Changing to American names

[tonado]

My wife still uses her Chinese name (Yan). However, she is still looking to find an American name.

 

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http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachus...orge/?page=full

 

"A Globe review of 1,000 recent name changes filed at the US District Court in Boston found the desire to adopt American names was especially common among Asians, whose given names have pronunciations that can confound Americans."

[bosco]

My wife still uses her Chinese name (Yan). However, she is still looking to find an American name.

 

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http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachus...orge/?page=full

 

"A Globe review of 1,000 recent name changes filed at the US District Court in Boston found the desire to adopt American names was especially common among Asians, whose given names have pronunciations that can confound Americans."

 

 

Is this just a public service announcement or was there supposed to be a question in here somewhere????

 

I hope my SO keeps her name. I like "Ling"

[Colorado]

My SO's will be easy to keep here in the US and will be easy for americans to say.

"Juan", sounds like "June". If she wants to change it though, That'll be cool too.

[yuan fen]

Jie likes the name "Jieny"

[lostinblue]

yan asked me once about this and I thought she had a nice name . I can see if you had a difficult chinese name you would desire to change. Yan is fine with me.

[clayton2103]

Nice thread here. I would like to add a question along with this post. Curious I guess.

 

My SO and I have spoke of this and the future use of her name.

Her English name is Grace. We know this but we have never used it and will not in the future. Neither of us care for the name Grace.

 

As my SO's name is now Wen (family) Li (given), pronounced "When Lee," I once asked her if her friends and family ever just called her Li. She laughed at this. She made it clear that her name is Wen Li and all her family and friends address her as Wen Li. Never only Li.

 

This brings me to a question for the future use of the name Wen Li once she arrives in the US. As I will always call and introduce her as Wen Li or Wen Li Taylor (once we become a married couple)....

 

Will we need to use a more proper name as in; Li Wen Taylor on all government documents like the drivers license, marriage license, etc.?

Or, will or can we have these documents to read in the future, Wen Li Taylor?

 

Again, she will always be Wen Li (Taylor) to me. She is very happy with this as I am also.

 

Thanks,

Clayton

Edited February 4, 2007 by clayton2103 (see edit history)

[SirLancelot]

My SO's will be easy to keep here in the US and will be easy for americans to say.

"Juan", sounds like "June". If she wants to change it though, That'll be cool too.

 

I don't think she'll be known as June, I think she'll be called "Juan" like the Spanish version of Huang.

 

Clayton, her official name in the US will be Li WEN when she arrives. Once you marry, you can change her name to Li WEN-Taylor or Li Taylor via marriage--and it depends on the state law. Of course you can petition a state court to change her name to anything she likes, so she can become Li Wen Taylor.

 

How about Lee-Ann Taylor?

Edited February 4, 2007 by SirLancelot (see edit history)

[notrevorich]

Jiaomin uses Joanie and I do not expect her to change her name

Lisa real name is Yanping and I expect that she will change her name to Lisa and have Yanping as her middle name .

It's really no big deal , but nobady here calls her any thing else than LISA

[aclassic]

My SO is Yang Bo. Bo is pronounced - Boa. I always thought her Chinese name to be beautiful.If it were my decision, I would have her keep her name as is, however she prefers to be called Betty. I don't know if she will legally change it once we get married. The decison is hers to make and I will support her decison.

 

My wife still uses her Chinese name (Yan). However, she is still looking to find an American name.

 

---------------------------------------

 

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachus...orge/?page=full

 

"A Globe review of 1,000 recent name changes filed at the US District Court in Boston found the desire to adopt American names was especially common among Asians, whose given names have pronunciations that can confound Americans."

[Robert S.]

My wife still uses her Chinese name (Yan). However, she is still looking to find an American name.

 

---------------------------------------

 

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachus...orge/?page=full

 

"A Globe review of 1,000 recent name changes filed at the US District Court in Boston found the desire to adopt American names was especially common among Asians, whose given names have pronunciations that can confound Americans."

Tony, this is an interesting post. I did a search for names that start with "Y" and there just are very, very few girls names beginning with that letter that do not sound really weird. The only thing that sounded right to me was "Yana." This might be easier for Americans to feel comfortable with but it is so close to Yan anyway.

[tonado]

My wife still uses her Chinese name (Yan). However, she is still looking to find an American name.

 

---------------------------------------

 

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachus...orge/?page=full

 

"A Globe review of 1,000 recent name changes filed at the US District Court in Boston found the desire to adopt American names was especially common among Asians, whose given names have pronunciations that can confound Americans."

Tony, this is an interesting post. I did a search for names that start with "Y" and there just are very, very few girls names beginning with that letter that do not sound really weird. The only thing that sounded right to me was "Yana." This might be easier for Americans to feel comfortable with but it is so close to Yan anyway.

 

I thought about Yanny or Yannie. I think she likes Katherine or Katie. She keeps changing her mind. It was Kelly and Erin a few years ago. I don't like Kat because I was born in the rat year.

[david_dawei]

My wife still uses her Chinese name (Yan). However, she is still looking to find an American name.

 

---------------------------------------

 

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachus...orge/?page=full

 

"A Globe review of 1,000 recent name changes filed at the US District Court in Boston found the desire to adopt American names was especially common among Asians, whose given names have pronunciations that can confound Americans."

tony,

 

let her choose whatever she wants.. no need to officially change it.. that way, she can change it as many times as she wants

[Juette]

http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/babynames/

 

This is a cool link for SOs that are looking for an English name. It ranks names by popularity for each year.

[msmckee]

My wife still uses her Chinese name (Yan). However, she is still looking to find an American name.

 

---------------------------------------

 

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachus...orge/?page=full

 

"A Globe review of 1,000 recent name changes filed at the US District Court in Boston found the desire to adopt American names was especially common among Asians, whose given names have pronunciations that can confound Americans."

Tony, this is an interesting post. I did a search for names that start with "Y" and there just are very, very few girls names beginning with that letter that do not sound really weird. The only thing that sounded right to me was "Yana." This might be easier for Americans to feel comfortable with but it is so close to Yan anyway.

 

I thought about Yanny or Yannie. I think she likes Katherine or Katie. She keeps changing her mind. It was Kelly and Erin a few years ago. I don't like Kat because I was born in the rat year.

 

 

I corresponded with a gal for some time named Yan. She had taken the name Anne.

 

I've read advice in the past... the name shoud be phoneticaly similar and/or attempt to convey the same meaning. I think Yan may relate to migratory geese?

 

My wife's name, Yue, means moon. It is difficult in both Mandarin and Cantoneese. We toyed with Greek and Italian variations for moon, Selina, etc., in the end she didn't really care. Everyone knows her as Yue, though she invariably introduces herself as HuangYue.

 

Names are an important part of identity, especially if you are out to choose one for yourself. You might want to consider its origin. Then, Yan is a very nice name too.

[A Mafan]

Everyone should have the right to be called whatever they want.

 

Yatou's name is "Ruoxin" (like the morning). Her chosen English name is "Dawn", for reasons that should be clear.

"Dawn" works. But one could also make the case for "Rochelle" (sounds close Ruoxin), or "Roxanne" (looks close to Ruoxin).

 

But it's a moot point, since everyone calls her Maomao.