Quote:'Ning Jia-lan' (or Jialan, Jia Lan, etc) would actually be far more likely. Ning is a fairly well-established family name, while Shui isn't...far as I know. I'm hardly a scholar.
Eh, sorry. I really didn't know that. But it's easily fixed. I like Jialan so would Shui Jia-lan be better or Ning Jia-lan?
But! Shui Jialan isn't impossible. 'Shui' could simply be a variant romanisation of 'xu' or 'xue'. Or in a Chinese dialect other than Mandarin. Or something her grandfather registered at the name-change office because he thought it sounded cool...so either works.
(and yes, 'Jialan' is a neat name)
-- Acyl