Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Nicknames in Chinese

In Chinese, we call nicknames 綽號 (Chuo Hao). In my family my mom’s nick name is YUE (月) means moon. And my brother is JIAN (堅) which means strong. And one of my aunts is call LIU (六) which means six that is because she is the 6th sibling in the family. My other aunt is call FEI(肥) because she was chubby when she was born.

People give other people nicknames based on how they look or what they like, such as chubby baby is XIAO PANG ZI (小胖子), beautiful little girl is XIAO MEI REN (小美人), baby is BAO BAO (寶寶), tall guy GAO LAO (高佬).

When I was still in high school, one of my best friends liked to eat fish roll very much. At that time in a cartoon show, there was a lion dog (SHI ZI GOU) who like that fish roll, too. So we called my friend Shi Zi Gou (獅子狗). She wouldn't mind. Even now we still call her that funny name.

How about you? Do you have any funny nickname to share?

1 comment:

  1. It's interesting that nick names often are a characteristic that is exaggerated in the nick name itself. Mine was Skunk because my last name was Skruch. Not sure how it was created because I didn't stink but I sure was glad to get married and rid myself of that name.

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