Comment on I'd like to change my last name and want suggestions
YawningNostalgia@thelemmy.club 2 days agoIt would Chen in that case but I don’t want to go too Chinese with the last name because I’m not fluent in Chinese and since I’m a doctor I don’t want patients to assume I can speak Chinese. I have no problem with patients using any language and we have translation services, I just don’t want them to book with me and be disappointed/confused.
tunetardis@piefed.ca 2 days ago
Ooh that’s a tricky one! I looked it up and the most common character for it is a verb meaning something like to arrange for display? Good luck finding an English equivalent to that! There is a 2nd meaning of “old or ancient” which sounds a little more promising, though I can’t think of an English name with that meaning off the top of my head.
Apparently, Chen is the most common family name in Taiwan, and is really the same name as Chan, Tam, and Tran depending on where you live and what you speak. Not that that helps you any.
YawningNostalgia@thelemmy.club 2 days ago
I’m just glad you got to go down a rabbithole. I could riff off old and go with Gold, since that would be a great last name and a nice and convoluted backstory for my hypothetical offspring.
dubyakay@lemmy.ca 1 day ago
Gold is a common Jewish last name. In the sense that names were anglicized (or Germanicized) to better blend in. However are non-denominative, avoiding trades and place names, and instead focus on simply colour and sometimes with a geographic feature added. Which is why you have so many Goldbergs and Greenbergs.
tunetardis@piefed.ca 2 days ago
Ha! That’s a great idea!
Along those lines, have you considered the name Richmond? I ask a Chinese friend once why the Richmond district in Vancouver and the Richmond Hill suburbs of Toronto are basically China at this point. He said oh that’s easy! Richmond sounds like “rich man” to the Chinese ear. Who wouldn’t wanna live on Rich Man Hill?