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Need a Chinese name?
Try some of these resources:
Righteous Blood, Ruthless Blades Naming Conventions Manual
Yabla: Online Pinyin Dictionary (search the keyword “surname” and you will get surname recommendations)
Choose a Name by how many Strokes are in it
Mandarin Chinese Character Generator
Evolution of Han Chinese Names
Please feel free to add more!
#china#Chinese#Chinese name#Chinese name generator#Chinese characters#character names#oc#original character names#writing#resource#svsss writing resource#svsss#mxtx#mdzs#tgcf#reference#Misfitrefs
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Exploring Chinese names of Taiwan
A while ago, I stumbled across this press release for Taiwan's National Names Statistical Analysis report. Then I clicked on the full report and spent days glued to my screen reading it!
So, courtesy of Taiwan's Ministry of the Interior, let's look at some of the data. We will look at: top given names, top full names, and top unisex names.
Format: 陈淑芬 | 陳淑芬 Chén Shūfēn | Chén Shúfēn / 3747人 简体 | 繁體 读音 | 台湾读音 / 人数 (Simp.) | (trad.) (pronunciation) | (Taiwan pronunciation) / (# people) I put simplified first for consistency with the rest of my blog. 简体 | 繁體 is the convention I use in many other posts.
Top 10 given names (by decade)
The report shows the top names by decade, which is really fascinating because you can see how tastes and trends changed over time. I'm just going to show the overall top 10 and last three full decades (1990s, 2000s, and 2010s) but you can see the rest on pg. 280 of the report (pg. 281 of the PDF).
Male
Overall
家豪 Jiāháo / 14,038人
志明 Zhìmíng / 12,719人
建宏 Jiànhóng / 12,196人
俊杰 | 俊傑 Jùnjié / 12,187人
俊宏 Jùnhóng / 11,189人
志豪 Zhìháo / 10,676人
志伟 | 志偉 Zhìwěi / 10,563人
承翰 Chénghàn / 9726人
冠宇 Guànyǔ / 9655人
志强 | 志強 Zhìqiáng / 9101人
1991-2000
家豪 Jiāháo / 4039人
冠宇 Guànyǔ / 3603人
冠廷 Guàntíng / 3399人
承翰 Chénghàn / 3008人
宗翰 Zōnghàn / 2831人
柏翰 Bóhàn / 2594人
彦廷 | 彥廷 Yàntíng / 2502人
冠霖 Guànlín / 2114人
俊杰 | 俊傑 Jùnjié / 2084人
承恩 Chéng’ēn / 1918人
2001-2010
承恩 Chéng’ēn / 2997人
承翰 Chénghàn / 2636人
冠廷 Guàntíng / 2452人
冠宇 Guànyǔ / 2206人
宇翔 Yǔxiáng / 1938人
柏翰 Bóhàn / 1885人
彦廷 | 彥廷 Yàntíng / 1610人
冠霖 Guànlín / 1509人
柏宇 Bóyǔ / 1471人
柏谚 | 柏諺 Bóyàn / 1409人
2011-2020
承恩 Chéng’ēn / 2215人
宥廷 Yòutíng / 2036人
品睿 Pǐnruì / 2021人
宸睿 Chénruì / 1904人
宇恩 Yǔ’ēn / 1860人
宇翔 Yǔxiáng / 1713人
承翰 Chénghàn / 1556人
宥辰 Yòuchén / 1532人
柏睿 Bóruì / 1511人
睿恩 Ruì’ēn / 1503人
Female
Overall
淑芬 Shūfēn | Shúfēn / 31,879人
淑惠 Shūhuì | Shúhuì / 30,420人
美玲 Měilíng / 27,487人
丽华 | 麗華 Lìhuá / 25,624人
美惠 Měihuì / 25,015人
淑贞 | 淑貞 Shūzhēn | Shúzhēn / 23,904人
雅婷 Yǎtíng / 23,407人
秀英 Xiùyīng / 23,020人
淑娟 Shūjuān | Shújuān / 22,828人
秀琴 Xiùqín / 22,266人
1991-2000
雅婷 Yǎtíng / 5797人
怡君 Yíjūn / 3575人
怡婷 Yítíng / 3183人
雅雯 Yǎwén / 3084人
诗涵 | 詩涵 Shīhán / 3006人
钰婷 | 鈺婷 Yùtíng / 2775人
怡萱 Yíxuān / 2729人
雅筑 Yǎzhù | Yǎzhú / 2700人
郁婷 Yùtíng / 2600人
宜庭 Yítíng / 2555人
2001-2010
宜蓁 Yízhēn / 2629人
欣妤 Xīnyú / 1643人
诗涵 | 詩涵 Shīhán / 1610人
思妤 Sīyú / 1561人
雅婷 Yǎtíng / 1439人
宜庭 Yítíng / 1394人
佳颖 | 佳穎 Jiāyǐng / 1375人
品妤 Pǐnyú / 1336人
子涵 Zǐhán / 1271人
怡萱 Yíxuān / 1258人
2011-2020
品妍 Pǐnyán/ 2421人
子晴 Zǐqíng / 2087人
咏晴 | 詠晴 Yǒngqíng / 2001人
品妤 Pǐnyú / 1697人
禹彤 Yǔtóng / 1578人
羽彤 Yǔtóng / 1434人
芯语 | 芯語 Xīnyǔ / 1342人
宥蓁 Yòuzhēn / 1226人
语彤 | 語彤 Yǔtóng / 1221人
苡晴 Yǐqíng / 1164人
Top 10 full names
In Mainland China the most common full names are usually something like 张伟 and 李娜. In Taiwan, 单名 (single-character given names) are much rarer, so the results are very different. We can also really see the dominance of the surname 陈 here. The rest of the top 100 are on pg. 268 of the report (pg. 269 of the PDF).
Male
陈冠宇 | 陳冠宇 Chén Guànyǔ / 4021人
陈建宏 | 陳建宏 Chén Jiànhóng / 3524人
张家豪 | 張家豪 Zhāng Jiāháo / 2890人
陈俊宏 | 陳俊宏 Chén Jùnhóng / 2801人
陈冠廷 | 陳冠廷 Chén Guàntíng / 2469人
陈柏宇 | 陳柏宇 Chén Bóyǔ / 2383人
林建宏 Lín Jiànhóng / 2375人
陈柏翰 | 陳柏翰 Chén Bóhàn / 2353人
陈彦廷 | 陳彥廷 Chén Yàntíng / 2249人
陈信宏 | 陳信宏 Chén Xìnhóng / 2120人
Female
陈怡君 | 陳怡君 Chén Yíjūn / 5744人
林怡君 Lín Yíjūn / 4401人
陈淑芬 | 陳淑芬 Chén Shūfēn | Chén Shúfēn / 3747人
张雅婷 | 張雅婷 Zhāng Yǎtíng / 3491人
陈美玲 | 陳美玲 Chén Měilíng / 3235人
陈怡如 | 陳怡如 Chén Yírú / 3121人
陈美惠 | 陳美惠 Chén Měihuì / 3103人
陈淑惠 | 陳淑惠 Chén Shūhuì | Chén Shúhuì / 2921人
林淑惠 Lín Shūhuì | Lín Shúhuì / 2903人
陈淑贞 | 陳淑貞 Chén Shūzhēn | Chén Shúzhēn / 2751人
Unisex/gender-neutral names
Do you want a name that doesn't strongly lean towards masculine or feminine? The report also highlight the common names across genders. It seems their criteria for this was names falling between 40% male-60% female and 60% male-40% female.
To clarify, they actually looked at the top 100 full names, not given names. For instance, 宥均 Yòujūn was on the list three times with three different surnames. But I re-sorted the list by given name since I was curious to see that. You can find the original data on pg. 270 of the report (pg. 271 of the PDF).
宥均 Yòujūn Total: 1804人 Male: 54.77% Female: 45.23%
佳霖 Jiālín Total: 1111人 Male: 51.67% Female: 48.33%
家华 | 家華 Jiāhuá Total: 923人 Male: 53.41% Female: 46.59%
郁文 Yùwén Total: 847人 Male: 43.68% Female: 56.32%
禹安 Yǔ’ān Total: 789人 Male: 51.71% Female: 48.29%
以恩 Yǐ’ēn Total: 730人 Male: 49.32% Female: 50.68%
孟儒 Mèngrú Total: 643人 Male: 55.05% Female: 44.95%
冠桦 | 冠樺 Guànhuà Total: 643人 Male: 52.26% Female: 47.74%
靖恩 Jìng’ēn Total: 621人 Male: 44.93% Female: 55.07%
品辰 Pǐnchén Total: 600人 Male: 58.83% Female: 41.17%
Notes
The report is INCREDIBLY detailed. I'm not kidding. The body of the report is not that long, but it has a very long appendix with about 200 pages of tables. Here are some examples of data included that I didn't mention:
Most popular given names people changed their names to
Most common 单名 and 叠字名字
Most common last names by city/county
Indigenous peoples' use of the Latin alphabet for names
Prevalence of multi-character surnames
And so, so much more!
And FYI, the report uses the ROC calendar, which starts with the founding of the Republic of China. To convert from the ROC calendar to the Gregorian calendar, add 111. Ex: 1年=1912 112年=2023
Pronunciation & tones
冠 is a 多音字 that is pronounced guān or guàn. I went with guàn because that seems to be more common in names from what I've observed.
柏 is also a 多音字 that can be pronounced bǎi or bó. MDBG says Taiwan doesn't have the bǎi pronunciation. I usually hear it read as bó in names, so that's what I'm going with.
MDBG also says 淑 is pronounced shú (not shū) in Taiwan. Likewise, it says 筑 is zhú (not zhù). I'll take their word for it.
I tried to put apostrophes in the right places (like for 承恩 Chéng’ēn), but I'm really bad at knowing when and where to use it. Please pardon any mistakes!
See similar posts: Chinese surnames that are more common in Taiwan A closer look at Chinese names Analyzing Chinese names: Syllables & tones The evolution of Chinese names (Kontinentalist)
#chinese names#taiwan#chinese name#taiwanese names#taiwanese name#chinese#mandarin#mandarin chinese#chinese language#studyblr#langblr#learning languages#language learning#chinese langblr#mandarin langblr#languageblr
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i emailed my mandarin teacher about my name change (both chinese and english) but she wants to wait to talk about my chinese one and give me feedback 😰
#studyblr#high school#school#study#studyspo#kazma does school#chinese#mandarin#learn mandarin#mandarin chinese#chinese name#new chinese name
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關於我的頻道名稱的中文和日文版本的一些想法。讓我們知道您的想法?
私のチャンネル名の中国語版と日本語版のアイデアです。ご意見をお聞かせください?
Some ideas for Chinese and Japanese versions of my channel name. Let me know what you think?
#linguaphiliax#linguistics#chinese#japanese#languages#chinese name#language learning#translation#japanese name
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Shoutout to @reimeichan for helping me polish the bilingual pun for the name Fei - now Fei Xing. I was in the tags making an english pun about how Fei - the name for our fused whole state - could be "fei"-sing like phasing; before I went WAIT
THATS A CHINESE NAME
And had to look into it and had to share how funny it was with them, and they polished it better by suggesting a better character for Xing than the one I was looking into
Anyways, Fei Xing (飞形) in the full general label for our final state now (its not the name cause our name is generally just our irl name - its just the 'internal name' for the purposes of identifying and discussing parts)
iykyk
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chinese names
okay so i will be taking mandarin again at a new university soon, every professor/teacher i've had has asked us what our chinese name is or to make one. i dont even remember the one i used in my last class but wanna choose one ahead of time instead of from a random list the teacher gives can anybody help or give suggestions lol the only preference i have is that its gender neutral
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I don't know where to ask, but I wanted to know, I'm a little confused because I wanted to use Luo (Bai Luo) as a name for a chinese oc but wiki said it's a last name (Free to ignore)
Ohhh? I haven't gotten an ask in a long time, so i'll answer this regardless of not having chinese expertise.
In my opinion Luo is most definitely a last name. We see it used in mdzs with mianmian/Maiden Luo (Luo Qingyang) and svsss with Luo Binghe [i haven't watched/read that one, but i see the name since he's one of the main characters].
Both are examples where the name is being used as a last name. However, i'm not sure if it's offensive or not to use Luo as a first name! In my opinion as long as it's not being put in a physical novel somewhere where it could be a life-long mistake and it's only being used for fun i don't think this is something you really should worry too much about. As long as it's not harming anyone, have fun and name your character how you like.
However, i know there are accounts out there who do focus on answering questions like this but i can't remember their names, so i'm hoping one of those accounts sees this and helps you out. i'm an american who's only been in the fandom for about 5 months max, so my knowledge of the chinese language is about as much as anyone else who's just been exposed to names from china. i have seen accounts that focus on answering technical questions like this one, so let's hope one of them sees it.
Thank you for the ask anon, although i couldn't help too much i really enjoy answering asks even if they're not questions and just a hello.
#sasu speaks#sasu answers questions#mdzs#calling all chinese experts asdfasg--#the oh so rare question has been asked of me so i can't ignore it#please help out anon you guys!#chinese#chinese names#chinese name#mo dao zu shi#svsss#scumbag villain
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Macaque spent the whole season Big-Damn-Hero-ing and was NOT happy about it xD
#lmk season 5 spoilers#lmk spoilers#lmk season 5#lego monkie kid#lmk#macaque#liu'er mihou#six eared macaque#sun wukong#monkey king#qi xiaotian#mk#li jing#anyone else find it interesting that in english the 'macaque' part of his name comes first#but in chinese the 'six-ears' part comes first? so the way he's called by name in the different dubs has slightly different vibes#i can't quantify 'em tho :/ am not a vibeologist#Macaque was this season's biggest GOAT#like he's very petty about it but he cares about mk and swk SO. MUCH.#(well ok the petty is mostly aimed at swk)#which: fair#POV: everything is going to shit and you are currently the only celestial monkey NOT being re-traumatized or gaslight by celestial beings#macaque's gonna start rolling up to beach parties with a shirt that says:#I Saved The Monkey King's Arse Several Times And All I Got Was An Almost-Hand-Holding-Moment And This Stupid Shirt#MK NOOOOOOOOO#im a fucking wreck that's their KID. he's their BOY. their little BRO HE'S THEIR KID OKAY AND THEY LOVE HIM ENOUGH TO FISTFIGHT THE GODS#which i guess is a little easier since they can win those fights actually#not explicitly shadowpeach#but oh it is there. lurking. waiting to strike#lion king reference! :D
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It’s years later that I look back at this and understand it on a deeper level. I have two versions of my name. No. I have two names. I don’t mean First, Middle and Last Name. I have two sets of names.
Lucy Dan
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I want to post this here too because I’ve seen it happen a few times
Please understand that there are cultural differences and language differences, if you see this happening let the person clarify what they meant, that person might just not be familiar with words the western side of the internet use
#bearz rambling tag#no it’s not really possible to let everyone who uses this term to change#because as far as I know this is the most common word with use on Chinese websites#I didn’t know that pairing are called ‘ship’ here#like why would I even know that#‘ship’ makes zero sense to me#it took me a while to learn the fandom language people speak here#it’s hard#give people time#shipping culture is very different too#Like on Chinese site you HAVE to clarify the Top and the Bottom of this ship in the ship name#it is very very important to them#people who like the same ship but with different Top Bottom preference will fight till no end#imagine how confused I was when I first got here#where there’s no top bottom differences#it’s not really a smut thing#it’s more a dynamic thing#AxB and BxA is very different#oh I can talk so much about the differences on fandom cultures#if ya are interested in more please feel free to ask#it’s very interesting to me#I wanna talk about it
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In the province British Columbia, Canada, there's a large Chinese diaspora so a lot of politicians have adopted Chinese names for campaigning purposes. Here are some of them from 2019, interesting deconstruction of what makes a "good" Chinese name.
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It’s years later that I look back at this and understand it on a deeper level. I have two versions of my name. No. I have two names. I don’t mean First, Middle and Last Name. I have two sets of names.
Lucy Dan
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Analyzing Chinese Names: Syllables & Tones
It’s been a while since my last post about Chinese names. In one previous post, I wrote that I wanted to explore tones and syllable structure in Chinese names. And now here we are. I ended up shifting my focus a bit throughout the process, but I’m still excited to be sharing my results.
These questions/ideas guided this post:
Sometimes you don’t know how a name is written because you’ve only heard it or seen a transliteration. Setting aside the written language (Chinese characters), what syllables/sounds are most common?
I have read about naming conventions regarding tones. For example, using a mix of tones (instead of reusing the same tone) gives names a dynamic flow. So how are tones distributed in names?
Buckle up, everyone. This is gonna be a long one.
About the Data
I started with the data from my previous in-depth post about Chinese names. Like before, most names are from contestants on idol shows or members of idol groups. I added more names in this category and also some names of athletes (since for athletes it is also relatively easy to discern gender). In total, there were 4361 names (2340 female, 2021 male). Most names belong to individuals from Mainland China, but there are also names belonging to people from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore. See my past post for more details.
I had to do a lot of work to process the name data for this analysis. I will add some details towards the end of this post for those who are interested. I just want to note here that:
I did some work to account for tone sandhi for yi 一. As a result, you may see this character labeled as 1st, 2nd, or 4th tone.
I also applied tone change rules when there were multiple 3rd tones in a row (but not for surnames as it shouldn’t change there).
I had to correct for duoyinzi 多音字. Most of the time, it’s pretty clear which pronunciation is used, but there are some ambiguous cases.
I use standard Mainland pronunciation, not Taiwanese pronunciation. Characters like 薇 are pronounced differently in these locations.
I’m an imperfect human and probably didn’t catch everything. So keep that in mind.
Given Names (Overall)
First we will examine the overall results for all syllables across all given names to get a nice overview. Then we will dive into single-character given names vs. two-character given names.
Top Given Name Syllables (w/ Tones)
Pictured: Some of the most frequent characters for the top 11 syllables.
List format: Syllable / count Corresponding characters that occurred more than once
Yǔ / 263 宇 雨 羽 语 予 禹 瑀
Xīn / 229 欣 鑫 馨 心 昕 新 歆 芯 薪
Jiā / 216 佳 嘉 家 加 珈
Yì / 201 一 艺 奕 逸 亦 毅 懿 翊 义 易 翼 忆 意 译 轶 熠 羿 亿 薏
Zǐ / 139 子 梓 紫
Qí / 134 琪 琦 奇 祺 麒 淇 齐 棋 其 岐 崎
Wén / 116 文 雯 闻 纹
Jié / 112 杰 洁 婕 捷 颉 倢
Yù / 102 玉 钰 煜 昱 郁 裕 喻 谕 毓 育 誉
Jùn / 99 ��� 峻 珺 骏 浚 竣
Yáng / 99 洋 阳 扬 杨 炀 旸
Top Given Name Syllables (w/o Tones)
List format: Syllable / count Corresponding characters that occurred more than once
Yu / 419 宇 雨 玉 羽 钰 语 瑜 予 妤 煜 禹 昱 郁 俞 渝 裕 于 喻 瑀 谕 余 娱 愚 毓 育 誉
Yi / 356 一 怡 艺 奕 仪 依 逸 亦 伊 毅 宜 懿 翊 义 祎 易 翼 苡 忆 意 译 轶 颐 乙 以 熠 羿 亿 倚 薏
Xin / 232 欣 鑫 馨 心 昕 新 歆 芯 薪 信
Jia / 217 佳 嘉 家 加 珈
Jun / 165 俊 君 峻 钧 军 珺 均 骏 浚 竣
Zi / 157 子 梓 紫 姿 兹
Qi / 151 琪 琦 奇 祺 绮 麒 启 淇 齐 棋 其 岐 崎
Hao / 141 豪 浩 昊 皓 灏 淏 濠
Wei / 139 伟 玮 威 维 薇 蔚 微 炜 唯 纬 葳 为 崴 巍 𬀩 苇 韦
Xiao / 136 晓 小 笑 筱 孝 潇 篠 箫 肖
Given Name Syllable Tones
List format: Tone / count
2nd / 2729
1st / 1993
4th / 1885
3rd / 1167
Single-Character Given Names (单名)
There were 948 single-character names in total. That comes out to about 22% of all 4361 names.
Top Single-Character Given Names (w/ Tones)
List format: Syllable / count All corresponding characters
Xīn / 41 鑫 欣 昕 馨 新 心 锌
Yáng / 29 洋 扬 杨 阳 旸 炀
Yǔ / 20 宇 雨 禹 羽 瑀 语
Lì / 18 丽 立 莉 俐 栎 栗
Yì / 18 艺 奕 逸 忆 易 毅 燚 羿
Yuè / 18 悦 玥 越 月 粤 跃
Jié / 17 洁 杰 倢 婕 捷 颉
Hào / 16 浩 昊 淏 灏
Jìng / 14 静 婧 靓* 竞 靖
Qiàn / 14 倩 茜**
*Can be pronounced jìng or liàng. I went with jìng. **Can be pronounced qiàn or xī. I went with qiàn.
Top Single-Character Given Names (w/o Tones)
List format: Syllable / count All corresponding characters
Xin / 41 鑫 欣 昕 馨 新 心 锌
Yu / 31 宇 雨 钰 煜 玉 瑜 禹 羽 昱 渝 瑀 语
Yang / 29 洋 扬 杨 阳 旸 炀
Yi / 23 艺 奕 怡 逸 一 忆 易 毅 燚 祎 羿
Wei / 22 伟 威 炜 维 蔚 薇 𬀩 玮
Hao / 19 浩 昊 豪 淏 灏
Jing / 19 静 晶 婧 靓* 璟 竞 菁 靖
Li / 19 丽 立 莉 俐 李 栎 栗
Ying / 19 颖 莹 影 ��� 赢 瀛 盈
Yue / 18 悦 玥 越 月 粤 跃
*Can be pronounced jìng or liàng. I went with jìng.
Single-Character Name Tones
List format: Tone / count
2nd / 308
4th / 264
1st / 253
3rd / 123
Full Name Tone Patterns for Single-Character Given Names
Look at the darker “stripes” for the 2nd tone. The 3rd tone’s low popularity also stood out to me.
List format: Tone of surname, tone of given name / count
2nd, 2nd / 140
2nd, 1st / 127
2nd, 4th / 123
1st, 2nd / 80
1st, 4th / 73
1st, 1st / 68
2nd, 3rd / 52
4th, 2nd / 45
3rd, 2nd / 43
1st, 3rd / 39
3rd, 4th / 37
4th, 4th / 31
3rd, 1st / 29
4th, 1st / 29
4th, 3rd / 17
3rd, 3rd / 15
Two-Character Given Names (双名)
Now for two-character given names. There were 3413 total (about 78%). First I will look at these given names as a whole. Then I will separately examine the 1st syllable and 2nd syllable positions.
I was very interested to see the most common name going by sound and not characters. Living in the US, I often see transliterated Chinese names with no characters in sight. This effectively “merges” names that are distinct in Chinese. All I can do is guess what the characters (and thus tones) are.
Top Two-Character Given Names (w/ Tones)
Pictured: Character combinations that occurred more than once for the top 12 two-character given names.
List format: Given name / count All corresponding character combinations
Jiāxīn / 17 嘉欣 佳欣 佳薪 佳鑫 嘉新 嘉歆 嘉馨
Jiāyí / 12 佳怡 嘉怡 佳仪 嘉仪 家仪 家怡
Xīnyǔ / 10 心雨 新宇 心语 欣宇 欣雨 鑫宇 馨予
Xīnyuè / 10 馨月 心玥 昕玥 欣悦 歆玥 馨悦 馨玥
Hàorán / 9 浩然 皓然
Jùnjié / 9 俊杰 俊洁
Chénxī / 8 晨曦 晨熙 晨晞 晨晰 晨溪
Jiāqí / 8 佳琦 家齐 佳琪 嘉琪 嘉祺 嘉齐
Shānshān / 8 珊珊 杉杉 姗姗
Xīnyí / 8 心怡 欣怡 心仪 鑫怡
Yìwén / 8 一文 奕雯 艺文 译文 逸文
Yǔqíng / 8 雨晴 语晴 宇晴 雨情
Top Two-Character Given Names (w/o Tones)
List format: Given name / count All corresponding character combinations
Jiaxin / 17 嘉欣 佳欣 佳薪 佳鑫 嘉新 嘉歆 嘉馨
Jiayi / 16 佳怡 嘉怡 佳仪 佳依 加一 嘉仪 嘉艺 嘉谊 家仪 家怡 家毅
Xinyu / 15 心雨 欣妤 新宇 心妤 心玉 心语 欣宇 欣雨 鑫宇 馨予
Junjie / 12 俊杰 军杰 俊洁 钧杰
Xiaoyu / 12 小雨 晓玉 晓钰 小钰 晓宇 晓瑜 晓雨 笑语
Yifan / 12 一凡 艺凡 一帆 一幡 一璠 依凡 屹繁 怡凡 薏帆
Xinyi / 10 心怡 欣怡 心仪 欣佚 鑫一 鑫怡
Xinyue / 10 馨月 心玥 昕玥 欣悦 歆玥 馨悦 馨玥
Yuqing / 10 雨晴 语晴 宇庆 宇晴 钰清 雨情
Two-Character Given Name Tones
The grey square is due to the 3rd tone tone change rule.
List format: Tone of given name 1st syllable, tone of given name 2nd syllable / count
4th, 2nd / 560
1st, 2nd / 421
3rd, 2nd / 373
2nd, 2nd / 304
4th, 1st / 282
3rd, 1st / 191
1st, 1st / 183
2nd, 1st / 177
1st, 4th / 169
2nd, 4th / 152
1st, 3rd / 134
2nd, 3rd / 130
4th, 4th / 121
3rd, 4th / 120
4th, 3rd / 96
Full Name Tone Patterns for Two-Character Given Names
Pictured: The top 10 full name tone patterns for two-character given names.
I found these results very interesting. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve read about how using certain sequences of tones creates a pleasant-sounding flow. I had some fun saying aloud names that fit these patterns and judging the dynamic ups-and-downs of how they flow.
List format: Tone of surname, tone of given name 1st syllable, tone of given name 2nd syllable / count
2nd, 4th, 2nd / 273
2nd, 1st, 2nd / 179
2nd, 3rd, 2nd / 179
2nd, 4th, 1st / 138
1st, 4th, 2nd / 135
2nd, 2nd, 2nd / 129
1st, 3rd, 2nd / 98
2nd, 3rd, 1st / 95
2nd, 1st, 4th / 92
1st, 1st, 2nd / 89
These are only the top 10 patterns. See the bottom of the post for the full list.
Two-Character Given Names: First Syllable
Top First Syllables for Two-Character Given Names (w/ Tones)
List format: Syllable / count Corresponding characters that occurred more than once
Jiā / 171 佳 嘉 家 加 珈
Yì / 138 一 艺 奕 逸 亦 翊 易 义 懿 翼 译 亿 忆 毅 羿 薏 轶
Zǐ / 123 子 梓 紫
Yǔ / 115 雨 宇 语 羽 禹 予
Xīn / 95 欣 心 馨 鑫 新 昕 歆 薪 芯
Xiǎo / 79 晓 小 筱
Jùn / 69 俊 峻 珺 竣 骏
Sī / 63 思 斯
Yù / 53 玉 钰 煜 昱 郁 裕 喻 毓 育 誉
Mèng / 49 梦 孟
Top First Syllables for Two-Character Given Names (w/o Tones)
List format: Syllable / count Corresponding characters that occurred more than once
Yi / 201 一 艺 奕 怡 依 逸 亦 翊 伊 宜 易 苡 义 乙 以 懿 翼 译 亿 忆 毅 祎 羿 薏 轶
Yu / 188 雨 宇 语 玉 钰 羽 禹 煜 俞 昱 郁 于 渝 裕 予 喻 毓 瑜 育 誉
Jia / 171 佳 嘉 家 加 珈
Zi / 133 子 梓 紫 姿
Xiao / 118 晓 小 笑 孝 潇 筱
Xin / 98 欣 心 馨 鑫 新 昕 歆 信 薪 芯
Jun / 84 俊 峻 君 钧 军 珺 竣 骏
Jing / 67 静 婧 景 敬 靖 晶 京 竞
Zhi / 61 智 志 芷 之 治 知 祉
Si / 60 思 斯
First Syllable Tones for Two-Character Given Names
List format: Tone / count
4th / 1059
1st / 907
2nd / 763
3rd / 684
Two-Character Given Names: Second Syllable
Top Second Syllables for Two-Character Given Names (w/ Tones)
List format: Syllable / count Corresponding characters that occurred more than once
Yǔ / 128 宇 雨 羽 予 语 瑀 禹
Qí / 100 琪 琦 祺 奇 淇 齐 棋 麒 岐
Xīn / 93 欣 鑫 馨 昕 心 新 歆 芯
Jié / 83 杰 洁 婕 捷
Wén / 68 文 雯
Yí / 63 怡 仪 宜 颐
Lín / 61 霖 琳 林 麟 淋
Tíng / 61 婷 廷 庭
Yuán / 59 源 元 媛 圆 园 缘 原
Yáng / 58 阳 洋 扬 杨 炀
Top Second Syllables for Two-Character Given Names (w/o Tones)
List format: Syllable / count Corresponding characters that occurred more than once
Yu / 200 宇 雨 玉 羽 瑜 妤 予 钰 语 昱 煜 谕 郁 余 瑀 禹
Yi / 132 怡 仪 一 毅 依 艺 逸 亦 伊 宜 懿 颐 义 奕 意 祎 熠 翼 轶
Qi / 105 琪 琦 祺 奇 淇 绮 齐 棋 麒 岐
Xin / 93 欣 鑫 馨 昕 心 新 歆 芯
Jie / 83 杰 洁 婕 捷
Wei / 75 伟 玮 薇 维 威 微 炜 蔚 葳 崴 纬
Hao / 74 豪 昊 浩 皓 濠
Jun / 72 君 俊 钧 峻 军 均 珺 骏
Wen / 68 文 雯
Yuan / 68 源 元 媛 圆 远 园 渊 缘 原
Second Syllable Tones for Two-Character Given Names
List format: Tone / count
2nd / 1658
1st / 833
4th / 562
3rd / 360
Surnames
Because the majority of the population shares a relatively small number of surnames, I decided to only look at tones.
Surname Tones
List format: Tone / count
2nd / 2047
1st / 1072
3rd / 640
4th / 602
Just take a look at the top 20 surnames in China. Clearly, the 2nd tone is dominating. There’s only one 4th tone surname!
Data Processing
I segmented the names so each character was alone. I just did this in Google Sheets, because that’s where I store the names I’ve gathered. Then I exported the data in CSV format.
I discarded names longer than 3 characters—because these are less common, I decided not to address them to make things easier for myself.
I used the pinyin library for Python to obtain pinyin for each character. I used the numerical format (ie. “ni3”) so that I could easily obtain the syllable w/o tone, the syllable w/ tone, and the tone. I also utilized pandas and numpy. This was done in Google Colabs. I made the unfortunate mistake of not commenting my code, and I wrote it a while ago, so I now I have no idea what is going on (whoops).
Next I dumped this data into a tibble in R for the real analysis.
For as many 多音字 as I could identify, I had to check and potentially fix the pinyin transcription. For example, I had to make sure that 曾 was going to zeng1, not ceng2. Honestly, I’m sure I missed something, but this was so, so tedious. This is also the step where I accounted for the 3rd tone tone change and yi 一 tone change rules.
I used a Python script to convert the toneless pinyin to my own syllable notation system. This was tricky to figure out, but fortunately I was able to use some code I already had from a project I was involved in during college.
I added the syllable info to my giant tibble in R. Because everything was separated into surname, given name 1st character, and given name 2nd character, I also had to create some new columns to combine information to get information for whole given names and full names.
Then it was basically a lot of pipes. Here’s an example: names %>% filter(nchar(names$name) > 2) %>% group_by(given_struc) %>% summarise(count = n()) %>% arrange(desc(count)) %>% view()
Bonus Lists
There were some other things I was curious about but felt didn’t have a place in the main body of this post.
I wanted to see which syllables were represented by the most unique characters in my dataset. If the number of unique characters is high, that’s a sign that I would probably have trouble guessing which character someone’s name contains.
I was also curious about open vs. closed syllables and closed syllables ending in /n/ vs. /ŋ/. For instance, take a pair of names like Yixin and Xinyi or Xinling and Lingxin. These names consist of the same syllables in a different order. I wanted to know which order is more common.
Syllables with the Most Unique Characters (w/ Tones)
List format: Syllable / count All corresponding characters
Yì / 27 一 艺 奕 逸 亦 毅 懿 翊 义 易 翼 忆 意 译 轶 熠 羿 亿 薏 佚 佾 埸 屹 异 弋 怿 燚 翌
Qí / 15 琪 琦 奇 祺 麒 淇 齐 棋 其 岐 崎 圻 祁 祈 骐
Yú / 14 瑜 妤 俞 渝 于 余 娱 愚 宇*** 愉 榆 舆 雨*** 鱼
Yù / 14 玉 钰 煜 昱 郁 裕 喻 谕 毓 育 誉 寓 浴 芋
Xīn / 12 欣 鑫 馨 心 昕 新 歆 芯 薪 妡 忻 锌
Yuán / 12 源 媛 元 园 圆 缘 原 嫄 沅 湲 芫 袁
Líng / 11 玲 灵 凌 翎 绫 伶 羚 铃 龄 苓 陵
Xī / 11 希 熙 曦 溪 晞 惜 熹 兮 浠 晰 西
Hóng / 9 宏 红 弘 鸿 泓 虹 洪 闳 汯
Lì / 9 丽 莉 立 力 俐 利 俪 栎 栗
Zhēn / 9 珍 真 臻 蓁 祯 桢 榛 甄 贞
***3rd tone character that is pronounced as 2nd tone due to appearing before another 3rd tone character.
Syllables with the Most Unique Characters (w/o Tones)
List format: Syllable / count All corresponding characters
Yi / 45 一 怡 艺 奕 仪 依 逸 亦 伊 毅 宜 懿 翊 义 祎 易 翼 苡 忆 意 译 轶 颐 乙 以 熠 羿 亿 倚 薏 佚 佾 埸 壹 夷 屹 异 弋 怿 沂 洢 燚 翌 谊 铱
Yu / 33 宇 雨 玉 羽 钰 语 瑜 予 妤 煜 禹 昱 郁 俞 渝 裕 于 喻 瑀 谕 余 娱 愚 毓 育 誉 寓 愉 榆 浴 舆 芋 鱼
Qi / 20 琪 琦 奇 祺 绮 麒 启 淇 齐 棋 其 岐 崎 圻 期 柒 栖 祁 祈 骐
Wei / 20 伟 玮 威 维 薇 蔚 微 炜 唯 纬 葳 为 崴 巍 𬀩 苇 韦 卫 惟 未
Yan / 19 妍 言 燕 彦 艳 岩 延 谚 嫣 琰 雁 晏 研 颜 砚 衍 严 炎 焱
Yuan / 16 源 媛 元 远 园 圆 渊 缘 原 嫄 愿 沅 湲 芫 苑 袁
Xi / 16 希 熙 曦 汐 溪 晞 玺 喜 惜 熹 兮 浠 习 晰 禧 西
Xiao / 15 小 笑 筱 孝 潇 篠 箫 肖 宵 效 枭 校 萧 霄
Yun / 15 云 芸 韵 昀 赟 允 匀 沄 筠 韫 妘 澐 蕰 蕴 运
Zhen / 15 振 珍 真 臻 蓁 祯 震 镇 朕 桢 榛 甄 贞 轸 圳
Two-Character Given Name Syllable Structures
This is the top 10 out of 14 (the bottom 4 were very rare).
List format: Structure of given name 1st syllable, structure of given name 2nd syllable — example / count
Open, open — ex: Jiayi / 821
Open, closed-n — ex: Yijin / 701
Open, closed-ng — ex: Yijing / 468
Closed-n, open — ex: Jinyi / 450
Closed-ng, open — ex: Jingyi / 308
Closed-n, closed-n — ex: Jinyan / 206
Closed-ng, closed-n — ex: Jingyan / 157
Closed-n, closed-ng — ex: Jinyang / 141
Closed-ng, closed-ng — ex: Jingyang / 139
Open, closed-er — ex: Xue'er / 14
Full Name Syllable Structures for Two-Character Given Names
This is the top 29 out of 36 (the bottom 7 were very rare).
List format: Structure of surname syllable, structure of given name 1st syllable, structure of given name 2nd syllable — example / count
Open, open, open— ex: Li Jiayi / 370
Open, open, closed-n— ex: Li Yijin / 336
Closed-ng, open, open— ex: Wang Jiayi / 273
Open, open, closed-ng— ex: Li Yijing / 228
Open, closed-n, open— ex: Li Jinyi / 225
Closed-ng, open, closed-n— ex: Wang Yijin / 223
Closed-n, open, open— ex: Chen Jiayi / 178
Closed-ng, closed-n, open— ex: Wang Jinyi / 165
Open, closed-ng, open— ex: Li Jingyi / 151
Closed-ng, open, closed-ng— ex: Wang Yijing / 146
Closed-n, open, closed-n— ex: Chen Yijin / 142
Open, closed-n, closed-n— ex: Li Jinyan / 104
Closed-ng, closed-ng, open— ex: Wang Jingyi / 97
Closed-n, open, closed-ng— ex: Chen Yijing / 94
Open, closed-ng, closed-n— ex: Li Jingyan / 86
Open, closed-ng, closed-ng— ex: Li Jingyang / 75
Open, closed-n, closed-ng— ex: Li Jinyang / 66
Closed-ng, closed-n, closed-n— ex: Wang Jinyan / 62
Closed-n, closed-n, open— ex: Chen Jinyi / 60
Closed-n, closed-ng, open— ex: Chen Jingyi / 60
Closed-ng, closed-n, closed-ng— ex: Wang Jinyang / 45
Closed-ng, closed-ng, closed-ng— ex: Wang Jingyang / 45
Closed-ng, closed-ng, closed-n— ex: Wang Jingyan / 43
Closed-n, closed-n, closed-n— ex: Chen Jinyan / 40
Closed-n, closed-n, closed-ng— ex: Chen Jinyang / 30
Closed-n, closed-ng, closed-n— ex: Chen Jingyan / 28
Closed-n, closed-ng, closed-ng— ex: Chen Jingyang / 19
Open, open, closed-er— ex: Li Xue'er / 8
Closed-ng, open, closed-er— ex: Wang Xue'er / 4
Extended List(s)
Full Name Tone Patterns for Two-Character Given Names
2nd, 4th, 2nd / 273
2nd, 1st, 2nd / 179
2nd, 3rd, 2nd / 179
2nd, 4th, 1st / 138
1st, 4th, 2nd / 135
2nd, 2nd, 2nd / 129
1st, 3rd, 2nd / 98
2nd, 3rd, 1st / 95
2nd, 1st, 4th / 92
1st, 1st, 2nd / 89
2nd, 1st, 1st / 88
2nd, 2nd, 1st / 84
3rd, 1st, 2nd / 83
3rd, 4th, 2nd / 81
1st, 2nd, 2nd / 73
4th, 4th, 2nd / 71
4th, 1st, 2nd / 70
1st, 4th, 1st / 69
2nd, 3rd, 4th / 68
2nd, 2nd, 3rd / 64
2nd, 1st, 3rd / 59
3rd, 2nd, 2nd / 59
2nd, 2nd, 4th / 56
4th, 3rd, 2nd / 56
2nd, 4th, 4th / 54
2nd, 4th, 3rd / 47
1st, 2nd, 4th / 43
4th, 2nd, 2nd / 43
1st, 1st, 3rd / 42
4th, 4th, 1st / 42
1st, 3rd, 1st / 41
3rd, 3rd, 2nd / 40
1st, 1st, 1st / 35
1st, 2nd, 1st / 35
1st, 2nd, 3rd / 35
1st, 1st, 4th / 34
4th, 1st, 1st / 34
3rd, 4th, 1st / 33
1st, 4th, 4th / 31
3rd, 2nd, 1st / 30
1st, 3rd, 4th / 29
4th, 2nd, 1st / 28
4th, 3rd, 1st / 28
3rd, 2nd, 4th / 27
3rd, 3rd, 1st / 27
3rd, 1st, 1st / 26
4th, 2nd, 4th / 26
1st, 4th, 3rd / 23
3rd, 1st, 4th / 23
3rd, 2nd, 3rd / 21
3rd, 4th, 4th / 20
4th, 1st, 4th / 20
4th, 1st, 3rd / 19
3rd, 4th, 3rd / 18
4th, 4th, 4th / 16
3rd, 1st, 3rd / 14
3rd, 3rd, 4th / 14
4th, 2nd, 3rd / 10
4th, 3rd, 4th / 9
4th, 4th, 3rd / 8
If you made it to the end, I am seriously impressed by your dedication. Thanks for checking out my nerdy ramblings about Chinese names! Don’t forget to check out my past posts on this topic for more. I hope they will help demystify Chinese names and make learning about Chinese names less intimidating.
A Closer Look at Chinese Names
Reading Chinese Names: Female Names
Reading Chinese Names: Male Names
#chinese name#chinese names#chinese#mandarin#mandarin chinese#chinese language#chinese langblr#chinese studyblr#mandarin langblr#mandarin studyblr#language learning#language stuff#learning languages#language study#langblr#studyblr#languages#languageblr#polyglot#foreign languages#study chinese#learn chinese#study mandarin#learn mandarin#studying mandarin#learning mandarin#studying chinese#learning chinese#language blog
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#2 -玉森 (jade forest)- A pretty green dragon and protector of forests 🌿🍃✨🌲🌳
#I am trying to name them all in Chinese to practice my writing hehe#art#dragon art#art challenge#artists on tumblr#chinese artist#original art#dragon#dragons#dragon oc#dragon a day#daily drawing#daily dragon#daily dragon drawing#illustration#year of the dragon#chinese dragon#zodiac
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I do not think I’ve talked about my Demon Cat Yuan here so ima do that
Basically, it all starts out with the WRP jiejies adopting a small white cat. Their pet is heavily doted on and can even do tricks! He’s a very smart boy!
That cat is transmigrated Shen Yuan.
When he wakes up in his little cat body his really confused and scared, like what else would you be when you’re a stray kitten by yourself. One of the jiejies find him and he decides “you can do no wrong to me and I’m gonna stick with you forever”
Is he a little embarrassed with a bunch of scantily clad women surround him? I mean yea, of course. But also! He’s a cat! It doesn’t matter!
So the jiejies take care of their cute little kitten, none the wiser that it’s a demon.
Eventually, Shen Jiu comes to visit them and is introduced to the small creature. He’s… hesitant at first, most small creatures don’t like him, but hey this little kitten is friendly so why not. With his petting and prodding he suddenly feels something abnormal for a cat, but perfectly normal for a demon.
And thus he has to take it away from his jiejies, to protect them!
So off to QJP Shen Yuan goes, tucked around Shen Jiu. Nobody seems to realize it’s in fact a demon except for him so SJ keeps him around for awhile. SY is quickly known as a pampered white cat belonging to QJP and anyone messing it will face quick retribution.
As SJ cultivates SY is fascinated by it, and tries it for himself, leading to humanized cat demon. When SJ realizes he can transform he uses the cat for spying and SY doesn’t mind(he totally doesn’t realize who SJ is yet lmao)
Eventually SY realize who SJ is and kinda freaks out, but not really, as he guides the man down a path where he hopefully won’t be a human stick.
This includes things from gaslighting SJ to not be a dick to saving both SJ and LQG in the caves so both survive with intact cores. He also fights off the demon invasion after dumping them both on MQF.
Which leads to the sect realizing they’ve had a demon this whole time, but they can’t do anything about it because SJ is wayyy to protective and SY goes back to being a ‘normal’ cat.
#greeniegaes#svsss#shen qingqiu#shen yuan#svsss au#shen jiu#cat yuan#cat shen yuan#cat demon SY#I was originally looking at Bakenekos but those are Japanese I think#and I cannot find a Chinese equivalent- or at least the Chinese name#so boo hoo he’s just a cat demon non specific#but yea I’ve had cat boys on the brain#scum villain au#scum villain#scum villian self saving system#JiuYuan#Shencest#Xianli Shen yuan#Xianli sy
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You’re my baby, say it to me
#losing dogs has been playing in my head nonstop for three days and it’s making me cry#been reading a lot of parent swk fics and wailing and crying#it’s wukong. he’s the losing dog#sobbing and crying that’s his BABY 😭😭😭#mk has many dads but wukong only has one child#lemme clarify the lmk one#canon jttw wukong FUCKS#genghis khan has nothing on his lineage#I wanna make a couple wukong children ocs actually#I got some banger ideas#lego monkie kid#monkie kid fanart#lmk fanart#lmk sun wukong#lmk mk#lmk xiaotian#that’s such a cute name I think#if anyone knows what the Chinese name means could they tell me pwease#digital art#my art#parent sun wukong#tell your baby 🫵 that I’m your baby 😭🥺🥺#sobbing#fuck I forgot his face heart o(-( the tears were blurring me I couldn’t see#baby mk
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