Questions tagged [names]

Questions related to Chinese names.

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Is "酷比" an actual used word in any Chinese-speaking location? (Including colloquial and slang)

I've been looking at some very cheap tablet computers made in China and one goes by the English brand name "Cube" or "Alldocube" or "cube51". Their Chinese brand name is "酷比魔方" (Kù bǐ mófāng). I see ...
hippietrail's user avatar
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2 votes
3 answers
846 views

Naming siblings with same sounding chinese characters [closed]

I would like to name my baby daughter "嫣" which is written as "yān", per pinyin. However my elder daughter's name is "彥" which is pronounced as "yàn". Is it considered taboo to give my daughters the ...
alphaz4m's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
199 views

四航奋进: This ship's name is translated as "Four Aircraft Endeavour", but is it?

The name of the ship below is given as: 四航奋进 I've seen it previously*** translated as "Four Aircraft Endeavour", which seems peculiar, as it's not an aircraft. The 四 I can understand: it has two ...
410 gone's user avatar
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3 votes
3 answers
397 views

Which characters typically occur only within names?

Does anyone know where I can find a list of characters that are, at least in common usage, found only as a component of names (especially of persons) in modern Chinese? I have in mind characters such ...
user238264's user avatar
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4 votes
4 answers
4k views

How to address a teacher one knows well (in conversation and emails). Is 亲爱 "dear" ever appropriate?

Can one use 亲爱 "dear" in a letter to a teacher one knows well? In the specific case that triggered this question, the student, who is a male student in his late 20s, is being addressed 亲爱的[name]兄弟 ...
mazed's user avatar
  • 101
3 votes
1 answer
376 views

Use of polyphonic characters in transliteration

The pronunciation of polyphonic character is usually deduced from the semantic of the context. In a transliterated word, there is no such context, the character only stands for its pronunciation, so ...
NS.X.'s user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
4k views

What traditions do people follow when naming a second child in Chinese?

What traditions do Chinese people follow when selecting names for consecutive (2nd, 3rd etc.) children? In the case of my own children the second child was given the same middle character as my ...
going's user avatar
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4 votes
1 answer
4k views

How does the Chinese translation of an English name get established? [duplicate]

This isn't a question on how to choose a Chinese name equivalent, but how the one that most media and people use, gets used. For example, if some unknown person out there who never had a Chinese ...
Steve's user avatar
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9 votes
6 answers
5k views

Can I use a rare character like 飂 in a name?

I am trying to find a new Chinese name for myself. Before, I simply used a transliteration of my western name. Now, as my Chinese progressed, I would like to find something that does not immediately ...
Lukas's user avatar
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15 votes
3 answers
1k views

How does foreign word transliteration work in the context of Cantonese vs Mandarin?

If I understand correctly, Cantonese sounds very different from Mandarin, despite being written in the same way (omitting some small differences, which are irrelevant for the question). If it is the ...
KT.'s user avatar
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6 votes
3 answers
2k views

How to learn how to pronounce and remember names of Chinese students?

This question was originally asked on Academia.Stackexchange.com. I would normally not cross-post, however, I think this question might be an exception, where both sites may provide complementary ...
Jeromy Anglim's user avatar
12 votes
5 answers
2k views

What is a good form of address for a male friend who is too old to be 小, too young to be 老, and too humble to be called 大?

I have a male "friend", last name 柯 (kē) who is over 30. From ages 18-30 or so, he went by 小柯, but that seems less and less appropriate as he gets older. Always going by his full name seems overly ...
2snacc's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
485 views

What are the connotations of the word 拳拳?

I chose 拳拳 as my own Chinese name, having the meaning of my name in mind. I got it from an online dictionary, so I would like to know what native speakers "get" from it, as in what are the ...
Petruza's user avatar
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18 votes
5 answers
14k views

Is there a rule of thumb for distinguishing male and female names in Chinese?

I often get tripped up when reading names of Chinese people, and trying to work out if they are male or female. Is there a good rule of thumb to follow to determine which is which?
Ciaocibai's user avatar
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19 votes
5 answers
3k views

How do we know what characters correspond to Chinese names?

Recently I've asked "How do we choose the correct characters for a westerner name?", and now, I'm facing a similar, yet kind of different problem, which I think applies to any westerner or Chinese ...
Alenanno's user avatar
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36 votes
10 answers
6k views

How do we choose the correct characters for a Western name?

Since there are many characters that share a common pronunciation and sometimes also the same tone, how do we properly choose which character best represents our name? Is it totally arbitrary or are ...
Alenanno's user avatar
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