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

Younger than 40...

As BadHenry's post indicates, there are class-related aspects to choosing Anglo names that may not be immediately obvious to non-British people too.

There is more to it than just getting the age range right and ensuring the name is not mistaken for another name.

SophieJenkins, I only have a Chinese name and its hard to pronounce if someone do not know Chinese.

What does Anglo names mean? Thanks.

Anglo names means names that are culturally and linguistically English.

For instance, Edward, James, and Peter are Anglo names.
Maxim, Roman and Pavel are not, even though they can easily be pronounced by English speakers.

Conchubar and Lasairfhiona are Irish names, and while they are therefore western they are not Anglo or easily pronounceable by people who do not speak or read Irish.

I always mix up names, OP, but some of us are just like that.

I think I would choose something short, just one syllable, maybe a shortening of a name.
Easier to pronounce and remember, and somehow a shortening of a longer name seems a bit less incongruous than a full "Western" name, more like a nickname.

Something like Joe, Jay, Dan, Max, Ed, Tim, or Tom. Maybe something that begins with the same sound as your Chinese name.

There are a few Western names that sound a bit like East Asian surnames.

For example, Lee and Kim are both used as forenames in the UK, and can be either male or female. Lee is a surname here too.

Yes, Lee and Kim are easy to pronounce for both Asian and Western people, they sound the same. Most other sounds in Chinese is hard for people who do not know Chinese as the word does not exist in English, youtube.com/watch?v=cD63StcokZc

If Mandarin is your first language, I would steer clear of names with an "l" sound, like Alan, as to many Mandarin speakers, there is no difference between that and the "r" sound.

But, do you really need a "western" name? I know British people born here, but whose ancestors were from China who have only Chinese names. (When I say ancestors, I mean their grandparents may have been Malay Chinese, for example, which would mean that the original immigration from China itself was even longer ago.)

A very good illustration, thanks emjan! I like that idea of sending in a piece of paper