I'm confused about if I should put my surname after my given name or not when I tell a western people what my name is. I would like to use the Pinyin version of my original name instead of choosing a Christian name as my English name when I communicate with western people.
Should I reverse the order? Or is it okay to write my Pinyin name just as it is? If I do, will western people get it wrong and think that my last name is the surname when it's actually my given name.
Names – Should Surname Follow Given Name When Introducing Yourself?
namessurnames
Best Answer
My suggestion is that Mr. Wang introduce himself as he wants to, which I gather is Wang Xing. But, unless he is OK with sometimes being called Wang (e.g., Hi, Wang!), or when the speaker wants to be formal, Mr. Xing, he explain that Wang is his family name and Xing is his given name. In informal settings, he could say just, "My name is Wang Xing, but call me Xing"
Many Westerners know that the family name first is the traditional order for Chinese names, but many do not. Some Chinese give their name in the Chinese order, and some give their name in the Western order. Furthermore, some Chinese are too polite to correct a Westerner who has gotten their name wrong. In my tennis clinic the instructor called a Chinese lady (women are always ladies in tennis) by her last name and the rest of us by our first names. She had introduced herself to me by her first name several weeks earlier, so I asked her how she wanted to be called, and then corrected the instructor. As it happened, she had put her name on the list in the Western fashion, the instructor knew the Chinese convention, and politely re-reversed what she had politely reversed.