I would say more than half of my students have English names. Sometimes they pick names in their English classes. Sometimes they adopt names upon arrival in the US. The use of an English name has two purposes: first to help native speakers, many of whom are unfamiliar with foreign names, remember them; secondly to tweak their identities in response to their new environment. Sometimes students give themselves famous names; I've known a "Tiger" (Woods) and a "Vincent Van Gogh," but more often students simply choose an Englished version of their real names. For example, "Chen" becomes "Charles" or "Yin" becomes "Jane."
While my students usually do an excellent job of remembering my real name, I have decided, in recent sessions, to share in the fun and give myself a few foreign names. In Chinese, for example, I am "Li Bai" (sounds roughly like "Jeremy"), the famed literary figure of the Tang Dynasty. In Korean, I am "Sejong" after the inventor of the Hangul alphabet. And in Arabic I am Abu Nuwas who shows up a few times in Aladdin. At the very least, my foreign identities make my students laugh. They usually ask who gave me the name. I tell them that I gave it to myself. Then I ask how they got the name "Steve" or whatever it is. It usually leads to a good discussion.
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