I had no idea that English names were so popular in China!

Sexy Beijing: Lost in Translation

To our members living in non-English speaking countries: Do you find people taking English names for themselves, in order to conduct business or communicate with others online?

-- Nephele

Chinese names are really hard to pronounce correctly!

For practical reasons, some people over here do change their name into a more English-friendly variety. Not only to help out people who cannot pronounce names in meetings in which English is the mutual language, but perhaps also to ease our ears. As well-attempted pronounciations of names can sound pretty awful sometimes.

I never change my name into an English variety, although some of the international coworkers I have cannot pronounce my name decently (well, that a little harsh, but they can't pronounce it the way it should be pronounced). But then again, neither can some of my fellow countrymen and -women. But it helps that my name is somewhat pronouncable in most languages I know - it has local varieties, although I cannot remember whether English is one of them. As DarklyInclined (below), I do not really mind if people use the local variety for my name if it helps them pronounce my name. I just sometimes forget that they are calling me

When in Russia, I found that, curiously, some people had a hard time dealing with "-ion" at the end of my name. After all, in Russian, there's a perfectly acceptable name which sounds similar - "Mariya". I couldn't believe it; it was just an extra letter... But the struggle some people had with the pronunciation just got silly, so to save their blushes I let them call me "Mariya", and then, as they got to know me better, the diminutive form, "Masha".