Asking Name in Chinese

 Sometime people volunteer to tell you their name before you ask them. Sometime you need to ask them about their names. The words used to ask name are different when you are in different situation.

In informal situation and the people you meet are almost the same age or younger than you, you can simply ask them, " What is your name?" How to say that in Chinese? It will be: "你(nǐ) 叫(jiào) 什(shén)么(me)  名(míng)字(zì)？"你(nǐ) means you; 叫(jiào)means to call, 叫(jiào) is also frequently used when you introduce your own name; 什(shén)么(me)   means what; 名(míng)字(zì) means name. So literally, "你(nǐ) 叫(jiào) 什(shén)么(me)  名(míng)字(zì)？" means " you are called what name? "  And the response is "我wǒ 叫jiào+ < name> "

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In formal situation or the people you meet are much older than you, if you want to know their name, you need to choose some polite words. It will be: "您nín 贵guì 姓xìng？"  您nín is a polite way to say 'you'; 贵guì means honorary; 姓xìng means family name. "您nín 贵guì 姓xìng？"  literally means," your honorary family name? "  or  " May I have your honorary family name please? " Most of time, if you ask another person's name in this polite way, you will get the response as "免miǎn 贵guì 姓xìng+  < family name >"。免miǎn, basically means avoid, exempt; 贵guì means honorary; "免miǎn 贵guì " literally means to avoid the honoring (of my family name). It's a bit strange. But that's one common way to show your humbleness.  Anyway " 免miǎn 贵guì 姓xìng+  < family name >" means "my family name is ...  "

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Other articles that you may be interested:
Greetings in Chinese One
Self-introduction
Summary of Pronoun