What's in a name?

One of the distinct memories I have of grad school in Los Angeles is the first day of classes when the professor would ask students to briefly introduce themselves. Classes were usually half full of foreign students, a majority of whom hailed from China, and before they'd get into where exactly or what they liked to do on weekends, they'd say their name, which often went something like -- "My name is Zhu Cheng Chen, but you can call me Bob."

They do this for our sake, so that we (non-Chinese speakers) can correctly pronounce their first name without much effort. In fact, most of the locals I've met here have taken on an English name. As a side note, I find this a little sad that we can't attempt to pronounce more "exotic" names, names that are different from ones we've heard so many times before. But the most fascinating part about this whole thing is the choice in so-called English names. Here are some of my favorites:

Great

Fish

Spring

Judah XIII

Rice