A when you ask about your SO's signature. Ok, here's my dumb question. Why not have her sign it in Chinese and then print her name in Chinese underneath where it asks for the printed name for non Roman alphabets? - kinda like the way we Americans sign (unintelligible signature and printed name underneath.

 

Jingwen signed her G-325A in Chinese.

[amerchin]

Back then the first and middle name or characters were separated when the name was translated from Chinese to English. Everyone then had a first and middle name. Nowadays the majority of the time they use the pinyin translation and they combine the first and middle name together. Thus no middle name at all!

[Chris+XiaoXia]

Thank you all for answering my question. Regarding using the same signature as her passport, I agree that we should use whatever existing signature she has for her passport. However, she doesn’t have a passport at this time. She plans to apply for a passport the next time she goes back to her hometown, which is a day and a half journey away. Even if she applies for her passport right now, we still face with the question of how to sign her name in English.

 

Answer to Frank’s question:

Yes, I’m filling out the G-325A. I have touched on that same question on my previous post. In that post, I was told by members to write Chinese only in the section where it states "If your native alphabet is other than Roman Letters, write in your name in your native alphabet here". The rest of the form should be written in English. Here is a quote from Michael (C4Racer).

 

Quote

 

“…On the G-325 use English or Pinyin. There is only one place on the form you should use Chinese, this is where it states,

"If your native alphabet is other than Roman Letters, write in your name in your native alphabet here.

 

All of your forms will be filled out in English, except this one place, because you are submitting these forms to the US Embassy…”

 

Quote

 

Thus, I think her signature should be in English? Hmm…now I’m not 100% sure.

 

My original plan was to ask my SO to sign your name in English (pin yin) in the “signature of applicant” box and sign her name in Chinese in the “…native alphabet…” box, and also to print her Chinese name next to her Chinese signature. It might be over kill but I though that should cover all bases. What do you all think?

 

Based on you guys’ suggestions, I’m thinking about asking my SO to disregard the middle name and combine her name “Xiao Xia” together as her given name. And capitalize her last name to distinguish between the two.

 

Thanks you all for your comments and suggestions.

 

Chris & Xiao Xia

[david_dawei]

My original plan was to ask my SO to sign your name in English (pin yin) in the “signature of applicant?box and sign her name in Chinese in the “…native alphabet…” box, and also to print her Chinese name next to her Chinese signature. It might be over kill but I though that should cover all bases. What do you all think?

 

Based on you guys?suggestions, I’m thinking about asking my SO to disregard the middle name and combine her name “Xiao Xia?together as her given name. And capitalize her last name to distinguish between the two.

 

Thanks you all for your comments and suggestions. 

 

Chris & Xiao Xia

164938[/snapback]

I agree with these ideas of yours...

 

1) sign in english where it is expected , at end of form

 

2) sign in chinese where asked; print chinese name after.

 

3) Join the two characters so they appear as one first name; use all caps for last name.

 

---

 

This is one of those areas where the past has shown that there's more than one way to 'sign a form'... and so, the future will most likely also support various ways that people come up with.

 

Consistency is a good point as many have echoed...

[LeeFisher3]

One thing Americans have done to confuse the name issue is our sense of lables. I just went through this with my wife and explained that when the paper says "Last Name" that is where her Family Name goes, "First Name" is her "Given Name". This gets rid of all the questions about what is really first and last name.