Matheson
Finding my Chinese name My first name is Matheson, and I'm trying to find a good Chinese name that sounds similar. 'Matheson' as a first name is very, very rare. 'Matheson' is quite a common last name in Scotland and England, however, so I went to Wikipedia to look for famous people with the last name 'Matheson' to see how it was written in Chinese. I was looking at the Chinese translation of the Wikipedia page about Sir James Matheson, and his name was written as 马地臣. Would that be good for me to use as a Chinese FIRST name? Does the character for ‘horse’ in a name sound powerful (in a good way?), or really stupid?! :-) In English, my name is pronounced as two syllables, NOT as three. I've attached a recording of me saying my name. In the International Phonetic Alphabet, it's: /ˈmæθ.sən/ Given that there's no 'th' sound [θ] in Chinese, the closest equivalent would be [s] (I would like to avoid [t]). Also, [æ] sounds closer to 'e' than to 'a'. So, 'Messen' (which means 'measure' in German) sounds very similar to what I'd like my name to sound like in Chinese. You can hear the German word being pronounced here: http://www.forvo.com/word/messen/#de Which characters would capture the sound of 'Messen'? (Or is it perhaps a bad idea to try to copy the sound? Would it be wiser to create something completely original based on meaning?) Any suggestions? 谢谢
Feb 27, 2013 6:03 PM
Corrections · 8

In china,Matheson,we sound it "ma sen".So,if you would find a Chinese name sounds like it,i suggest you can choice "马森"--ma sen or”麦森“--mai sen.They sounds very similarly.

In china,"马 " is surname,big numbers of people use it for surname. "麦" is a surname too,but not very popular.

And the given name in china,you can choice 2 of this,"森" --sen ,and "僧"---seng.

”森“means "forest",also a lot of wood."僧" means "monk",but it seems "mountain and flowing water ,a monk live here,an especial name,an especial charm" ..

February 28, 2015
I think 麦森 would be great. 麦 means wheat, while 森 means forest. It's really similiar to your English pronuciation. I think it's really a great name. 麦森 can be pronounced as /mai sen/.
February 28, 2015
Matheson, 马希森 ma xi sen~ 希森sounds like "sea" "son" 马森 sounds like [mɑ] [sʌn]
February 28, 2013
馬森、麥森 It's very close in chinese pronunciation.
February 28, 2013
台灣譯 Mersenne prime 如 "梅森質數" Mersenne 法語
February 28, 2013
Show more
Want to progress faster?
Join this learning community and try out free exercises!