Nick and I Have the Same Last Name!!

ok ok ok, don't freak out! We didn't do anything crazy like get hitched in Taiwan!

Since we are now living in a Chinese-speaking country, we need to have our own Chinese names. It just so happens, that since both of our last names start with S, we have been given the same Chinese surname.

In Chinese, your last name - surname or family name - comes first and your first name - given name - comes last. So, for example, the English name John Smith in a Chinese format would be Smith John.

Keeping that in mind, here is my new Chinese name:
史瑞秋
The first character 史 is the surname that both Nick and I share, pronounced "shi"

The second two characters were chosen because their sounds closely resemble my English name:
瑞 (pinyin: Rui) is pronounced like "ray"
秋 (pinyin: Qiu) is pronounced kind of like "chio"
So together it sounds like Ray-Chio... pretty close!

Nick's name is also sounds pretty similar to his English name:
史尼克

Again, his surname is pronounced "Shi"

His first name is made up of two characters:
尼 (pinyin: Ni) is pronounced like "knee"
克 (pinyin: ke) is pronounced "kuh"
So together, his Chinese name is "Knee-Kuh"

Pretty cool, huh?