出国留学，有必要给自己起个英文名么？

即将成为留学僧的小伙伴们，

有的已经有英文名，

有的还在纠结给自己起个什么英文名，

今天我们来聊聊

出国留学有必要给自己起个英文名么?

先来看看Quora网站上，

国外老师、中国留学生、他国留学生

等不同身份的人的回答，

你怎么看?

Q.：Is it really necessary for Chinese students going overseas to choose an English name?

◆ Hasuran Fucha,中国留学生

When I studied in the US, nearly everybody I met, including people I met in school and ordinary people I met on road, tried to know and pronounce my real Chinese name.

我在美国留学时，无论是校友、同学还是路上遇到的人，都希望知道我的中文名并尝试着说出来。

It feels like a weird culture shock that in China people are told (generally by their English teachers) it's necessary to have an English name when you meet English speakers, and when you live oversea, you'll find locals want to know your "real name" all the time.

这真的是一种奇怪的文化差异，在国内，我们的英文老师常告诉我们需要给自己起个英文名，尤其在遇到说英语的外国人或者出国后介绍自己时。但到了国外，你会发现当地人总是想知道你的“真名”。

So after I came to the US, I found what my English teachers told me was so wrong. I stopped introducing myself with English name, after I experienced several times of people keeping asking "then what's your Chinese name?". I just told people my last name, because it's easy to pronounce, and it's my "real name".

在美国留学时，一开始我用英文名自我介绍，但好几次都有人问我那是你的中文名么?经历这些后，我再介绍自己时，只告诉他们我的姓氏，因为它不仅是我的“真名”，而且发音比较容易，好记。

Believe me, local people love to know your Chinese name. My professors tried their best, every time, to pronounce my first name correctly (my Chinese name, which is not the one shown on my Quora account, contains letter Q and x which are extremely hard for people do not know Chinese to pronounce). In my understanding,it is a way to show their respects. So generally speaking, it's not necessary to have an English name.

相信我，当地人很喜欢知道你的中文名。我的大学老师每次都会努力地去正确地说出我的名字(虽然我的名字的发音很难)，在我看来，这是他们表现尊重的一种方式。总之，我认为没有必要给自己取个英文名。

But honestly, there are tragic scenes for some specific Chinese names, and if you unluckily have a name like that, you'd better get yourself an English name.

但是，有的人的中文名字很有“杯具感”，如果你不幸是其中一位，建议最好还是有个英文名。

The most embarrassed example I've seen is that once I saw a brand named 诗婷. Well, that's also a beautiful first name for girls, at least in Chinese. However, if you transcribe the two characters into Latin alphabet, it is like this:

Shiting

举个栗子，“诗婷”这个中文名字很好听，很有中国韵味，但是如果把两个字的拼音写出来，按照英文字母来理解，老外看到后简直哭笑不得，Shiting，讲出来好尴尬!所以为了避免这种误会，建议取个英文名。

◆ Joy Hwang,中国留学生

The answer is personal view that based on my one-year study experience in UK. Most of the people I mentioned below are English people, some are Europeans apart from UK.

以下只代表我的个人观点，来自于我在英国留学一年的经历，所提到的人大部分是英国人，还有一些其他欧洲国家的外国人。

No, it's not necessary.

没有必要给自己取个英文名。

First of all, some students have English names before they go abroad. Like me, my English name was chosen by my English teacher in primary school. So, not every student pick up English name for the purpose of studying abroad.

第一，有的学生出国之前本身已经有英文名，并用了很多年。我的名字是小学老师给我起的，所以并不是每个学生为了出国而取个英文名。

Secondly, having an English name could have some benefits as the following points explained:

第二，取个英文名确实有以下便利：

❶ Much easier for English people to pronounce

英语国家的人更容易念出来你的名字

Some Chinese words are quite hard for foreigners to pronounce, like words including "ue".

一些汉字拼音外国人发不出来，例如“ue”。

❷ Don't need to correct the pronunciation again and again afterwards.

不需要之后一遍遍地纠正发音

Because it's hard to remember the "brand-new" name for foreigners, many of them will forget the correct way to pronounce it.

外国人记一个全新的名字相对来说比较难，许多人会忘记正确的发音方式。

❸ More engagement maybe

更多的参与度

Imagine a foreigner want to pick one person within a group for certain situations, I think they prefer to call a people which they can pronounce correctly the name. Rather than make him/herself embarrassing by pronouncing in a wrong way and be pointed out for correction.

比如在某些情况下，外国人想从一群人中选出一个人来，他们肯定会叫一个他们能正确讲出来的名字，肯定不会叫一个自己发不准音，以及被指出来改正的名字，那样会让自己在众人面前很尴尬。

Also on social media, they can easily find your name and tag you. It takes more time for them to figure out how to spell your chinese name in PinYin.

另外在社交媒体上，他们很容易找到你的名字并@你，而如果拼写你的中文名字往往需要花费很长时间。

❹ Could be a interesting topic

可能会成为一个有趣的话题

Some curious foreigners will ask what's your chinese name and what's the meaning for it. It's a good topic for conversion. And some people will insist on calling you by Chinese name. I would be very happy if somebody say so, cause the reason why I tell my English name is to make it easier for them to pronunce and remember me. If they are willing to remember and calling me by Chinese name, they're more than welcome in this way :D

一些好奇的外国人会问你的中文名，它代表什么意思，这会成为一个很好的谈论话题。有的人甚至坚持喊你的中文名，我非常乐意有人这么叫我，因为我告诉他们我的英文名是为了让他们更容易记住我，但如果他们愿意记住并且喊我的英文名，我会很开心。

Thirdly, the following four rules are widely used when Chinese people pick up English name:

第三，中国人在取英文名时经常使用下面4种方式：

❶ Similar pronunciation as Chinese name but easier for foreigners to pronounce.

取的名字和中文名有相似的发音，并且外国人容易念出来

❷ English name which has th e same/similar meaning as their Chinese names.

英文名和中文名有相同或相似的含义

Like me, Joy is similar as the meaning of the last character in my Chinese name, which relating to happiness.

比如我的英文名Joy和我的中文名最后一个字的意思是一样的，都表示快乐。

❸ Name which has the meaning or characteristic they wanna people think they have.

以个人喜欢的含义和特征取英文名

Similar as English people might have sort of "stereotypes" for some English names.

取和英国人相似的英文名，这些英文名有些“老套”。

❹Same as the name of their favourite celebrity, movie stars, writers, etc.

和自己喜爱的名人、电影明星、作家等同名。

Finally, also personal view, it's easier for Chinese people to pronounce English name than English people to pronounce Chinese names.

最后，也仅代表个人观点，中国人念英文名比外国人念中文名要容易得多。

◆ Mikhail Kotykhov,大学老师

English is not a science. It's a skill. Don't study it. Use it.

(个人语录：英语不是一门科学，而是一种技能，不要研究它，要使用它)

I had my own experience of teaching a class of 50 students, all of them were the international students from China.

When you look at the list of names, you see a half dozen people named Mary or Johnny, as well a few Richards, Michaels and Simons.

我班上有50名中国留学生，点名时很搞笑，一个班上出现6个Mary 或Johnny,还有好几个Richard, Michael 和Simon......

But when you actually talk to them, the last thing you wanna do is to use English names, cause it does not really feel that this is their actual name. I am just trying to imagine a group of Caucasian-looking Americans or Europeans who ask me to address them as Jìng, Lěi, or Yàn.

我和他们谈话时，非常不愿意喊他们的英文名字，因为感觉不是真名字，内心缺乏一种信任感。这种感觉就如同一群美国或欧洲学生让我喊他们Jìng, Lěi, 和 Yàn一样奇怪和别扭。

Personally, I would much rather use the students' real name and try to do my best pronouncing it. Using the name they seem to choose after a Hollywood actor/actress (and often change later) just doesn't feel right. Although, this is just my own experience.

我个人更喜欢称呼学生的真名，并努力地念出正确的发音。有的同学模仿好莱坞演员的名字，拿来当自己的英文名，这真的很不合适。但这些只是我的个人感受。

◆ Dongkai Li, 加拿大华人

Not necessary at all, I've never had an English name and whenever I tell people my name I feel very confident about my Chinese identity even though now I'm a Canadian citizen and speak fluent English, I'm also a baptized Christian, so I'm probably most likely the kind of Chinese to have English names, but no, i will only have the Chinese name which was given by my father.

根本不需要。我从来没有英文名，虽然我现在是一名加拿大籍华人，英语说得很流利，但我在告诉别人我的名字时，对我的中国身份很自豪。我是一名基督教徒，按理说应该有英文名，但我从始至终只会使用父亲给我起的中文名。

To be honest, I feel really not comfortable when I meet some Chinese and they give me their English names only, I'm like what's wrong with your Chinese name? You can't even speak proper English per se, the even worse ones are those who work for a foreign company in China and have English names, you are in your own COUNTRY, especially some ladies, I don't get it.

说实话，当我遇到一些中国人，他们在介绍自己时，只是给出英文名，我对此感到失望，我在想为什么不用自己的中文名呢?更让我难以理解的是那些在中国的外企公司工作的人，尤其是女白领，也取英文名，你在自己的国家啊，有必要么，我很不理解。

Well yes some Chinese names are just as boring as English names such as john Peter etc, yes some pinyin make foreigners to scratch their heads trying to figure out how to prounaunce those, yes for the past 200 years our culture SEEMS have been losing ground to the western culture especially the Anglo Saxon countries, so everyone is learning English.

没错，有的中文名和一些英文名(John,Peter)一样无聊，老外绞尽脑汁地思考如何念对一些汉语拼音，过去的200年我们的文化发展大大落后于西方文化，尤其是盎格鲁撒克逊国家，每个人都在学英语。

BUT that's why you gave up your Chinese names? really? I don't know, I've seen immigrants from other parts of world like Africa or South America and they all stick to their own names even those names are long and hard to prounance, and they are not as rich as Chinese immigrants or students probably, but they are proud and confident about their cultures, and Canadians are the nicest people in the world so we listen and respect their names which carry their cultures and religions. This can also apply to other Asians particularly Koreans and Japanese, you would rarely see first generation immigrants or students from Korea or Japan to adopt English names, well those who were born here is different story.

可这就是你放弃中文名字的原因么?我不知道，我见过一些来自非洲或南美洲的移民，他们坚持使用自己的原名，尽管那些名字又长又难念。他们或许还没有中国移民或学生富有，但他们对自己国家的文化感到自豪、自信。加拿大人很友善，我们非常尊重他们的名字，那代表着他们的文化和宗教。这同样适用于亚洲人，你很少见到来自日本等国家的第一代移民或学生取英文名的，但从小出生在加拿大的就另当别论了。

People from Hong Kong tend to have English names and I have no problem with that, they were under British rule for over a century, totally understandable. For people from other parts of China or Taiwan, I don't see an excuse.

来自香港的人一般有英文名，我对此没有意见，因为他们受到了英国一个多世纪的管辖，完全可以理解。对于中国大陆和台湾地区的人，我实在想不起什么理由。

该不该取英文名，以及如何取英文名一直是中国学生深受困扰的问题，前段时间，甚至发生了一件与名字相关的大事!

哥伦比亚大学的中国留学生遭遇了令人愤怒的“撕名牌”种族歧视事件，他们贴在宿舍门上的名牌，如果没有使用英文名，而使用汉语拼音或汉字都会被扯掉或恶意破坏。

但我们的中国学生勇敢站出来，发起的视频抗议“Say My Name”,为华人发声，争取权利!

大写的赞!

戳视频，感受中文名字的美好和力量!rame allowfullscreen="" class="video_iframe" src="https://v.qq.com/iframe/preview.html?vid=w0372oaf6fs&width=500&height=375&auto=0" data-vidtype="1" frameborder="0" height="719.25" scrolling="no" src="http://v.qq.com/iframe/player.html?vid=w0372oaf6fs&width=959&height=719.25&auto=0" style="width: 959px ! important; height: 719.25px ! important; overflow: hidden;" width="959">rame>

总之，

Vicky认为起英文名这件事呢，

纯属个人抉择，

都应尊重和理解。

国外留学中，

可以根据自己的实际需求，

利用英文名来消除障碍和误会，

使交流更加顺畅。

但是，

我们一定要有文化自信，

认同自己的中文名，

喜爱自己的中文名。

中文名是我们的“根”，

英文名代表一种交流符号。

下面Vicky给大家提供一些取英文名的建议：

1.不要标新立异，乱起名

如果你需要有自己的英文名，请不要一味标新立异，取一些荒谬、可怕的名字。

不要取电影、电视、游戏中的听起来很可爱的人物角色的名字;

bobo, coco, dodo, gogo, jojo, momo, nonocici, gigi, kiki, mimi……

不要取你听起来觉得很酷很时髦?的名字，因为老外听起来简直蠢cry了!

Faceman、Lightning、Ultraman......

不要将中文里一些读起来很积极正面的词汇翻译成英文，成为你的英文名。

Happy、funny、Strong、Easy.........也是醉了!

没有必要为了扎眼，起一些新奇的名字，有时候可能会适得其反，引起别人的取笑。你需要取一个外国人听起来很正常的名字即可。

2.取一个和中文名读起来相似的名字

如果你取的英文名和中文名首字母相同或读起来音节相同，就会使名字和自己更具关联性。

举个栗子，如果你的中文名字是“sheng”,那英文名“Shawn”就是个不错的选择，因为两者读起来很相似。

3.不要随意使用并不正式的名字

一些人经常取一些以“Y”结尾的名字，如Jacky、Ricky、Bobby，这些都是外国人叫他们孩子时的昵称，不适合作为成年人的名字。

如果你的朋友叫你这些昵称可以接受，但如果作为正式的名字，建议要先了解英文名的含义。

4.可以利用在线取名网站

①nymbler—英文取名助手

nymbler是一款比较科学的英文取名助手，会根据用户的喜好逐步分析并筛选出最后最适合用户的名字。

②babynamer—在线英文名起名助手

babynamer是一个服务于英语国家为小孩取名的网站，我们可以利用babynamer来为自己取一个中意的理想的英文名。

③babynamey—在线取英文名服务

中国人取英文名无非从谐音，寓意两方面考虑，但这两方面babynamey都能解决得趋于完美。在babynamey上在线取名，有Gender(性别) Name (名字，也就是说希望以什么开头可以仔细设置这一项) Meaning (寓意)Popularity(流行度) origins (国籍)几个方面供用户考虑设置，细细设置这些，无疑是一定能找到一个满意又地道的英文名。

几个好听又寓意美好的英文名，供大家参考!

来源于网络

女性名字Ashley：意思是"来自木岑树林的人"。Ashley这个名字给人的印象是，一个非常美丽的医生或律师等高级职业妇女，品味很高，道德标准也很高，娇羞但很友善。

Amanda：来自拉丁语"爱"。Amanda表示可爱的人，人们认为她保守、美丽又纤细，甜美富有。

Sarah：希伯来语中的"公主"。她给人的感觉是保守、甜美、身材不高、待人随和，但没有什么大志。

Brittany：在拉丁文的意思是"来自英格兰"。这个名字给人的感觉是漂亮、苗条，有教养，为人很好，有时会耍耍小脾气，很有自信。

Megan：古英文中"伟大的"意思。Megan给人的印象是个像小精灵般的女孩，她可爱、充满朝气、轻快灵活、爱嬉笑。

Jennifer：源自威尔士文"纯洁"的意思，近来Jennifer已变成一个受欢迎的名字。人们认为Jennifer这个名字非常适合可爱的金发啦啦队长，受大家欢迎，并受人喜爱。

Nicole：希腊语中"胜利的人们"。人们把Nicole比作中国娃娃，意谓娇小、美丽的年轻女孩，甜美浪漫，但容易破碎;但在那美丽、纤细的外表之内，却带着一股刚毅、独立的气质。

Stephanie：同样来自希腊语，有"皇冠"的意思。她代表了美丽、温柔、苗条、体贴，心思细密，有一种很特殊的风味，像是时装模特儿。

Katherine：源自希腊文"纯洁的"这个字。Katherine是个很普遍的名字，人们对这个名字有两种看法：一是美丽、优雅，处于上流社会的世故者，拘谨，严肃，举止合宜;一是普通的女人，友善，受欢迎，又有教养。

另外受欢迎的还有：Lauren、Rachel、Samantha、Heather、Elizabeth等。

男性名字Brant：古德语，意为妖精。这里所谓妖精，可不是你我心想的贬义词，而是古代德国人对神仙的一般称呼。

Derek：(老式德语)"统治者"的意思。被视为高壮，英俊，有男子气慨的运动员，个性为强悍，沉靜，个性害羞。

Eric：(挪威)永远的領导者，永远的力量，被敘述为受欢迎的斯堪的纳维亚人，有自信，聪明而且心地善良。

Jack：是个具威望力的人，体魄健壮，阳刚，强壮，自负，聪明。也有人认为Jack可爱，有趣，喜欢追求快乐。

Joe：是Joseph的简称。被看做一般的美国男孩，强壮，英俊，体贴容易相处。

Michael：被描绘为强壮，英俊的男人，聪明成功的刻苦工作者，随和，快乐的居家男人。

Peter：(希腊)岩石。人们认Peter是个不做作，诚实，开放的人。有些人则认为Peter充满野心和爆发力。

Philip：这个名字给人几种不同的印象：一个有朝气的军官;自大的王子;有钱的商人，聪明內向的人。

Ryan：(爱尔兰)"小国王"。 Ryan被形容为强壮，活跃的男子，长得很英俊却很害羞。

Steven：同Stephen。人们心目中的Steven是高壮，英俊的男子，沉静，斯文有礼，性格和善。

Terry：为Terence的简写，Terry是个喜欢追求乐趣的男孩，喜欢运动，善良，而且充满欢笑。