All in a Name

Before I moved to Taiwan, I was under the impression that Asian immigrants only choose "boring" English names. Common names that occur in a classroom 2 or 3 times: Danny, David, Michael, Jerry, Johnny. Jenny, Cindy, Amy, Julie.

Boy was I ever wrong.

Turns out Asians can be rather creative when choosing English names. And turns out that browsing the company phone directory can be quite entertaining.

We have famous people who work here: Gauss, Morse, Dior, Gucci, Yanni, Yoda.

And then we have...

AceBest AOK Bear Bigfox Culture - given name translated literally Double - given name has the family name repeated! Dragon Ericbill - guess they couldn't decide? Forever - Chinese name has the word "ever" Frog - uh... I got nothin' Frost Gene - 2 with this name; does that make it a Gene pool? Magic Megaa - complete with echo! Milk

MIT - show-off Mtjade - named after the mountain... "Mt." included! Nivea - walking advertisement Ripple Showermi - how forward! Singing Smallp - um. Shock Testy - UM. Tobaccoo Twodogs Walksky - kinda like Skywalker, but no copyright infringement Wealth - clear goals in life Wego - where?

(Note: These are all taken from the company directory. Just a subset of "interesting" names. And I didn't list any names that were Chinese names written in English, only literal translations.)

I know about a third of the people above, and they're very nice people.

Now I realize that people are free to take on any name they please. However, this name is used for their corporate e-mail address. So maybe they should put more thought into finding a name that will represent them professionally, instead of choosing an alias for a BBS/forum.

And perhaps HR should consider having a name book on hand for when new employees report to work.