On the topic of names / last names, Scandinavians have this strange tradition of giving different last names to their sons /daughters. If your name (not last name) is Jon, your son's last name is Jonsson. If you have a daughter, her last name is Jonsdottir.

Japanese also have a funny way to create last names, but I don't know too much about it.

My mom says that it involves a tin can.

But why do you ask, Two Dogs Fucking?

Billy is an American name meaning " That chinese guy that posts on/in the Cellar".:D

Re: You teach me dirty English
 

We tend to call them "potty words" or "cuss words" here. That was just a quote from a movie, but admittedly, I do cuss like a sailor sometimes.

"What are you? Gene Autry or somethin'? I just do that to get my point across."--Eazy-E (RIP)

My English name
 

My foreign workmates call me Billy. I will use it when I would chat with the foreign people. It is easier for them to call billy than calling Ding Guo Liang. We can use lots of Chinese words to name. We think it is our language freedom.

Jimmy Jimmy
 

One my workmate's Chinese name is Liang Zhi Min. We give his Jimmy because the pronunciations are like. But we don't know the meaning. He doesn't like it. He call me to give his new one. I can not find one. What do you think of Jimmy? Is it Ok? How to give him one new name?

A lot of the time in america in addition to your "real" or birth name (the one registered on your birth certificate) you have a nickname, which is something that other people call you. Sometimes this is based on your name ... like Billy is a nickname for William. A lot of times for men a nickname that ends in "y" is used when you are a child, but then around the teenage years it gets shortened again to what is considered an adult form of the name ... so many children who were called "Billy" in later life are called "Bill".

One of my friends is named Richard. His son has the same name. To be able to tell which one is which the dad is called Rich and the son is called Ricky. Ricky is now in school in the 2nd grade, and he has informed eveyone that he is now to be called "Rick."

Jimmy is a nickname for James, and the other form of that is Jim.

Your friend's name Zhi Min also kind of sounds like "Simon" if he would prefer an Americanized name closer to his own. "Steven" also has a similar sound. Since he gets the chance to pick, he should pick something that he likes and that fits him.

He like them
 

He like the two names. Thank you! In my office one workmare use the "simon", so Liang can not use it again. He think "Steven" is a little far from his Zhi Min. Please give me more names to select.

OK, I've thought of a question to ask. Many years ago my music teacher was talking about musical chords and how what sounds "right" to each person's ear is an acquired thing, something you learn from hearing it over and over. He gave an example of Chinese music, and said it has a 24 note scale instead of 12 notes like the European music, and if we Americans listen to Chinese music, it sounds like it's out of tune because our ears aren't used to the 24 note scale.

How much do you know about music? I've been curious ever since about how Chinese music compares, I haven't had much chance to hear it except at a resturaunt once. Is the 24 note scale more "traditional" that's not used much anymore, or is all Chinese music still on that scale? What are the instruments like that would play on this scale? Most European and American descended instruments, it would be impossible to play Chinese music on this scale. How is music written out, or is there even a notation scheme for it? Do you listen to American and European music, either classical music from 100s of years ago, or modern popular music? If so, do the chords and such sound strange compared to your native music? Or are we European trained musicians inferior because we only have half as many notes? :-)

I am not anything close to a musician, but...
 

Wouldn't sharps and flats cover it?

China Music
 

I know little about the Chinese tradition music because I don't learn it. The China national music is abundant.I will post your question on the China forum to sak.I can send you some China music by letter if you really want hear.I think you can buy it in China Town.The China drama music maybe have the 24 scale. We use the tradition instruments, chord,zither,lute. These instruments are still used in people. The music is beautiful, but I listen little.Now we may use the west instruments to cooperate China instruments.Some people learn to paly music by their memory, not use denotation. I like listening to the west pop, blues music.I don't compare to the music.I just listen to the beautiful music, and don't care how it is made.

24 scale - is that 24 notes in the octave?

Yeah. Just for those less familiar with music:

In the Western scale, an octave is divided into 12 semitones, each equally spaced on an exponential scale. In other words, the frequency of each note is a specific multiple of the frequency of the note below it, to be exact 2 to the 1/12th power. A note an octave up has twice the frequency of the note an octave below it.

Anyway, if you look at a piano, you might naively assume that all the white keys are equally spaced, and the black keys are just extra, but actually, an octave, 8 white keys, is divided equally into 12 parts, so the sharps and flats are actually filling in the spaces on a C major scale. Did that make any sense? Anyway, on a 24 note scale, you would have twice as many tones, each of the new ones half way between each note of the 12 note scale, so between C and C#, you would have another note, and between C# and D, and between D and D#, etc., etc.

And therefore, the majority of Western instruments, anything that has discrete notes, like pianos, guitars, trumpets, etc. would have no way to generate the extra notes, which is why I'm curious what a traditional chinese instrument that operates on the 24 note scale would be like.

True, but in the case of guitar you can cheat by bending the strings, or using that metallic piece popular in hawaii and some blues music (slide guitar)

And maybe the primacy of stringed instruments and flutes in traditional Chinese music because they lend themselves to these intervals?