David Sutoyo

Yao Ming's last name is not Ming

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Even though it’s not a big deal, but as a native Chinese speaker, it still irks me when national media outlets don’t spend a little time to get it right. I present the following evidence:

ESPN.com:
ESPN screenshot

SI.com:
SI screenshot

Yahoo! Sports:
Yahoo! screenshot

Here’s one place that gets it right, and it better have.
NBA.com
NBA screenshot

“Yao Ming” does sound better than “Ming Yao,” but still, Yao Ming’s last name is Yao.

Comments

  1. katy

    wrote this comment on November 13, 2006

    I didn’t know that!
    BTW I liked the church bulletin format.

  2. David Sutoyo

    wrote this comment on November 13, 2006

    Thanks!

  3. Nathan Smith

    wrote this comment on November 17, 2006

    Way to lay the linguistic smack-down. I’m 1/2 Japanese, so I can sort of relate. :)

  4. David Sutoyo

    wrote this comment on November 17, 2006

    Just a little rant, hopefully it’ll enlighten some.

    I’m 1/8 Japanese :)

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