“不要因为外界压力或随大流而使用英文名。如果你喜欢自己的中文名，就请骄傲地继续延用它。”

“Cathy。哦，对不起，我又忘了，Qian。”

这样的道歉在我这两年的澳洲生活里可谓是频繁出现。我感到很对不住我的老朋友们。因为在澳洲的前五年里我一直用的是英文名Cathy。但从去年开始，我却毅然决定重新使用我的中文名Xueqian或 Qian。

“你叫什么名字？”这个对很多人而言可能是再简单不过的问题，对于很多留学生或新移民而言，答案似乎并不简单。原因何在？欢迎来到我的探索之旅。

7年前，我和大多数的你们一样，千里迢迢远赴澳洲求学。仍然记得在我的第一堂课上，几乎所有的中国同学在自我介绍时用的都是他们的英文名。为什么？ 总结下来有以下5大原因:

1. 便利性，这也是主要原因。中文名通常是一到两个字，而英文名却只有一个字。这也就是为什么在澳洲，90%的中国人都是介绍他们的英文名给彼此。容易记啊。而且我们中文用的是汉语拼音，和拉丁系统完全不同。这也就是其他国家的人在看到我们的名字时完全无从下手。

2. 希望更好的融入到当地社会。我觉得这和我们的文化也有很大的关系：总是以团队，社区为重。希望求同，牺牲小我也在所不惜。

3. 对待名字的概念不同。在中国，当人们问起名字时，我们通常是说全名，而在澳洲一般只说名。于是问题就出现了。我们的名是被当成昵称来使用，是只有亲密的朋友或家人才有的特权。因此，有些中国人在听到陌生人一上来就叫他们的名时，觉得很不习惯。

4. 自由感。有些人觉得终于可以轮到自己来给自己取名了，爽啊。这个机会一定要抓住（早就看自己的中文名不顺眼了，默默地窃喜。。。）

5. 避免尴尬。有些人担心外国人听了她们的名字可能会浮想联翩。比如我的一个朋友，她的名是lu，而这边的洗手间叫loo，发音完全一致。迫使她果断放弃中文名。

回到我的故事，当时的我决定遵循大多数：

“大家好，我叫Xueqian，但你们也可以叫我Cathy。”

我为什么会选择Cathy？

懒。和你们中的很多人一样，这个名字是我的英文老师给我取的。在我10岁那年的第一堂英语课上。这也让当时年幼的我以为，说英文时我们就应该使用英文名。

聊到这儿，我想顺便给想在海外使用英文名的童鞋分享一个小贴士。取名时，最好中规中矩的从西方的人名里取，而不是选一些名词或形容词。否则，当地人可能会觉得你的名字很奇怪。因为他们不知道，很多时候我们在取英文名时，是直接将我们的中文名直译成英文，于是也就有了Cloud（云），Great（伟大）或Dragon（龙）。

这也是中西文化的一个很有意思的不同点。

在中国，我们取名很自由，可以手持一本字典，各种翻找。任何字都可能成为我们的名，除了历代皇帝或国家领导人的名外。取名时，涵义最重要。当然，也有家族辈分或五行之说。那么西方人又是如何取名的呢？他们一般会遵从以下四个逻辑：

1. 发音

就是单纯的喜欢某个字的发音。

2. 喜欢的人物

可以是当今某个明星或是某本书或电影里的人物

3. 纪念意义

为了纪念家族里的某个长辈或挚爱的朋友。

4. 宗教

基督徒通常会从圣经里的人物中给自己的孩子取名

回到我的故事，从那节课后，我就开始以Cathy自居。很长一段时间里，我甚至非常喜欢这个名字，原因如下：

1. 新事物在一开始总会让人有新鲜感，我也一样，兴奋。

2. 异域发音。这个名字听起来很甜，很适合我的个性，哈哈。

3. 归属感，前面提到的。英文名让我有一种融入当地社区的感觉：看，我和大家是一样的。Cathy这个名字在当地人中也很常见，这让我有种莫名的安全感。

4. 好记。

不过，在用了Cathy五年后，情况却悄然发生了变化。究竟发生了什么？且听下回分解 :)

Episode 1 Why Did I Use An English Name At The Beginning?

“Cathy. Oh no, sorry, Qian.”

I got this apology from my friends a lot in Australia over the past two years. I felt bad because they had known me as Cathy (my adopted western name) since they first met me. However, 2 years ago, I decided to go back to my roots and use my original Chinese name instead. Why? Welcome to my exploration journey.

“What’s your name?” A question which seems so easy to answer except for many new international students and immigrants. Why?

Let’s turn back the clock to 7 years ago when I first came to Australia to study. I still remember in my first class, almost all my Chinese classmates introduced their English names to others. Why? 4 reasons.

Convenience (the main reason). Lengthwise, a Chinese name usually has 1-2 characters. In terms of the phonetic symbol, we use Pinyin, a totally different system which people from other backgrounds are not familiar with its rule at all. Therefore,      having a western name makes it easier for others to pronounce and remember,      even among Chinese people.

Different expectation. In China, when people ask your name, you are supposed to give them your full name instead of the first name, because a first name is usually only used among close friends or family, implying emotional closeness. Therefore, some feel uncomfortable hearing strangers call their first name.

The idea of having the freedom to choose a name for yourself is liberating.

To avoid some awkward moments. For example, my friend’s name is Lu. She was worried that some people might think of loo when hearing it. Another name is Shiting. A beautiful Chinese name. However, if you link it to English, it may not sound that poetic anymore.   

Back to my story, I decided to follow the majority:

“Hi everyone, my name is Xueqian, but you can call me Cathy.”

Why Cathy?

I got this name from my first English class back in China when I was 10. It’s common for our English teachers to pick an English name for every single student.

Looking back, I am glad my teacher selected Cathy from common English names. Because some Chinese people pick an English adjective as their name: Snowy, Sunny, Happy, etc. They might also choose a noun: Candy, Apple, Dragon, Warrior, etc. For people from other countries, you may find these sound weird. Why do they do that? Well, most are just because of the translations of their original names. Some Chinese do pick names based on similar sounds, such as Lin and Lynn.

Does that mean we Chinese people can pick anything we want?

Yes, basically, we can name our children anything except names from our previous emperors. In ancient China, it is even not allowed for people picking the same name as the king has.

How do Chinese parents choose names for their children then?

Here comes another interesting cultural difference. We focus on meanings much more than sounds using three following pieces of logics.

The majority of parents usually go through thousands of characters in a dictionary to find a unique name representing their best wishes for their new-borns.

For example, my name is Xueqian. 2 characters, Xue and Qian. Xue means snow. Because I was born in winter, and it snowed very heavily in my birth month. Also, we have a phrase, bing xue cong ming, meaning as smart and pure as snow. Qian means pretty, and the word, qian ying, indicating a beautiful figure. Another example is Mao Zedong, also known as Chairman Mao. Ze meaning "moist, grace, brilliance" combined with dong meaning "east".

Therefore, for any company that wants to enter the Chinese market, picking a name with good meanings becomes critical. A great example is Coca-Cola. Its Chinese name is ke kou ke le, which not only sounds like Coke’s English name but also conveys the wonderful meaning (tasty with great fun).

Also, there are two traditions which some families still follow today.

Generation name. The Chinese culture has deep-rooted beliefs. Therefore, some families also have a character included in their names to denote generational position.

Five Elements Theory (Wu Xing). They include jin (metal), mu (wood), shui (water), huo (fire), and tu (earth). Based on their baby’s birth time, the name should contain the element, as compensation, which doesn't exist in the baby.

Since then, I started to use Cathy wherever I went in my first few years. At some point, I even quite liked it due to four reasons:

This is something new, and a change is always exciting to me.

The pronunciation. It sounds sweet, which suits my personality, haha.

It gives me a sense of belonging in this new country, fitting in. Because in      Adelaide, even Chinese people tend to call each other their English name.

Easy for people to remember.

However, things started to change about 2 years ago.

What happened? See you in episode 2 :)