Years ago, I had a job in China where I evaluated the spoken English of college students. One bright young woman introduced herself to me with her Chinese name. Then she added: "You can call me 'Easy.

When Lindsay Jernigan, an American expat in China, noticed how often Chinese professionals had — for lack of a better term — "stripper" names like Candy and Cherry, she wanted to find a way to help ...

It's common for Chinese to take an English nickname. Chen Yinge and Wang Jing go by "Ellen" and "Jean." Zhou Peng goes by "Vic." "Everyone has one at work," she said. But many nicknames don't exactly ...