Why do Chinese choose 'weird' English names?

Ray (China)

We have English names mainly for the convenience of native English-speaking friends who tend to find Chinese names difficult to pronounce. Some of us may just find having an English name cool. To be frank, that's how I got my English name in middle school.

Nonetheless I have good reasons to call myself Ray because my first name is Xiao-rui, the latter part sounding very much like "Ray".

In China, you'll run into people who have weird English names like Butterfly, Sunny or Mushroom. Those people might just give themselves English names because of anything they like or they think they in some strange way resemble.