• Diss

  • Rant: Don't Butcher Chinese Names Please

yaoyueyi Hi, can you help me with my character's name? I'm born Chinese, first language is Chinese, but my language skills are just plain terrible. I don't have much confidence in naming.

The MCs:
Yuan Ji
湲/園
(Hope)冀

Yang YueChen
(To raise/hoist/flutter) 揚
(Music/cheerful and Earth/Dust) 樂塵

Other names:
Zhi He 紙鶴
Yao Feng
Gui Zheng 鬼整

And if you could, please translate this:
Paper Crane Fleeting Amidst The Storm.

Many thanks!

      X_I_O not a fan of gui zheng. idk what zhi he is for but that's not a proper name most likely... don't name your kids paper crane lmao
      also you're using traditional chinese here. I only know simplified so can't help you much there.

          NihilisticBeauty well, I don't study last names so I don't know their meanings. I generally know more over first names. all I know about that xu is that it's one of the most common last names, so yep.

          • hiop replied to this.

              yaoyueyi It's a bit late to reply to the thread but what about my MC: Ye Yuyan.

                  16 days later

                  Ahhhhh. Thank you for writing this! Have you seen The Other Side of A Cultivation Novel? 😦 The main character’s name is Shu QAI. And he gets called Qai.... that’s not even a word/character. I left a rant about it on chapter 3 it’s the most upvoted lol.

                    This Tiny Fish brings a question to you, Revered Gramps:
                    Have you any better names than Xiao Lang (Little Wolf) to recommend?
                    Specifically, for a female child whose's a glutton.
                    This Tiny Fish is filled with gratitude (-ω-)ゝ

                      yaoyueyi Please help me YaoYueyi. Do these names sound okay?
                      - Yang Xinyu
                      - Wu Lina (Lina is not a Chinese name. But does it look okay with that last name? Do mixed names exist in Chinese culture?)
                      - Zhang Jia
                      - Yang Ming-Chang
                      - Yang Haobao

                      Please don't laugh! :)

                          MishaK unless your character is an american born chinese or if they have an english name equivalent, then wu lina is okay. otherwise, nah.
                          zhang jia sounds stupid.
                          haobao sounds really really stupid.
                          not the biggest fan of ming chang but oh well. xinyu is the best. nice name.

                              yaoyueyi Did a little research again:

                              How are these names:

                              • Zhang Guan-yin (Zhang being the last name)
                              • Yang Eu-meh
                              • Bo Xilai

                                  MishaK guanyin is highkey weird bc that's the name of a buddhist goddess. idk if that's what you're going for but that's just weird.
                                  eu meh is not even chinese. I have no idea what language that is... maybe korean??
                                  xilai is bearable

                                      Xiaoyiyi8 what is this name for...?? modern day no... if you wanted some title for a character in a historical fantasy fic... maybe. but really only historical fantasy is the exception.

                                          It's for my male character in my historical fantasy novel. oh, so I can use this! Thanks! 😄

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