• Diss

  • Rant: Don't Butcher Chinese Names Please

yaoyueyi
What seriously? Lol, I thought it might’ve been one of those looks fine to an English speaker but actually means something stupid in Chinese like beard.
What does either of those two names mean then?

      Chryiss depends on what characters each one have. in chinese, there are tones, so numerous word can be "xia" in pinyin form but all have different sounds (or in some cases, the same sound) but different meanings.
      now that i'm thinking about it some more, xiaxue is kinda weird because it kinda means falling snow/snowing
      so I like xiayue better, which based on my interpretations, could be 夏月, or summer moon

          yaoyueyi (Back at it again with the names lol sorry XD)

          was curious about what you think of Linhua?
          And which surname sounds better with it?

          Lu Linhua
          Chen Linhua
          Luo Linhua
          Shen Linhua

          And which surname sounded better with Lifei? Was originally gonna put Bai, but that household is pretty evil in my other book lolol

          Tang Lifei
          Zhang Lifei
          Zhao Lifei

          Does Lifei sound better or Linhua sound better for a modern novel? Was talking to my mom a bit about names and she jokingly said that no one in the 21st century would name their child with "hua" in their name anymore and I kinda panicked lmao XD

          Thank you in advance!

              Errr what about Bai Ling for a name? Meant to be a rather pure character and (Eastern Fantasy book) she cultivates the Dao of Samsara, so very much related to the soul.

                Xincerely linhua is fine! and I like chen linhua + zhao lifei the best.
                lifei sounds better haha. listen to your mom. :joy:

                    10 days later

                    Hello, I named my FMC by the name Duan Mulan. Is it okay ? I try to search for the meaning. It says, Mulan is a certain flower called Lily Magnolia.

                      yaoyueyi

                      cough

                      Can I borrow the experts opinion on two Chinese names I came up with relying on a dictionary and extensive history reading Chinese names in novels? It is for my weekly contest entry, specifically chapter 4 & 5, and would prefer they were nice names that anyone fluent in Chinese wouldn't snort at... It would probably be easiest to understand the context I aimed for if you have a look at the chapter in question.

                      https://www.webnovel.com/book/13045358106519305

                      Aimed for an English -> Chinese homonym kind of name:

                      Yasmin White -> Bai Yuemin
                      Yasmin's son -> Bai Haojie

                      Oh, and yes, please do offer any better alternatives if you have them.

                          yaoyueyi That Bing being all alone sort of reminded me of the bing search engine. Idk why but it did. 😅

                            Back again, haha XD I was wondering what you thought of these male names?

                            Yang Qiyu
                            Yang Weifeng
                            Yang Moran (the pinyin lowkey looks like moron, so this is a really iffy name lolol)
                            Yang Yufeng

                            (If these sucked, would gladly take suggestions T_T. I really liked Yang Yuhan until I realized a popular WN book used the same name but it was for a female, and I was confused and conflicted on using it lmao)

                            Thank you in advance! :heart:

                              I actually have been thinking of a general question over something that can bug me in some translations. Two word names and three word names.

                              Yue Yin Mei vs Yue Yinmei (I won't go over those who would write Yue YinMei, the abuse of improper capitals is simply criminal)

                              Whilst it's probably a terrible name off the top of my head, I was wondering whether one was more correct than the other, and under what conditions you would define which format it is etc..

                                Xincerely since these are male names, I would say no to qiyu, and yes, moran is kinda weird. weifeng/yufeng are okay.
                                imo, yuhan is a more of a unisex name? I think it works well for both males and females.

                                    Wolfick it's purely a stylistic choice!
                                    both yin mei and yinmei work to convey the meaning across. based on my own personal preferences, if it's two character name, such as "岳梅", I would write it like Yue Mei, with Yue being the surname, and Mei being the first name character, although her name would not be Mei; it would be Yue Mei (if that makes sense lmao). if it was a three character name, such as "岳荫梅“, I would write it like Yue Yinmei since I find that this is easier to read for english speakers. Yue would be the surname, and Yinmei would be the first name, and people would call her either Yue Yinmei or Yinmei.

                                    overall though, I would say that whether or not the translator/author picks to format her name as Yin Mei or Yinmei, they should keep the formatting the same throughout the story and the same for all the characters. (so basically, if I were to have another character named, say, "陈闻柳’, and I wrote Yinmei's name with the two first-name-characters pieced together, I would write the other character's name as Chen Wenliu because I did the same formatting for Yinmei.)
                                    if they don't keep the formatting coherent, then that's the sign of a careless translator/author since it can confuse some readers.

                                    hope this explanation helped. :smile:

                                      yaoyueyi ooo okie, thank you so much! :heart:

                                      for a modern novel, would Yang Yu or Yang Feng sound better? I was thinking of sticking to two character names now XD

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