Go global, young man.

That was the advice from Harvard’s Theodore Levitt when his seminal article, "The Globalization of Markets," was published in 1983. Since then, globalization has become a dominant theme of international business strategy.

It really is a neat idea: You drive a global brand with one big differentiated idea, everywhere from Akron to Auckland. Your brand gets recognized on the shelf by travelers and natives alike. A single name lowers production and manufacturing costs.

That’s normally what we mean by a “global name.” But in China, the younger generation is giving globalization a provocative new spin. As China talks of opening itself to the world, its young people are presenting themselves to the world by selecting new names in English.

As FedEx and UPS expand their services in China, one leading linguist argues that they could have profited more from the positive sounds of their names transliterated into Chinese.

The name FedEx has a strong association in Mandarin Chinese with fei, which is flying – a desirable name hinting at speed. The U of UPS also has a good association: it sounds like yo in Mandarin Chinese, meaning excellent. In Taiwan, UPS has its name transliterated as You Bi Su (literally "excellent-compared-to-fast," insinuating quality service as well as speed).

Fed Ex’s “flying” nuance effectively expresses excellence with a picture of quickness in delivering, according to Andy Chuang, president of Good Characters in Fresno, California.

According to their official Chinese websites, however, both FedEx and UPS chose to translate the meaning of their names rather than transliterate the already familiar American names. The result is a mouthful. FedEx is Lian Bang Kuai Di, meaning Federal Express; UPS is Lian He Bao Guo Yun Sung Fu Wu, meaning United Parcel Service. Fortunately for them and no surprise to nameologists, customers use the shorter, positive-sounding English name more often.

The bottom line: Consider the positive association your brand name might have if transliterated into Chinese, and take advantage of it.

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Someday, it will be the biggest consumer market in the world. No wonder that marketers are increasingly interested in Chinese naming.

With his training in classical and modern Chinese literature plus an advanced American psychology degree in bilingual memory research, Andy Chuang is the first in his family’s 1,500-year history to master not only Chinese but also English. His company, Goodcharacters.com in Fresno, California, specializes in Chinese naming and linguistic evaluation.

We sat down with Andy to talk about the rationale and the process of Chinese naming.

Q: Americans have a set of basic assumptions about how they name things. Is it true that the Chinese have a completely different orientation towards naming?

Americans typically choose existing first names for their babies. For example, John, David or Mary. However, the Chinese name their babies in the same manner that you would name a company or a product. The Chinese pick some “good characters” and put them together to form a “good meaning.”

Consider the Chinese president, Jiang Zemin, as an example. Jiang is his family name. His first name, Zemin: the combination of the two characters, Ze and Min. Ze is a “pool” or “benefaction.” Min is “the people.” By putting these two together, Ze-min means “benefit to the people” or a “blessing for the people.”