What is your Chinese name?

简 洁 Jian Jie

What does your name mean?

简洁 means concise and clear. Good to remember. My father said he decided my name far back in high school: if I were a boy he would name me 简杰, a girl would name 简洁 (杰: special, extraordinary; 洁: clean, noble)

What is your English name? (Please write in pinyin if you don’t have one)

Before college I was named after Pearly by my aunt in the US and inspired my nickname Zhu Zhu(Beads). After graduating from high school, I decided to let everyone call me JJ, because in middle school, it is popular for everyone to shorten their names into initials, and the name JJ was naturally bound to me.

Is there a pronunciation/meaning connection between your English name and Chinese name?

JJ is the pinyin initials, but also some common English initials

Have you ever abandoned your English name? What was the reason?

Yes. I don’t like the meaning of Pearly, I wouldn’t react to it when people call me Pearly. I don’t really feel I belonged to this name nor did this name belong to me.

Does your name ever give you any funny, embarrassing, or uncomfortable experiences?

Sometimes people are not satisfied with JJ and keep asking my full name, it becomes a bit embarrassing since I don’t know which pronunciation I should tell them (English pronunciation or pinyin), sometimes people will misspell it as Jay Jay. In China, because the proverbial JJ has the meaning of representing male genitalia, sometimes I would be jokingly called a small penis. When I was young I actually minded this.

Do you prefer your Chinese name or your English name? Which name better represents your own identity?

I am grateful that the name I used back at home could continue to be used in the English environment, so I can continue to accumulate memories with this name.