Most of the Chinese in grad school take on "American names" when they come over here. For alot of American Indians, they are given a name later in life based on their accomplishments/experiences. Because pretty much everyone I knew in grad school was chinese, and they were very eager to study with the only "white" guy in their classes, they got to know me fairly quickly and gave me a "Chinese name." Along their tradition of giving themselves their own american name, I gave myself a Chinese name.
The name they gave me: "Choi Xióng." The 1st name I spelled phonetically, because it's slang and I cant find the actually spelling/translation. It means "chugging bear." Apparently the engineering Chinese students had never seen someone pound a whole beer at once, plus I'm bigger than a couple of them combined.
So does anyone else have a name in another language?