A 26 year-old American entrepreneur has launched a website that helps non-English speaking Chinese people choose more appropriate English names than the quirky one they usually come up with themselves.
If you haven’t noticed before (which I’m sure most of us did), some Chinese have given themselves some pretty dang weird English names. I mean, most of us grew up watching Hong Kong dramas and you know how weird their names in the show were.
For Lindsay Jernigan’s, she came up with a solution. She created her website, BestEnglishName.com which is a naming service for Chinese students, employees and individuals who seek opportunities abroad and therefore require foreign names.
The company offers English names that help fit your personality, so their customers can easily communicate with foreigners. I mean seriously, could you imagine meeting someone named “tittyy”??
Image source: Next Shark
This probably comes as a great sigh of relief, seeing as there is probably a huge market gap for English names. Too often things get quirky.
And what better way to ruin a job opportunity than a weird name? Seriously, it’s too easy to stumble upon strange names. Some had even called themselves, “Weirdo”, “Flashlight”, “Give Up Treatment” and “Autism”?? No, we also have no idea how that works for a name.
Neither am I sure whether to laugh and the silly names or cry because it’s really that bad!
That is one heck of a weird cat, Weirdo.
A flashlight with the star sign Scorpio? Nice.
What treatment? Don’t leave us hanging!
Image source: Next Shark
BestEnglishName.com in fact is doing pretty well, and have received quite good feedback from relieved customers!
“We can help you find a name that is cool and unique but that won’t make Westerners feel uneasy,” the website wrote.
Ms Jernigan said poorly chosen names could lead to their owners being “marginalised” or “laughed at behind their backs”. Well, gee, I wonder why?
“Your name is your first impression, it is what people are going to remember you by, it is your personal brand. So if you have one that makes people uncomfortable or is just completely confusing then it is going to be a barrier in all future conversations, introductions or relationships.” she tells Telegraph.
She charges 50 Chinese yuan (approximately RM31) to visitors in search for their ‘destined’ name. Visitors are prompted to take a quiz in order to let the company gauge each person’s personality then then present their clients five “automatically generated names” that have been carefully vetted.
As for a one-hour advice session with Ms Jernigan, it will cost 200 yuan (RM120).
As we all know, China is home to some pretty weird ass names. Then again, we’ve quite a few peculiar ones ourselves here in Malaysia.
