Choose Your Own Good Characters: John
Originally Published: January 15, 2025.
Updated January 24, 2025: We’ve just added a Kindle digital version as well!
Updated March 14, 2025: We just added a paperback version too!
Errata: April 9, 2025: On pages 31 and 299, there are two typesetting errors on each page involving the Hebrew forms of the name John. In both cases, the Hebrew letters were incorrectly set left to right instead of the correct right to left.
Updated May 4, 2025: Added two AI-generated discussions in Chinese.
I’m excited to share some great news! The first book in our Choose Your Own Good Characters series, John: 888 Ways to Name John in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, is now available on Amazon in these countries:
Amazon US United States of America: If you’re outside the U.S., clicking this link should take you to Amazon in your country. If it doesn’t, please try one of the links below.
Amazon UK United Kingdom
Amazon DE Germany (Deutschland)
Amazon FR France
Amazon ES Spain (España)
Amazon IT Italy (Italia)
Amazon NL Netherlands (Nederland)
Amazon PL Poland (Polska)
Amazon SE Sweden (Sverige)
Note: As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. The link above will take you to my book.
Listen to the Deep Dive: Overall, I really liked the AI deep-dive audio overview after I uploaded a couple of chapters from my book. However, it mentioned LeBron James, which was odd because he’s not in the book at all.
Listen to the Deep Dive: Mandarin with a Taiwanese accent and word choice:
這本名為《選擇你自己的好名字：約翰》的書籍，由 Andy Chuang 所著，旨在幫助人們將「John」這個名字翻譯成中文、日文和韓文。 作者解釋了音譯過程的複雜性，強調名字翻譯不僅僅是聲音匹配，還包括考慮意義、文化、美學和區域差異。 該書收錄了多達 888 種「John」的音譯方法，並按照不同的來源和發音進行了分類。 此外，該書還介紹了作者 Good Characters, Inc. 的詳細命名流程，以及對不同音譯方法進行排名和評分的方法。 作者分享了該書的出版信息，以及他最初想將部分內容倒印的有趣想法。
Listen to the Deep Dive: Mandarin with a Mainland Chinese accent and word choice:
In addition to the 888 names, I originally designed a fun, 20-page appendix about how to misname John to be printed upside down. My idea was to show, in a thought-provoking way, how choosing the wrong transliteration can turn things upside down in unexpected ways.
Unfortunately, the publishing company didn’t approve the upside-down printing. After a week of back-and-forth, I decided to let it go and printed it normally. I’ll admit, it took a bit of the creativity and fun out of the book for me—but aside from that, this edition turned out just the way I wanted.
I hope you’ll check it out, use it to assign good, bad, or just plain weird names to all the Johns you know, and have fun while learning something new along the way!
If your first or middle name is John, or if you know someone named John, I’d love for you to check out this book! You’ll get a kick out of the many fascinating ways to name John and probably learn more about it than anyone else around you.
If you’ve purchased stamps from us before—like a Personal Stamp or Master Stamp—and you find a transliteration of John that really resonates with you, let me know. I’ll create a brand-new stamp for you at a great discount!
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On page 10, we include this famous quote from Confucius:
名不正，則言不順；言不順，則事不成。
If the name is not correct, the words will not flow smoothly; if the words do not flow smoothly, the affairs will not be accomplished. — Confucius, Analects
There are also other ways to interpret it:
- If the name is not correct, the words will not be effective; if the words are not effective, affairs will not succeed.
- If things are not named correctly, what is said will not be understood or accepted; if what is said is not understood or accepted, tasks will not be accomplished.
- When names are not in accordance with reality, words will not lead to effective action; if words do not lead to effective action, goals will not be achieved.
Each version captures a slightly different shade of meaning, but they all emphasize the same idea: getting the name right is the foundation for everything that follows.
Haiku:
She named the small seed,
and words grew into strong trees,
shading all who came.