On Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 6:31 PM, Hin-Tak Leung htl10@users.sourceforge.net wrote:
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I believe he did give his real name. "Xu" is a common surname in China (Not sure about "Xin", probably also a less common one!). Most Chinese names consist of 3 syllables, a single-syllable surname and a double-syllable first name. Double-syllable surname are less common, but single-syllable first names are also quite popular in recent years; So you expect most Chinese names to be in 3 syllables, fewer in just two, and an even smaller number in 4.
Xu Li-Xin (surname Xu, first name Li-Xin) is a conceivable real name. It is probably also conceivable that it should be interpreted as firstname "Xu-Li" surname "Xin".
Yes, with a population of 1.3 x 10^11, and using mostly 3 syllables, collisions are extremely common in China, after romantisation from Mandarin pronunciations.
Well the fact that the name was given without any spaces made me think it wasn't a real name. I didn't know Chinese enough to fill the blanks ;)