Please recommend a nickname or english name for Minji!!

[cinephilee]

My English isn't very good, so please bear with me.

I’m Korean and my family moved to UK. My daughter is going to study at secondary school.

Her name is Minji, which is very common in Korea, but I am worried that she will be teased in English. I didn't even know the word "minge" existed.

Is it a problem if I change the spelling to Minzy? It's the same pronunciation in Korean.

Mia - heard it too much common
Gia - can struggle with how to pronounce it
Jia - it sounds like Chinese characters
Jiya - heard it's Indian name

She can name herself in English and if she wants, she can write her Korean name as it is. My daughter picked some English names, but most of them are celebrities or movie names.😂

I heard some names are class-oriented or race-oriented. So I want to narrow it down even if she choose. And I hope it's a name that can be used anywhere in the world.

Thank you.
Wish you all the best in the coming year.

I think Minzy or Minzi is a good idea. She could still become Mimi/Min/Minnie/Zizi from that if she wanted.

If it's pronounced Minzi I would simply change the spelling and she gets to keep her own name.

And in English. I grew up in Essex, it was used that way there. Its in the dictionary, with a load of examples from the Hansard archive, so not exactly an obscure usage.

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/mingy

o/p honestly, I’d leave her name alone :)

most areas in the UK are familiar with cultural names- including weird and badly misspelled British ones 😂

my kids went to an inner city school where there were lots of different cultures, with names from Eastern Europe to Africa to China. Taking the piss out of names, especially for being foreign, was a big no, the kids just didn’t. Probably because it is racism.

unless you’re moving to a particularly daily mail reading Britain first area, you’ll probably find most people cope with a Korean name just fine. Especially with the popularity of k-pop, Korean culture is becoming much more widely known :)

Minjia, loyal to the original name

@FurryDandelionSeekingMissile good point.

I’d choose Minnie or Gigi.

I disagree with a previous poster who said not to give her a more common English nickname. I’m a teacher and kids are really mean.

Minzi as you said her real name is pronounced like this. Teens are hurtful and will keep calling her ‘minge’ based on the spelling of Minji.

Is it originally spelled Min Jee?

Min or Minzy to stay close to her actual name.

Some school children are idiots and will try to find a way to put someone down. Minge would be one way to do this. Just because some children called Dick etc are fine with it doesn't mean children don't come out of secondary school hating their experience there.

There is also an old classic MN thread with "your minge" in it if you have been here a while.

I think maybe let your daughter pick the name she prefers.

Another vote for Minzy

Sorry, Minzi

I suspect it’s pronounced min zhyee (a soft G like in French pronunciation rather than either a hard g sound or a zzz sound).

Id use the z not the g in her full name and would nickname Gigi

Agree, keep the pronunciation and tweak the spelling to Minzi or Minzy. Prefer Minzi of the two, but either is fine.

I hope she settles in well and enjoys school.

I'd keep her original name but establish a nickname - Minnie, Gigi/Jiji, Zizi, Zizzi...

@FurAndFeathers Mingey is also common slang in NZ ( and probably in Oz) to mean stinger or mean. This is amongst English speakers! I’m not sure “Scot” is a language is it? So probably used by English speaking Scots.
OP I’d avoid any variations of minge/mingey.
I get feeling that teenagers would find Minnie attractive.

If you’re not sure that Scots is a language, you probably shouldn’t comment. If it helps, you can use the magical inter web to check your facts before you try and correct others www.gov.scot/policies/languages/scots/ It’s recognised by the Scottish government and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
Ever heard of Rabbie Burns? Quite a well know Scots poet

And you think common UK slang for vagina is fine as a name?
helpful

I would stick with her given name - she is Minji.

I think she's got a beautiful name!

@FurAndFeathers I did not mean to offend. I meant that I understood Gaelic was the native/ethnic language of Scotland. There is, of course, dialectal Scots, which I would not class as an independent “language”, anymore than the score of English dialects.
Until this post I had never heard of Minnie being slang for vagina and the increasing popularity of the name rather presumes others aren’t aware of this either.

You can class Scots however you like 🤷‍♀️

The Scottish government recognises it as one of Scotland’s 3 official languages spoke by over 1.5 million people. The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages classes it as a language.

But sure, you’ve decided it’s an English dialect (despite being spoken nowhere in England). I’m sure you’re the expert 🙄. You’re certainly determined to be offensive to millions of Scots speakers

Minnie being slang for vagina is mentioned on the first page of this thread. You could try reading it.

@FurAndFeathers Upon further consideration, and after reading documents in Scots, then I would concede Scots is similar to Pidgin English, though easier to comprehend. (I have a little experience with the latter from my studies in sociology-linguistics.
As a matter of interest, is one able to study the Scot’s language? Are there online courses? It would be a useful complement to my M English in reading medieval documents, my Scots heritage ending only a few generations after Malcolm III.

You’re the expert. I’m sure if you try very hard you could find the answers to your questions.
the magical internet might help 🙄