古人云: "赐子千金,不如教子一艺; 教子一艺, 不如赐子好名"。每个中国孩子的父母在给孩子命名时，都会煞费苦心。我名"小廿"易写但不易读。"廿"的汉语拼音为Nian, 第四声。中国人中大多数对此字似曾相识，知其意但不知其音。很多人干脆就把我的姓名改写或改读成"段小甘"。在中国我经常要告诉别人我的姓名的读法，是一件令双方都很尴尬的事情。我大学和研究生同学们常亲切地叫我"段小20"，即不出错又有创造性。

出国后姓名只好用汉语拼音，入乡随俗名在前姓在后，写成"Xiaonian Duan"，或简写成"X Duan"或"X N Duan"。"廿"的读音"Nian"没问题了，老外都能读出来。但"小"的读音"Xiao"经常把老外难倒，不知如何开口。这是中国人在国外常遇见的现象。姓名中有单词用X开头，实为中国人姓名英文拼法的软肋。英美人对X出现在词尾习以为常，但当X出现在词头时，却不知如何是好。我在国外常常要告诉别人将"X"读成"Sh"。

My first name, Xiaonian, when written in Chinese, has two characters. The first character "Xiao" is very popular in two-character Chinese first names, usually used as the first character. The given name of the late Chinese leader, Mr Deng Xiaoping, is a well-known example. People in English speaking countries often find it difficult to pronounce words beginning with an "X", although they have no problem pronouncing words ending with an "X". The pronunciation of "X" in a Chinese word is the same as "Sh" in an English world.