Re: CHAT: new names (was: Re: Bopomofo and pinyin)

I wrote:

>> I like "inky border of the forest"!  It's a lot better than *my* Chinese
>>name,
>> Pi Risheng, which means "leather sunrise".  Of course, nobody can beat
>> Richard Nixon, whose Chinese name means "mud overcoming the forest".
And Aidan replied:

>    This is true. On of my compatriots was given Bao as a last name -
>which meant
>'swollen afterbirth'! One of the games we used to play was to
>transliterate names
>as weirdly/humorously as we could. Some example:
>    Donald > dan ou > Bomb Australia!
>    Sarah > si re> 4 crazy nuns
Now hold on!  I know that "si" means "four" in Mandarin, but I refuse to
believe
that there's a word "re" meaning "crazy nun"!  :-)

"Bomb Australia!" is a good name, though.

Strange and poetic names are fun.  I once invented a race of aliens
(inhabitants
of the third planet of the star Enif) whose name for their culture translated
as "We Several Who Are Both Embarrassed and Relieved By The Ascent of Pakapa
From The Transluscent Liver-Green Mindbox".  Needless to say, it was a rather
esoteric culture...

Matt.