My name is Paul Rachapong Chirarattananon.

Why do I use Paul Xie everywhere in my professional identity (linkedin, email, and all)?

Reasons for not Paul Rachapong Chirarattananon or acronyms:

• My official given name is unwieldy.
  • Personally filling forms and all is already a pain.
  • I wouldn’t expect anyone else to be able to remember, pronounce, or spell it correctly.
• Why not acronym?
  • Acronym is PRC. Enough said.

So I need another basis that’s not PRC-derived.

My family name, Chirarattananon, was adopted 2 generations ago by my grandfather.

Its ancestral form is 谢. In Teochew, this is romanised as “Chia” (sound is closer to English J), “แซ่เจี่ย” in Thai.

The same character is pronounced and romanised in Mandarin as “Xiè” (pronounced close to “sear” without the r).

The choice came down to “Xie” or “Chia”.

• Teochew is a stateless language which I was never taught, and likely will never pick up.
• Mandarin, I can imagine picking up some day due to its usefulness.
• Acronym X is just cooler than C.

So that’s why I use Paul Xie as my public name.