My wife and I are considering naming our son 雲申. However, I don't think that most native English speakers will pronounce Yunshen close enough to the correct pronunciation. The first syllable will probably rhyme with "fun".

Our ideal English spelling would not induce fear in a native English speaker and would be pronounced reasonably correctly on the first (unassisted) try.

My current favourite is Eunshen. My wife prefers Eunsen, but that's because Taiwanese always drop their h's.

Does anyone have any suggestions on anglicizing 雲申?

I read an online forum for law school applicants, law students, and current practicing lawyers.

There was a recent thread specifically about lawyers with foreign names (Chinese) actually legally changing their name so they have a name that's easier to pronounce for clients & partners.

No matter how you spell Yunshen, people are going to mispronounce it on the first try. Especially the Yun portion. Chinese pronunciation just does not come natural to English speakers. When people see a name they have never encountered before (Eunshen?), and especially when it belongs to someone who is from a different ethnicity, they will assume it is foreign and may twist their tongue to make it sound how they think it should sound. Just ask anybody with the last name Nguyen.

My take on the thread in the lawyer forum is that you should give him the name you want, and if pronunciation is a problem, he can pick an English nickname. But as to your specific problem as to how to anglicize 雲申 so that people will pronounce it correctly, I just don't think it can be done. You should adopt the name for a while to see how people pronounce it - next time order a coffee at starbucks with the name Eunshen, and see how the barista calls it out when it's ready.

sounds like Vincent

Call me stupid but can't you chose both a Chinese name and an English-sounding name? After all he will likely have two mother languages, too.

And you can link the names by same meaning. So if 云申 (simplified) means 'clouds and extended' you can look up an English name that has a connection. For e.g. read the first paragraph, this name comes from 'cloud'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil

It does actually sound like Vincent, which is a common name in French Dutch and English speaking countries.

Yes, in Cantonese, 雲申 sounds exactly like Vincent. And in Taiwanese (閩南語), 雲申 is hunsin, which is also quite near to Vincent.

I think since Taiwan is also adopting Hanyu Pinyin little by little, having the name romanized this well-accepted way is the most practical thing. Pinyin today is less of a "Chinese" way to romanize Chinese but the international standard. Imagine your son will be a scientist one day and many Chinese and Singaporean people who know his Chinese name will google for a publication of his; they will find it right away! :)
OK, this is pretty speculative. But I think "Yunshen" would be just fine. So some people won't know how to pronounce it right away - why worry about it?

How about something lofty, like 雲山?