Been talking a lot about names lately and while I have heard of some really outrages names, I am surprise to read from some comments that there are people who actually name themselves like Fruity and Tweety. I laughed when I read those.
Some of you may know that I spent a few months in China. No, I am not there for holidays but to work. It was one of the most high tech companies I have ever seen. Trust me, when I was doing the company tour, I thought I was in NASA or something, it was really cool. A story for another day perhaps.
One thing I must admire the local Chinese, is the ability to adopt names. My first experience came when I was introduced to one of the director of the department. When he stretched out his palms to extend a handshake, he said... “Wo shi RedStar” (I am RedStar).
I paused for a while, thinking I might have heard wrongly. I did not, his name was indeed RedStar… RedStar Liang. It was not until I got to know his Chinese name that I realised why he adopted such name. His native name was Liang Hong Xing, “Hong Xing” means ‘red star’.
Over the next couple of weeks, I realised the local Chinese will literally translate their names into English and will proceed to take on such names. Some of the more interesting names I have encountered when I was there includes…
Water Lee… I presume his name was ‘sui’
Hunter Xie… quite a cool name, don’t you think?
Ocean Wang… translate that into Cantonese… how does that sound?
One that tickles me is this girl by the name of Wu Xiang Wei. And her English name… Aroma… Aroma Wu… how about that?!
Another one which I find rather extravagant is this girl by the name of Ji Hui. Her name means opportunity and her English name? … “Chance”… Chance Ji… what a name!
Some of you may know that I spent a few months in China. No, I am not there for holidays but to work. It was one of the most high tech companies I have ever seen. Trust me, when I was doing the company tour, I thought I was in NASA or something, it was really cool. A story for another day perhaps.One thing I must admire the local Chinese, is the ability to adopt names. My first experience came when I was introduced to one of the director of the department. When he stretched out his palms to extend a handshake, he said... “Wo shi RedStar” (I am RedStar).
I paused for a while, thinking I might have heard wrongly. I did not, his name was indeed RedStar… RedStar Liang. It was not until I got to know his Chinese name that I realised why he adopted such name. His native name was Liang Hong Xing, “Hong Xing” means ‘red star’.
Over the next couple of weeks, I realised the local Chinese will literally translate their names into English and will proceed to take on such names. Some of the more interesting names I have encountered when I was there includes…
Water Lee… I presume his name was ‘sui’
Hunter Xie… quite a cool name, don’t you think?
Ocean Wang… translate that into Cantonese… how does that sound?
One that tickles me is this girl by the name of Wu Xiang Wei. And her English name… Aroma… Aroma Wu… how about that?!
Another one which I find rather extravagant is this girl by the name of Ji Hui. Her name means opportunity and her English name? … “Chance”… Chance Ji… what a name!
Coming back to home… some of my fellow slaves in this particular company will know of a particular name which often comes out from the paging system. Yeah, there is a paging system in this company and the name which made all our jaws dropped when we first heard it….
“Cinderella Tan”
We never got to see her in real person. Maybe her or her parents were preparing for a good reason not to work overtime passed 12 a.m.
So have you heard of any Pocahontas lately?
“Cinderella Tan”
We never got to see her in real person. Maybe her or her parents were preparing for a good reason not to work overtime passed 12 a.m.
So have you heard of any Pocahontas lately?
62 comments:
hahah...dats precisely why I gave my child a "nice" and "glamourous" name to avoid having a 'cinderella' at home...:)
*waving hand in the air* me, me! i know of one outrageous and silly name. try 'zewt'! annie's right. it does sound like the noise ppl make when they sneeze. haahahahahaha. *runs off to hide*
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A number of the Ms. M'sia whatever competitions will have a few outrageous names, like Kiwi, Strawberry and when they open their mouth to speak... O M G ...
Actually I can qualify to say this... Hi, nice to meet you... I'm Honey... :p
Hahaha... I just came to your blog from a similar blogpost written by Cheesie spoofing the Star Idol contestants... apparently they are named Son, Funny, Monday and Doll...
And I would have liked to see that Cinderella Tan!
Ah I have a real life friend named Aroma, in Malaysia! No joke.
Yeah, a lot of funny names in deed. One of my ex classmates is Plentiful. O_O
aroma, plentiful? what will they think of next?
I know this girl Cinderella Tan. She's same school as me. Don't make fun of ppl's name lar. I pity her la. Since primary school we all laughed at her name. And now in your blog pulak.
Talking about names in China... tell me about it. Sometimes they can't even pronounce their own name. WTF!
wahahaahhaa!!!!!
got to give credit to these people and their parents. They are creative. :P
Just met a couple of colleagues who are named after HK superstars.
Jackie Cheung - Classic 4 Heavenly King
Eason Chan - New Generation 4 Heavenly King
ROTFLOL!!!!!!
lol..i haf a batchmate who call herself ariel aurora..
I was once walking around a wedding exhibition with a friend and at one of the booths, we spoke to a guy who said his name was "Murder". I thought I had heard wrongly so I asked for the spelling. "M-U-R-D-E-R?" and he said yes.
I've never forgotten it!
phew, lucky I can't remember names on first introduction. Else I would spend the whole day laughing about it.
Imagine having dinner with Water Lee, [laughs and spurts water all over his shirt]
check out the name of the rawang state assemblyman.
parents nowadays are more careful. they look at the name from all angles, dialects, initials etc.
sound cool for the "chance" & "aroma " ...but in china u may saw some "ma lu" instead of "street/jalan" on their sign board eg: beijing road will be like beijing ma lu ..and the pizza hut banner of "coming soon" will be "comeing soon" ... -___-"'
heh, lots of funny names out there, eh? not just in China -- how about the late River Phoenix? or his brother Joaquín, which one might pronounce as "jo-kwin" instead of "hwaki"!! (and he's also known as Leaf Phoenix)
You know how in some coffee places, I forget which, they ask for your name and write that 'name' onto your frapacinno? Ever tried a really unique name on them?
"Your name, sir?"
"Tequila"
"Huh?" (stares at cup trying to figure out the spelling)
"Shot"
"You wanted a grande or a short?"
"A grande"
"And your name, please?"
"Pop"
Always look forward to your posting under 'zewt laugh' n the awesome comments too,never fails to make me laugh!
Can you imagine with name like 'murder'? :D I once heard over the astro channel,a girl named 'internet'.. these ppl running out of names or what to call themselves...
I remembered a junior of mine in high school whose name was Apple. Incidentally, her sister also studied in the same school as we did. I had no idea what her English name was, but we've all taken to calling her Banana because of her sister's name.
"Ahhh, Apple ka Banana lai liao!" (Apple and Banana are here)
that's why parents choose good names to their childen. it will carried to the afterlife. :)
Shireen Loh - hi there and welcome to AZAIG. and what would that nice and glamorous name be? remember, if it's too glamorous... can backfire u know. thanks for droppin by and hope to see ya around.
me - is zewt my name? you belum makan ubat kah?
kayatan - read already. many thanks for mentioning me again in your blog.
angel - hahaha... OMG indeed! those with such names... the moment they open their mouth.... kakakaka.... nama saja canggih.
rinnah - my god... Funny!!! what a funny name indeed hahaha!. i never get to meet her personaly. i think we all want to.
Rabbit - LOL LOL LOL!!! plentiful... what a name! i wonder if anyone will name themselves blardiful.
slacker - beats me. we already have a guy by the name of malaysia here. maybe we will have singapores and thailands around too.
purple mushroom - my gosh!!! you know her???? she must be a manager by now if she is still in encharmed. hahaha... what a small world. trust me...she is famous there.
Angie Tan - my goodness... i think such ppl are really... i dunno how to describe them... too wannabe la. having said that, i have a friend whose name is Simon Yam.
neno - ariel aurora? what's the surname? eh... i might go tomorrow.
Sunflower - what the hell!!!! does he know what does that mean??? maybe he meant to call himself muLder but got the spelling wrong?
Jonny - hahahaha... yeah yeah, imagine he introduced himself when you were trying to sip your champagne... you might just 'water' the water lee.
LOL, names nowadays... well, everyone wants to be different I guess, like you've said, no more common ones, guess they are not cool anymore.
Whatabout you Zewt? What would you name your kids? :P
What a Lulu - hmmm... i wonder what name he has... let me try to find out.
maegen - oh yeah... saw plenty of that. i took some pictures myself... maybe i should post it up.
may - leaf phoenix? how the hell is that possible?
cirnelle - frappacinno... setapak kopi lor... let's do that one day. and... pop?
Shak-ee - yo! glad zewt laugh made you laugh. i have got a few under my sleeves, just no time to pen it down. a girl call internet? .... realy, i wonder what fancy name we will see in the future.
Tine - Apple is quite famous in HK... but i dont think banana is welcomes kakakak.... call them the fruity sisters then.
alan zed - hahaha... alan tu ok lah. no worries at all.
calvin's wife - i always like the name claire. but then... when the time comes, i will probably choose one which is out of this world too. one that is not common...like mine :P
My fren once told me that he's got a business associate in Taiwan whose name is Evergreen Song!
That fella's surname is Song! and true enough it's printed in his namecard EVERGREEN SONG!
We had a good laugh!
i go to china every year *sometimes twice a year* and ive never heard of such names before o_O maybe different province lah. or maybe ive just never really made any friends there haha
I still think my Beauty Foo rocks! :P
eh, maybe u should introduce yourself as Zewt wei! LOL!
oh.. do u really took the pictures of it?? then u should post it soon.. cause mostly of my fren don't trust about dat and they said i'm bluffing cause i'm failed n forgot to take the pictures to prove it.. *sAd* -.-
no meh?? everybdy calls you zewt mah. at least in the blogosphere, you're called zewt lah. or maybe it's ah kau......
Ya! Beauty Foo rocks! How about Harry Kok?....
wow.....unique names they have....i like the name BEAUTY FOO!!!!!!
speaking of unique/funny/weird/ names... i recently met a guy called Alick. !!?!
and check out that project runway malaysia contestant's name - Alweyn
and what were the names of those girls from 4inLove (taiwan girl group)? i think it was Rainie, Windie, Sunnie...and...was it Cloudie? i think it was. Sorry la, but that is so lame!
i do like BEAUTY FOO though!! heehee
i know i met this guy before, and his name was Pigeon..
Freaking weird..>.>
Will u laugh at me if I told u my name is Honey Ang Moh? Surname Ang Name is Moh. Honey is my english name.
My mom works at the National Registration. She told me that back in the 70s, she had one person registering his child's name as "Goodfornothing".
I pity that boy. LOL!
hey zewt! will u get into trouble for putting up names of the ppl u work with or ur clients? just wondering... cos we can't put patients' names out for public display so no matter how weird/funny some of them are, it's jt for the amusement of the medicos ;p
hahahaah my old classmate was called Century..his name had something to do with hundred years i think
Sky is pretty nice name..another classmate of mine who had Tian in his name
maybe i should have a funky name since my surname's song..melody song..mmmmmm lol!
Good one :-) I didn't know the Chinese are using their translated name as their English name. Those I met in France and USA pretty much use English name like everybody else (Daniel, Michael...), some insisted to use only their Chinese name.
We have the same thing in France. People named their kid Megane Renault and was rejected by the government. Megane Renault is a car model like Proton Wira in Malaysia. People here starts to give their kids simple name like Apple, Orange... not sure whether it was accepted.
cinderella tan... hope the person got bit of cinderella aura then.. if not.. duh!!!
Aniston - oh yeah, they are really proud of it too, never afraid to display their name. i would think printing name cards is nothing to them. evergreen... very environmental friendly name...lol!
tingtitlei - make some friends la... particularly those working, you will be amused.
ehon - yeah ler... going to adopt zewt as my name... kaka!
maegen - i have got 2... yeah, might just blog about my short stint in china, will certainly put it up then. those are real stuff, tell your friends that.
me - i shall intro myself as zewt in the future then.
bubble - i think the best is dylan ong... harry cock... i mean kok is cool too.
pookyma - your name also very unique mah. hahaha!
lingzie - i guess celebrity nowadays just have to take on some really obscure names.... make them stand out perhaps. beauty foo... you must have foo as your surname before u can do it.
AngryYoungChild - what? pigeon????? bak kap? HAHAHAHAHA no shit!!! pengsan!
hor ny - oh please... very lame la. you think you girl meh?
ethel - my gosh... if you told me earlier, i might have just put that up in my blog!!! good for nothing... deserves a mention.
Jun - i am sure you medic fellas have your set of jokes too. well, since i have left that company, i guess it's ok.
Huei - Sky... well... i hav got a friend whose surname is Lo... and his friends call him sty... Sty Lo... quite close to Sky... but i think Sty Lo better. your name... 'boh'... boh song... nice?
Bee - i guess this crazy name escapades are happening everywhere eh, even in france! apple and orange seem rather normal now due to some really weird names i have been reading from comments.
bongkersz - well, i am still hoping to meet the fairy tale... hahahaha... maybe should ask purple mushroom... apparently she is her friend.
I do think it's easier to remember their names this way. In the last decade or so, you'll noticed our local Chinese names moving towards 'China-lised' Chinese spellings. lol
In case you dunno yet. Lin Peh's full name is Sivaji Altantuya Lin Peh.
i have a fren who always refer himself as steve and refused to let us know his chinese name...
after paksa paksa abit, then he reluctantly revealed his chinese name being toh ham yue. .
LOL....luckily his parents din name him 'salted fish'for eng name...
then i asked him wat's his bros name....he oso refused to tell..i laughed so hard after he told me..i think it was ham har or ham choi.....hahahhahahaa
I know of a very prominent person in Malaysia whose real name literally means "pubic hair". He of course goes around with an alias name. But imagine his childhood ... poor thing ;o)
Yes pigeon. Its so way out there! XD my fren's mother's name is Poo ki ching..so its like Puki..-_- omg.. I guess its like that austin power show, if u watched it. Fook me and Fook Yu..
I never heard that name when i was there, but i forgot about that stupid paging system that announces 3 times every second! how fuckign annoying was that thing!
I know 2 girls by the name of penny and money.. *they do not know each other.. else..i would~
hey~ this is penny...meet your bigger nomination..money! 0.o!
That's only the English name. What about chinese names that somehow end up like a swear word in another dialect. That's terrible.
okay.. talking about names.. when i was much much younger and got nothing else much better to do, i browsed through the telephone directory.. i just simply find a name and i found what i wanted to find! Chee Sin Poh.. seriously =.=
I saw one innocent the other day. My husband and i just feel funny seeing his name INNOCENT. Hehe!
Like 'bee' said, in Germany too, if the names are too crazy, the registration department will not approve it.
And sometimes some chinese names make a lot of fun too.. Actually mine also, my name is Seok Thong but the teachers at school called me Sotong always, which of course i donn't reply them until they pronounce my name correctly..
OMG... i think the funniest is "toh ham yue' mentioned by winn.
ROTFLOL!!
compared to what all of you mentioned, what i saw/heard was pretty mild. names like sky, seven (i guess he likes that number too much???), money, apple, strawberry, kiwi, etc etc.
haha~ but i remembered once i saw one of my boss's client, his name is Ee Ka Tiam (i am so so so sorry if you happened to read this comment, please don't sue me). Do read it in cantonese. Literally means 'shut up now'.. haha~ we could not stop laughing back then, cause my colleague and i were like, "haha, why the baby very noisy meh? must name him shut up now?".
well, there were also names like Lim Seh Kau, Lim Ah Kau.. all weird and old fashioned names..
surname's chong..go tmr??u mean 15th??wah..no need work ar??kekeke..let me noe how is it then..
hahahh boh song..that's SO msia..boh doh! =P
Hi Zewt! Been reading your blog for awhile..introduced by anthraxxxx. Good read I'll say! Keep it up!
Neway, regarding abt these names...There's once I was doing database for my company. Then there are a few names from China. What I can say is..they r certainly creative! One thing i noticed they like the name "Forrest". must be influenced by the movie "Forrest Gump" coz there are 3 people wif the name "Forrest"! Lolz..Not only that..there are names like Eagle and Cosy..and many many more which i kind of forgotten now.
I remembered my cousin told me once his fren's fren's name is Dictionary! Hahahahaa...These ppl really want to make ppl remember them well! lolz..
Helen - i know i know... those xiao and zhen and chien right? hahaha...
lin peh - hahaha... i tot you're dead already then!
winn - HAHAAHAHA!!! LOL LOL LOL !!!!! SHIT!!!! damn bad la we laugh at ppl. i think my name aint that great either. my chinese name i mean.
sunshine - who la? dont tell half half...
AngryYoungChild - did you read Winn's comment... i laughed so hard when i read that. damn... reading all these comments here realised my name aint that bad after all.
friendfromtaiwan - hahaha... i think ppl do that on purpose la. when u coming back by the way?
-=Sin=- - together... they can be the secretary to james bond... money penny! hahahahaha..!!
seaqueen - whose name ah? yours? :P
Nicole - hahahahahaha... shit! i think ppl simply taruh names then. i have seen one, really bad, but i cant disclose here.
seok thong - if you read all the comments here... u will realise... there are even worse names compared to innocent... incredible. haha... sotong... ok ok.. seok thong.
soulblade - seven? maybe his parents meant sven? hahaha... hahahahah.... ok la... i used to have a former client... his name... chuah bah bee... when i was typing a letter to him, i cant stop laughing.
neno - i am on leave for a week la.
huei - haha... so we all starts calling u boh ok? LOL!
missironic - hi there and welcome to AZAIG! i think eagle must have been a direct translation from their chinese name, just like aroma and chance. i kinda like forrest though, cos i love the film :P... as for dictionary... hahahahaha... "Hi, i am dictionary, i will make you my vocabulary."... makes a good pick up line eh? hah! thanks for dropping by and hope to see ya around.
hmm and i thought having jackie cheung n eason chan in my company is weird enuf. ur company more geng coz got cinderella.
LOL! chuah bah bee... toh ham yue.. ee ka tiam.. LOL~
alvin - we started calling one of our friend 'pocahantas' just for kick haha!
soulblade - what a wonderful world huh...
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/oukoe_uk_china_language
you shall see this ~!! someone named their child as @
maegen - what the!! hahaha... how is that fella going to be called? "alias"? or... just cant be pronounced?
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