By continuing you agree to eChinacities's Privacy Policy .
Sign up with Google
Sign up with Facebook
Q: Wife or g/f have an English name? Wife's married name?
Fewer English names these days, seems to me.
Did your wife change her name at all? If you have, or plan to, move to another country will your wife change her name?
Or have you even brought up the topic?
I have no wife.
Spiderboenz:
No. Unfortunately, I seem to be unkillable; no matter what I do, I just can't die.
Maybe I should change my handle to Mysterion
royceH:
I watched House of Cards last night and the general talking point of the episode was the govt dept of 'ways and means'.
I have no wife.
Spiderboenz:
No. Unfortunately, I seem to be unkillable; no matter what I do, I just can't die.
Maybe I should change my handle to Mysterion
royceH:
I watched House of Cards last night and the general talking point of the episode was the govt dept of 'ways and means'.
My wife uses the name Helena because most Dumb ass Australians are to lazy to try pronouce her Chinese name 
my family in Aus always refere to her by her given name
royceH:
Yes. My wife has a simple name so pronouncing it shouldn't be any problem. Bei, as in Botany Bay. But they can still stuff it up.
My wife uses her Chinese name both in China and in my country. Her friends in China calls her a nickname, I've heard her dad use her English name once or twice.
royceH:
So she does have an English name? What about the surname? If you've changed that I'd bet Dad would be loathe to use it.
I guess I'm more interested in the surname. Anyone's wife assume the husband's surname? Even informally? How about when checking into a hotel in a place that doesn't require an official document of ID, for example?
philbravery:
Again she uses my family name with Australians because they can't pronounce her Chinese name God we are becoming lazy
My wife has never used an English name, she goes by the 2nd part of her Chinese name, Mei (梅). Funny how lots of Chinese people spell it as May when using English.
For hotels, etc she uses her full Chinese name.
My wife has an English name, which she has had since middle school, and my family all call her that, at her work even though it is not a foreign company a lot of people use English names for some reason. It don't her parents for most of her family even know what it is. I never even considered that she would change her family name as I knew from Chinese friends back home that it's not a thing in China and I don't care so there was no reason to even bring it up.
When it comes to kids I told her that I'm want to use her family name as I have no strong connection to my own but know that it would very much make her parents happy, also her's is very short and simple and any kids we have will spend most of their life away from where they were born so having a Chinese family name will at least be a reminder of where they come from.
If you mean the official name it should always be the one on their ID card. English name is similar to a nickname. She can change her family name though, but of course, it depends on who's the boss at home. 
royceH:
Well, she's Chinese so no prizes for guessing the answer to that one then...
But that doesn't mean she always wears pants. Why only this morning she....doesn't matter..
My wife doesn't use her English name anymore. As for surname, she kept hers and I have no problem with it. Li isn't that hard, even for some of my intellectually challenged countrymen.
