first names of chinese women

[BILL SWEEZEY]

This might be a silly question, but I'll ask it anyway.

Why do most women in China have American first names?

I spoke with a co-worker who had just recently returned from China, and he said most women had an American first name. Is this true for all Chinese women, or did they just translate their name because he was an American?

Is this common place in the Chinese culture?

[ppk]

in chinese there are tones in the language. for foreigners who are not familiar with tones, they might pronounce chinese name in different tones and that sounds funny. oso, sometimes 2 chinese names have words of close or exact pronouciation even when the writing is different, so if the tones are no pronouced properly, the persons involved will not know who is the speaker referring to. so it is probably out of convenience for them to use another english name when working with foreigners, so that they can be addressed properly. and, to some, it might be a fashionable thing in china to have an english name.

[Helen]

English names of Chinese people are for convenience and trend only. It is easy for foreign people to pronounce. That's it.

English names have nothing to do with their original Chinese names.