TIPS TO NAME A BABY IN CHINESE

So you want to give your baby a Chinese name.

The first thing I recommend is that you make it the child's middle name. There are a few Chinese names that look and sound good in English; but many names that are beautiful in Chinese are simply alien to English. Leave them in the middle. Actually, since Chinese have their surnames first and their given names second, the middle position makes sense: the Chinese given name of your adoptee is always second, whether you read it the English way or the Chinese way.

The next thing I recommend is keeping the name to a single word. When we naturalized our child, two adoptees in the group had this combination: an English given name, a Chinese surname, a two-syllable Chinese given name broken down into two words (and thus two names) and both parents' surnames (not hyphenated). Six names! What a burden. If, of course, a two-syllable name is pretty in English, then it can serve as first and middle names. But generally names should be kept to single words, like Xiaoming or Donglu (both lovely ladies' names in Chinese).

Now, how to choose a name? their are a number of approaches:

1. Keep the name from China (the simple way)

Let your baby keep the name she was given by workers at the welfare institution (orphanage) where she was processed after being found. I recommend this. The name will always be a connection to her origins---very important to adoptees.

2. Pick a meaningful name (the complicated way)

Some of you want to give your baby (or yourself) a name that means something in Chinese. Admirable. Now, how does one go about this? You can look in Best Chinese Names by Liu Xiaoyan, (Wu Jingyu, translator), 1996 Asiapac Books, ISBN 981-3068-30-2. Or you can look at Name Your Baby in Chinese, by Lin Shan, 1988 Heian International, Inc., 1815 West 205th St #301, Torrance, CA 90501 (Tel 310-782-6268); ISBN 0-89346-304-3 [but see below at **]. These books can give you ideas on how to choose a name that means something. Both are available from Chinabooks. I find the Name Your Baby in Chinese to be the more approachable and useful of the two. Best Chinese Names is aimed at so-called overseas Chinese, people who have some acquaintance with the Chinese language and are getting back in touch with their heritage. It is no accident, I think, that the book is from Singapore.

Look through, ponder, decide on a name. Double check it in a Chinese-English dictionary (see below at *). Double check the name again with Chinese friends.

3. Transcribe an English name (another complicated way)

You want to transcribe an English name into Chinese. Look it up in one of the books above. Double check the candidates in a Chinese-English dictionary (see below at *). This is especially tricky, so you really must double check the name again with Chinese friends.

4. Strike out on your own (pun intended)

Be warned: this is yet another complicated way.

Maybe you just want to name your baby or yourself something like "rose" (this is the question that stimulated this page). If it is an English name, you could look up the English name in one of the Chinese naming books. Name Your Baby in Chinese has more of these than the other book.

You can also find the translation of "rose" directly. First look up the word in an English-Chinese dictionary.

Using an English-Chinese dictionary

The best one I have found is Advanced English-Chinese Pinyin Dictionary, compiled by Wu et al., 2nd Edition 1993, published in the US by Heian International, Inc., 1815 West 205th St #301, Torrance, CA 90501 (Tel 310-782-6268); ISBN 0-89346-316-7. It is routinely carried by Borders Books and Barnes and Noble. This dictionary gives you the Pinyin spelling (Pinyin is what is used in the PRC), the Chinese character and at least one example in context. The entry for "rose" gives you "meiguihua", with tone indicators showing second, fourth and first tones, respectively.

Chinese tones:

The first or steady tone is indicated by a line over the letter---the same mark used to indicate a long vowel in English. The second or rising tone is indicated with an acute accent mark over the vowel, the one rising from left to right. The third or dipping tone is indicated by the same mark used to indicate a short vowel in English. The fourth or falling tone is indicated with a grave accent mark over the vowel, the one falling from left to right. One can transcribe the syllables without using special marks, however; all you do is indicate the tone with a number after the syllable. In the case of "rose", you would write "mei2-gui4-hua1". The next step is to look up what you got from the English-Chinese dictionary in a Chinese-English dictionary.

*Using a Chinese-English dictionary

The best one I have found for casual study is Learner's Chinese-English Dictionary, 8th Edition (revised) 1990, jointly published by Nanyang Siang Pau and Umum Publisher PTE, Ltd. ISBN 9971-940-22-1. This dictionary is also routinely carried by Borders Books and Barnes and Noble. It is indexed by Pinyin spelling and tone. The spelling and tone together give homophone groupings of characters---characters which share the same pronunciation. You then look at the first Chinese character in the word you got from the English-Chinese dictionary, and find the corresponding entry in the homophone group. In this case, under mei2, the next to last character entry is the same as the first character in the word mei2-gui4-hua1. But it does not have a separate entry for mei2. The entry is "mei2-gui4", translated "rose". Now what? Look up "hua1". The first character entry is the same as the last character in mei2-gui4-hua1. Hua1 means "flower" or "blossom". So mei2-gui4-hua1 means "rose blossom."

Since Chinese given names have at most two syllables (two characters), mei2-gui4-hua1/rose blossom is too much. However, mei2-gui4/rose is perfect. So the child's name could be Meigui, pronounced "may-gway", a beautiful, charming name ("gui" means extraordinary or admirable, but its use with mei2 to make mei2-gui4 is mainly to differentiate it from another mei2 that means plum; it is the easiest way in spoken Chinese to distinguish the two mei2's).

I recommend the dictionaries above. Others are too simple or too complex. I have twenty-one Chinese-English and English-Chinese dictionaries, and I have looked at a bunch more. But remember: it is REALLY EASY TO MAKE A BAD NAME for yourself or your child. I don't recommend do-it-yourself.

Final Word

Does all of this sound hard? Yes, it is. A friend of mine, Charlie Jorgenson, was given his Chinese name, roughly "Jo-Gen-San", by a dear friend. I invented my own Chinese name after a false start. It is He Ai De (pronounced "ho-I(=eye=aye)-duh"), which is my Chinese surname followed by a name that means "loves virtue". I only began using it after I cleared it with my Chinese teacher. Again, I don't recommend do-it-yourself.

Postscript:

A very Interesting page, Get a Chinese Name, uses a computer program to find you a name. It gave me the name Hong Etian, and even said it aloud! The accompanying text said it was "the Chinese name which was 'inspired' by your English name." Given different personal characteristics to emphasize, it also gave me Hong Aodu and Hong En De. It's on mandarintools.com, which provides a number of "On-Line Chinese tools", and looks very good. that said, NEVER USE A CHINESE NAME UNTIL YOU HAVE CLEARED IT WITH CHINESE FRIENDS. Good luck. Have fun.