What famous word or phrase can I use to tell people my surname is 袁?

Question

I know in Chinese people sometimes use other common words or phrases to tell people what characters their Chinese name has.

My Chinese name is Yuan Li Heng (袁禮恒)

For Li I can say Li Wu 禮物 and for Heng I can say Yong Heng 永恒. Yuan is a little harder because from I've heard, it's more just a common surname.

What's usually the best way to tell people what character it is in Chinese if the character itself doesn't really have any associated meanings?

droooze · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-18 21:23:07Z

Just mention a famous person with that surname, e.g.

袁紹 from the Three Kingdoms
袁崇煥, patriot, martyr, and brilliant military commander who was instrumental in repelling the Jurchens for the Ming Dynasty
袁世凱, first president of the Republic of China

dan · Accepted Answer · 2018-01-19 01:24:47Z

2

Referencing famous names is a good idea. But if it still doesn't work, you might have to describe the radicals.

For example, my surname is 张. I was often asked to clarify whether it's 立-早章 or 弓-长张, when I told them my surname pronounced as 'zhang'.

answered Jan 19 '18 at 1:24

dan

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Ooo can you actually dive more into this? What would be an appropriate way to do that? I actually try to use 遠 and I want to say without that horse radical. What would be the appropriate way to do that? – aug Jan 19 '18 at 2:59
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@aug What dan means is to break down the character into components, e.g. 袁 would be broken down into 土口𧘇, but 𧘇 is not a character so you'd describe it as e.g. "the bottom part of 衣". Btw, the left hand component of 遠 is 辵 or ⻍, not horse. – droooze Jan 19 '18 at 3:04
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@aug, as long as you can get that clear to your interlocutor. The way you interpret 袁(I actually try to use 遠 and I want to say without that horse radical) is fine. And droooze's is fine too. – dan Jan 19 '18 at 3:10
@aug In your method I hope you're clear about the audience you're talking to, because trying to break down 遠 to simplified Chinese users won't work very well, since 遠 is written 远 in simplified Chinese, and they might misinterpret your surname as 元, which is a valid surname. – droooze Jan 19 '18 at 3:18
Ah sorry my radicals aren't very good >< thanks for correcting @drooze. And thanks for the info @dan! – aug Jan 19 '18 at 4:18

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