Chinese names

This is copied from the Eagles Wings blog and explains a lot about Chinese names.

Just some naming trivia. In traditional Chinese families (less common now) the second name is a family name, kind of how we might think of a middle name. Usually the paternal grandfather chooses the name that all children of the next generation will have. Two kids that we have taken care of who are sibilings were Wang Hong Yan and Wang Hong Wei. Wang is the last name, Hong is the generation name and Yan and Wei are their personal names. Sometimes orphanages follow this by having all kids for one year have that same second name. Nicknames are usually the final name doubled...my second daughter was Fu Ya Tian. The name she went by (and still does) is TianTIan.  She didn't even know the "ya" part until after she was adopted. There was also a Ya Mei, and a few other kids with the Ya. Even if the final name is not doubled, many kids are called only by that third name so that is the one they associate with most closely.  

In other cases the two names are really not used as separate names but one word with two syllables. Guo Ce is GuoCe, we would never just say Guo or Ce. Kids with these kinds of names are GaoJing, WenJia, JunFei. Since they are used to this being their name, splitting it up is like calling a Maryellen just Mary or Ellen, or an Elizabeth, Eliza or Beth. 

Of course naming is a personal thing for your family to decide, but I thought perhaps understanding what the kids have been called and how they think of their name might be useful.

Caitlyn's name before we adopt her is Xue Hua (pronounced Shway ha).  She is called XueHua, all one word and sound, or Hua Hua (pronounced ha ha).   We will make her name Caitlyn Noel XueHua.  We had talked about calling her Caitie Xue, but based on what we are learning about naming, that won't really make sense.  We will also not call her ha ha, since that is just not appropriate here. (ha ha)