Would you mistaken these names as other names?

[emjan]

1. If someone introduce himself as Jason, would you mistaken it as Jackson? (maybe you hear wrongly or cannot remember the name after some time)

2. Would you mistaken Jason as any other name?

3. If someone introduce himself as Alan, would you mistaken it as Aaron or Ellen?
   (maybe you hear wrongly or cannot remember the name after some time)

Thanks

Ah ok are you choosing a Western name for use in eg business? Lots of people did this at my school - often they found an equivalent, so Mei Ling became Grace; sometimes they chose something they just liked the look of, eg David.

The names did stand out though because they were often old fashioned (like Alan or Jason in your OP). We would definitely be able to make suggestions for you if you'd like us to.

I'm guessing you want a male name but we'd need to know vaguely how old you are.

MrsHathaway, I am 33 years old. Yes, I am choosing a Western name for use in business. Any suggestions are welcomed.

How old should a Jason or Alan be?

How do you determine if a name is old fashioned? Is there a guide somewhere?

MrsHathaway, I am 33 years old. Yes, I am choosing a Western name for use in business. Any suggestions are welcomed.

How old should a Jason or Alan be?

How do you determine if a name is old fashioned? Is there a guide somewhere?

MrsHathaway, what sounds/letter/names do you think Chinese have problems pronouncing or tend to pronounce wrongly? Thanks

You wouldn't get many 33 year old Jasons or Alans. Alan is much more suited to a man in his 50's or 60's. I am 30 and men in my age group have names like Thomas, Richard, Daniel, Michael, Adam, Stephen...

Depends which country you are likely to most work with though. The US and the UK tend to have different fashions in names.

Here is Jason in the US over time: biggest in the 70s (like the UK) but pretty popular in the 80s too, and then dropped right off. Jackson on the other hand is a much more modern name. Looks like Jacksons would be teenagers or younger.

The same graph for Alan has a very different picture, with a drop in popularity just when Jason was big.

Interestingly I think that would be very similar in the UK, Alans mostly 60+ and Jason popular for 35-45 year olds. Unfortunately the nice charts for the UK only go back to 1996.

Other names with 80s peaks look to be Andrew, Matthew, Geoffrey, Adam and Joshua (in the States anyway)

British men our age are mostly called James or Richard - I have lots of each on Facebook! However I'd avoid both of those in this case.

I'd recommend Ben, Sam or Tom. Plenty of those as well but much more straightforward.

I understand what you are looking for now I think. Something that when you say it, people are sure of your name. And something that is age appropriate.

Lucy
Emily
Grace
Vivian
Samantha
Rachel
Natalie
Elizabeth

Peter
William
Nathan
James
David
Michael

Agree with something like Ben or Tom. Right generation and very difficult to mistake for anything else!

Dan would be my suggestion.

a few comments, but Jason and Alan are male names and Ellen female.

R and L are difficult for chinese speakers, so Ellen is heard/pronounced as Erren.

How about using something which is connected to your own name? So my Taiwanese friend I-Tan became Ian.

I work with an Alan for his birthday one of our colleagues gave him a card saying " to Ken"

Obviously we now all call him Ken

I agree that Dan/Daniel would work well.

My Alan is over 50.
I did used to work with people from Hong Kong who took western names and Alex was very popular. Its also a fairly timeless name

Paul, Stephen, Phillip, ray, joe

My friend took a uk name for school- he went for Sherlock.

Yes, I think you do want to choose a name that fits your age group (unlike the 20 year old Elvis I met recently).

No real pronunciation confusion with those names for me, but it might also depend how strongly accented you are (if you can't hear a difference when you say them then I might not be able to either).

A Jason or an Alan/Allen would be about 50. The Alans/Allens might even be older too.

There is no guide to names unless you want to look up names from different decades on google.
However, people here have a variety of different ages and are familiar with the names of their classmates from school and their friends at university and colleagues at work, and they know how old these people are. They also have children of different ages, and are familiar with the names of their children's classmates.

Names come and go according to fashion in the west, so a person's age can sometimes be guessed when you see or hear their name.

I am quite often struck by the incongruous choices many Asian people make when picking a 'western business' name -- young women choosing names like Sandra or Cheryl, young men choosing names like Floyd or Herbert..

If your target audience is the US, I would pick something like
James (Jim or Jimmy for a nickname/short version),
Matthew (Matt for a nickname/short version),
Daniel (Dan or Danny for a nickname/short version),
Christopher (Chris for a nickname/short version),
Michael (Mike for a nickname/short version)
Peter (Pete for a nickname/short version),
Joshua (Josh for a nickname/short version)
Jacob (Jake for a nickname/short version),
Ryan
Joseph (Joe for a nickname/short version),
Justin
Alexander (Alex for a nickname/short version),
Marshall
Eric
Kyle
or Scott.
Most of these would work well in the UK too -- maybe not Scott or Kyle though.

I know a Jason at work. He was away when I joined the team so I heard his name before meeting him. I imagined him as an early 30s white guy with blonde spikey hair, maybe an earing, essex accent...a bit of a "white van man".

Turns out he is a quiet, sweet, suit-wearing British Asian. No earing in sight. Very un "white van". I got the age right though.

Still not keen on the name..

"A Jason .... would be about 50"

Not true. Jason first became popular in the 1970s, possibly after a TV character called Jason King. It continued to be popular through to the late 80s, no doubt partly due to the actor and singer Jason Donovan. So while there are Jasons who are pushing 50, there are plenty of younger ones too.

Honestly, I would prefer it if you used your real name - anything else feels patronising and dishonest.

Unless it's like 60 letters long and impossible to pronounce.

Something like Jeevan for example does not sound better as Jimmy, which is a horrible old man name over here.

Stuff like that puts me off talking to someone businesswise, whoever they are.

Keep your own name and be proud of it. What is your actual name?

I used to work with a Chinese man and he chose James for his Western name.

Footle, I'm aware of that. This isn't my real name. The OP may already be using his real name.

It was only a question, in case it helps him to know whether his name is easily pronouncable by people - he isn't obliged to answer it.

I may be slightly stupid but I'm not completely stupid

I know one Jason under 30 from the UK, Ireland and the US, and the OP is 33. The Jason I know stands out because it is so unusual for anyone younger than 4.

It is easy for people with standard western names (or more accurately, standard Anglo names) to dismiss the concerns of people whose names mark them as 'different'. Try living your life even in Britain with a name like Conchubar or Lasairfhiona and see how long it takes you to get really tired of people 'having a stab' at your name, forgetting your name instantly, having to be reminded of how to spell it, hearing the name and looking at the nametag and asking to hear it again and looking at the nametag again, making remarks about how unusual it is, asking where it comes from, etc.

A lot of doing business involves establishing rapport, and that is difficult when a name presents a hurdle.