Is 安大勇 a good Chinese name? [closed]

Question

I'd like to create a Chinese name (because my original name is extremely, extremely hard to pronounce for Chinese speakers) and I'd like to ask if 安大勇 is a good choice for a male name and if it brings up any undesirable associations.

Backstory: My first Chinese teacher, of whom I have very fond memories, called me 安 (after the first syllable of my name Andrew), which is a relatively common Chinese surname. However, she kept telling me that 安 is only a surname in Chinese and that I needed to add more characters - a "running joke" between us was that she would one day create a full Chinese name for me. Unfortunately, after the first semester, she died tragically and I (for unrelated reasons) stopped studying Chinese. I am now starting again and would like to choose a Chinese name. As a homage to my first teacher, I would like to use 安 as my surname.

大勇 is a Chinese translation of the meaning of my first name (Andrew comes from Greek ἀνδρεῖος, which means "brave" or "courageous"). I've found a few people with the given name 大勇 on Google (and I've also found it as the dharma name of a few Buddhist monks), so it's probably relatively common, but I'd still like to ask native speakers what they think of this choice, because I have heard that sometimes there may be a problem in the combination.

Thank you for your replies, I really appreciate your help.

Answer 1

I am sorry to hear about your Chinese teacher. Hope my answer can help you.

As a native speaker, I think 安大勇 is a great choice for your Chinese name for multiple reasons:

1. 安大勇 sounds a bit similar to your name Andrew (usually translated to 安德鲁), and as you said, 大勇 means "great bravery" or "great courageous" as ἀνδρεῖος.
2. The origin of word 大勇 is an essay 留侯论 (Liuhoulun) written by a well-known poet 苏轼 (Su Shi) during Song Dynasty:

"古之所谓豪杰之士者，必有过人之节。人情有所不能忍者，匹夫见辱，拔剑而起，挺身而斗，此不足为勇也。天下有大勇者，卒然临之而不惊，无故加之而不怒，此其所挟持者甚大，而其志甚远也。"

(Those who were called heroes in ancient times must have the spirit of surpassing ordinary people. When ordinary people encounter unbearable things, they will draw their swords and rush to fight. This is not bravery. There are people of great courage in the world, who are not at all alarmed by unexpected events, and who are insulted for no reason will not be angered. This is because their ambitions are very grand and their ambitions are particularly high.)

3. 大勇 is a relative common name. You can even find celebrities with the name 大勇 and people with the name 安大勇.
4. Shakespeare's quote "The better part of valor is discretion" is translated to 谨慎即大勇 in Chinese.
5. There is no homophone of 安大勇 I can think of that has bad meaning.