it's a girl - question on how to spell her name

Jan 9 00:11 UTC 1998

Our Chinese friends just had a baby girl, and would like to name her Meihan,
with the first syllable pronounced the same as May.  Would the spelling Meihan
be understandable to Americans, i. e., would they pronounced it properly
rather than me or my?

response 2 of 80:

Jan 9 00:50 UTC 1998

  Meihan would be the closest american spelling by the transliteration
  rules I'm familiar with..  Maihan would be "my", Mi-han would be "me"
  As far as protecting her from mispronunciations, I don't think there's
  any way to do that except to name her Sam or something similarly foolproof.
  Anything than more than one vowel in it can (and will, eventually) be
  mispronounced, misspelled, whatever..

  I'm always baffled by the number of people who have trouble with my name.
  I suppose I can (just barely) envision the reasoning of native English-
  speakers who come up with bizarre attempts at "McNally" but the ones who
  mangle Michael seem to be a lost cause..

  Bottom line:  they should choose a name that will please them and their
  daughter.  If they want her to be called "May" they can spell her
  everyday name that way to avoid confusion..

response 4 of 80:

Jan 9 03:47 UTC 1998

Yep, I read it as me-han.  How about Maehan?

response 6 of 80:

Jan 9 03:54 UTC 1998

Thanks Colleen, we were both responding at the same time.  There does not seem
to be a good solution to this problem.  Maybe they should choose another name
for someone who will be living in both countries.  I will tell them it is
likely to be mispronounced.  How about Mayhan?  That does snot look Chinese.
Her brother was almost named Miaohan, but I pointed out that he might get
teased for a name that sounded like a cat.

response 8 of 80:

Jan 9 05:41 UTC 1998

I seriously doubt there are any names that will never be mispronounced,
misspelled, or made fun of.  I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about
it.

response 10 of 80:

Jan 9 06:54 UTC 1998

I wouldn't worry about it. Most names are would be pronounced differently
in different languages. Spell the name the way you want, and pronounce it
the way you wish. As you know, "ghoti" is prnounced "fish". Featherstonehaugh
is pronounced "fanshaw" (in England). I give my name Curl, and people
write down Kurl, Kerl, and worse. My first name is Rane....and I have
variously gone by "ran-ee", "rene'" and "rain", at different stages in my
life. There are no RULES for people's names.

response 12 of 80:

Jan 9 13:15 UTC 1998

I read it as 'May-han.'  Why not suggest May-Han?

response 14 of 80:

Jan 9 16:54 UTC 1998

Is that pronounced "pree-chay"?

response 16 of 80:

Jan 9 17:14 UTC 1998

"Mei" is too popular of a Chinese name for girls -- it means "beautiful." 
It's all over the place. I think the Chinese purposely leave it as "Mei" 
rather than change it to "May" is so that the name is distinctly Chinese.

That is the cool thing with Chinese names, however -- because of the Chinese
language, every Chinese name has a literal meaning. Very rarely true with
English names.

response 18 of 80:

Jan 9 18:58 UTC 1998

re: resp:16

Thats only partly true, Jemmie.  English names do have meaning, but mostly
the names we use were not originally English, and so the meaning aren't
evident as they are in Chinese.

And most of the names have been in use so long that the name and the word have
often diverged dramatically.  (I love names and have spent long hours learning
the meanings and origens of names, both given and familial.  It's a hobby.)
;)

response 20 of 80:

Jan 9 23:28 UTC 1998

re 16:  Actually, many western names have literal meaning.

  Mary = 'bitter'  (probably comes from myrrh (sp?))
  Philip = 'lover of horses'
  Ethel = 'regal' or 'noble'
  Cynthia = 'of the moon'
  Celeste = 'of the stars' or 'of the heavens'
  Arnold = 'manly'
  William = 'will, helm' (helmet)
  

That's just for starters.

response 22 of 80:

Jan 10 17:04 UTC 1998

While we are waiting for the news from Meihan (?) 's parents, I am curious
about naming customs in other countries.  Meihan's mother, like all (most?)
other Chinese women, did not change her family name upon marriage.  The family
name comes before the given name.  Her family name is spelling Xiang, her
husband's is Zhao, the son's Zhao.  I will ask them which name the daughter
gets.  In Swedish daughters and sons get family names like Gunnarsson and
Gunnarsdatter (son and daughter), in the Slavic languages family names have
different endings for male and female (Novak but Novakova).  In Russian the
middle name is a patronymic, formed from the father's name plus an ending.
In Macedonian a woman's middle name before marriage is her father's given
name, but after marriage it is her husband's given name, in other words a
woman keeps her given name and adds her husband's whole name (minus his middle
name).  What at the customs in South America, Africa, elsewhere in Asia?  Come
to think of it, what are the new customs here?  If children with hyphenated
names (one from each parent) get married to someone else with a hyphenated
name, what name do they use?  Where both parents keep their own family names,
are the children always given the father's family name?  Judging from the
situation in my college reunion publication, things are still chaotic.  Any
ideas?

response 24 of 80:

Jan 10 19:44 UTC 1998

I like it to be entirely up to the whim of the individuals, and would not
like the imposition of a new national naming convention. This is one situation
where whim is better than order. After all, we do all get a social security
number....  8^}. The example other gives of a couple choosing a new surname
is marvelous. Why not? There are other ways of keeping records of genetic
relationships, which only the medical profession really need be concerned
about.