posted by palafx on January 30, 2011 | 9 comments
Specifically, mine. I found a suggested Sinicization of the name "Jeremy", but I hate it. After struggling with various syllables like "Zhei" and "Jie" and such, I finally settled on the syllables "Ri mei". Would 氜昧 pass as a name to Chinese ears?
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trevelyan on January 31, 2011 | reply
I don't think most people would know how to pronounce either of those characters, so you might spend an unholy amount of time explaining it. That said, I like Jeremy Goldkorn's name... 金玉米. :)

palafx on January 31, 2011 | reply
Yeah, I thought that might be a problem, but the common-character option with the same pronunciation is 日妹. :p

As for "Jinyumi", I really want to cram it into two characters, though the use of 金玉 is clever.

PS: In Japanese, the kanji 金玉 are apparently used as a euphemism for either of a certain pair of organs.
xu3w31l1 on February 4, 2011 | reply
Why not go a different route than transliteration? Have you tried finding the Mandarin equivalent for the meaning of your name? The only downside I see is that you may or may not have to shorten it.
palafx on February 4, 2011 | reply
The meaning of my name is wildly Abrahamic and wouldn't translate well. It means something like "the exultation of God". That's a good idea though. Perhaps "exultation" would make a good name...
palafx on February 5, 2011 | reply
This is pretty hilarious: my first try at rendering "exultation" into chinese turns out to be some esoteric buddhist term. I took the 胜 from 胜利 and the 乐 from 快乐 and got 胜乐, which turns out to be the chinese name for Cakrasaṃvara, a tantra.

Is that a deal-breaker? :D

Google says "exult" is 欢腾.
xu3w31l1 on February 5, 2011 | reply
Hmmm how about a synonym? The good part about going this route is that you have more flexibility with it than going with the more conventional route.
xu3w31l1 on February 5, 2011 | reply
Does jubilation or elation translate well?

Forgot to elaborate. For me, my given Celtic name means either noble or strength. So I got 威力 for my Chinese name. I didn't choose either name though. My parents and grandparents choose each respectively. It was just by coincidence that they somewhat matched.
xu3w31l1 on February 5, 2011 | reply
How about 歡騰?
palafx on February 5, 2011 | reply
@xu3w31l1

Yeah, that's the traditional version of 欢腾. It works, I guess, but honestly I'm just as comfortable with 胜乐 as a name (and I bet you there is someone in china named 胜乐). And it has a greater phonetic overlap with my name:

JEREMY

SHENGLE

As a name, though, I don't necessarily like it any better than 日谜 a.k.a. 氜昧.