• Diss

  • Rant: Don't Butcher Chinese Names Please

Hello! I was roaming around the forum and found your post. I'm not currently working on a novel, but I have been doing a bit of research on Chinese names since I found it interesting. I found that some Chinese authors name their characters from lines in poetry.

I was wondering if you can answer a question of mine about two character given names. Does it matter how you write it in English? I found how some names are written together and sometimes separately. Is there a reason for this? Is it a middle name when written separately? For example, my username Bai Qiuyue. 秋 for autumn and 月 for moon. From what I looked up it is written as Qiuyue, but can it be written as Qiu Yue, with Bai still as the surname?

    BaiQiuyue yes, depending on the style of the person who's writing/translating, they can choose to separate them or not. accurately, in chinese pinyin (which is the alphabetic way of spelling out chinese characters), the letters would be separated, so separating would be the most correct if you want to get technical. however, I personally prefer to keep the first name put together into one word because that's easier to read for non-chinese speaking individuals.

    but either way, both of them make bai (in your example) the surname. it's just a stylistic choice and doesn't impact the actual contents of the name very much!

        yaoyueyi I see! So the correct way is to separate the two character given names, but either way it doesn't change the structure or meaning. Thank you for clarifying that for me! :)

        I actually like when it's written separated. I think it has a nice presence that way. I just wasn't sure if it changed anything. :p

          I'm sorry for asking again, what do you think about 明善?

            Great Expert, can you check this one for This Fish?
            Wind Great Night; Feng Daye/Feng Da Ye.

            The literal translation "Wind Big Night" seems kinda bad in This Fish opinion.

              yaoyueyi
              Eh, This Fish thought the same, it sounds kinda bad.
              Still, Could you suggest some names for a Wind User?
              Any gender works, I can make it do somehow.

                  Hi! I'm here again to ask for your advice 😊

                  Is the name Lu Qiang okay? Or should I go with Lu Qian? 😊

                    So um, these are mine. I hope some of them work so I don't have to change much in my novel but nothing's ever perfect. Also, can you suggest me a name for a guy who uses super strong ice abilities? Just like his temperament; he is cold, ruthless, and definitely heartless. But not the main character of course. Sorry for taking your time.
                    Bai Li [MC-]
                    Da Yuan
                    Fan Tong
                    Jia Yan
                    Ju Dun
                    Khu Bei
                    Mo Tian
                    Shi Qigang
                    Wei Tao
                    Yue Su
                    Yue Yong
                    Zhao Fei
                    Zhao Kufei

                      yaoyueyi
                      This Fish thinks he can make it do.
                      Also, are these good?
                      Wind Little Night (Feng Xiaoye)
                      Jade Little Wind (Yu Xiao Feng)
                      Don't mind the Xiao's, they just sound nice and This Fish can't think of anything to replace them.

                          BeyondBreaking

                          okay: bai li, da yuan, fan tong, jia yan, mo tian, shi qigang, wei tao, yue su, zhao fei, yue yong
                          not okay: ju dun, khu bei, zhao kufei

                          suggestion: Mo Bingxi 慕冰熙 or Leng Chenyu 冷尘宇

                              DaddyFishGotBigPp xiao just makes me think of a kid. people generally don't use them in names unless they're nicknames because people can outgrow them. unless you're talking about really short people... that might work.

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