大家好! I was wondering if you translate every name to Chinese I have a question, do you translate every name to Chinese? Or can you mix chinese characters with the western alphabet? For example, my name

Cesar Lopez

大家好! I was wondering if you translate every name to Chinese I have a question, do you translate every name to Chinese? Or can you mix chinese characters with the western alphabet? For example, my name is Cesar Lopez. So, can I write and say this in Chinese: 我叫Cesar。 or 我叫Cesar Lopez。 Or do I have to look for a chinese translation of Cesar and Lopez, and say it and write it in Chinese? If you have to translate everything, how do you translate names accurately, or is it just a rule of thumb that you use, something that more or less sounds similar? 谢谢 for your help!

Nov 12, 2018 11:22 PM

Answers · 11

We don't translate names into Chinese nowadays. In the past years, we have some translated foreign names according to their pronunciation. Such like Mike(麦克）， Tom（汤姆），Jane（简）etc. Some of the foreign names are very difficult for Chinese to pronounce. So a lot of foreigners who are in China give themselves a Chinese name. It's common but not necessary, depends on the person.

November 13, 2018

Tricky question indeed. Just like how I struggle with introducing myself to people in an English conversation. I think you can introduce yourself like "我叫Cesar Lopez，你可以叫我/称呼我凯撒"。"凯撒" is the translation by pronounciation of your given name Cesar. If you happen to have a Chinese name by any chance, replace "凯撒" with your Chinese name. Good luck!

November 13, 2018

It's perfectly acceptable. Seldom would the transliteration sound exactly. If you don't like to have mixed script, then use translation by meaning instead.

November 19, 2018

名字的翻译有音译和取名，根据读音叫做音译，根据自己喜欢的符号标记，意义取得名字叫做取名！所以对于名字不要太纠结！

November 16, 2018

Chinese phonology is limited, that's why many names are translated to cope with its pronunciation deficiency. Nowadays, it is common to use the untranslated English or non-Chinese sounding names because of globalization. It is very common especially in big cities where Chinese speakers use English names rather than their official Chinese names in conversation.

November 14, 2018

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