Chinese given names: meanings and how they work

A Chinese name is built the other way round from an English one: the surname comes first, and the given name, 名字 míngzi, follows it. The surname is nearly always one of a few hundred fixed characters, covered in the guide to Chinese surnames. The given name is where the freedom is. Parents can combine almost any one or two characters, so there is no fixed stock of "first names" like John or Maria, and two people with the same given name are a coincidence, not a tradition.

This page explains how those names are built and chosen, how foreigners get a Chinese name, or do without one, and what can go wrong.

How Chinese given names work

A given name has one character, called a 單名 (单名) dānmíng, or two, a 雙名 (双名) shuāngmíng. Two is the norm today. In the Ministry of Public Security's name report for 2019, 84.3 per cent of full names in mainland China's household register had three characters, which in practice means a one-character surname and a two-character given name, and 14.0 per cent had two.

The two characters of a given name form one unit. 毛澤東 (毛泽东) Máo Zédōng is Mr Mao, given name Zedong, never "Ze" for short and never "Mr Dong".

Because any character can be used, every name has a readable meaning: a small message from the parents wishing the child strength, grace, learning or wealth.

How parents choose a name

Several considerations run in parallel, and families weigh them differently.

• Meaning. The main one. Characters for virtue, brightness, beauty, vastness and success are perennial.
• Sound. The name must sound good with the surname, with a pleasant mix of tones, and must not collide with an unlucky or ridiculous homophone. More on that below.
• Generation names. In many families, siblings and cousins of one generation share a character, the 字輩 (字辈) zìbèi, sometimes taken in order from a poem kept in the family genealogy. Mao Zedong and his brothers 毛澤民 (毛泽民) Máo Zémín and 毛澤覃 (毛泽覃) Máo Zétán all carry 澤.
• Five elements and stroke counts. Traditionally a fortune-teller checks the child's birth data, the 八字 bāzì, against the five elements, 五行 wǔxíng, and prescribes a character to supply what is missing. In Lu Xun's story "My Old Home" the boy 閏土 (闰土) Rùntǔ is so named because he was born in a leap month and lacked earth, 土. Counting the strokes of a name for luck is a related practice. Kungfucius reports this as a living tradition, not as physics.

Fashions by decade

Names date people. Mainland reports on the Ministry of Public Security's name statistics give 建國 (建国) Jiànguó, "build the nation", and 建華 (建华) Jiànhuá as typical boys' names around the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, with short martial names such as 軍 (军) Jūn, "army", and 勇 Yǒng, "brave", strong in the 1960s. Among boys born in 2019 the most common names were 浩宇 Hàoyǔ and 浩然 Hàorán, and the single most used character for newborns was 梓 zǐ.

Taiwan shows the same turnover. In the Ministry of the Interior's statistics based on June 2023, the most common men's names overall are 家豪 Jiāháo, 志明 Zhìmíng and 建宏 Jiànhóng, and the most common women's names are 淑芬 Shúfēn (Shūfēn in mainland pronunciation), 淑惠 Shúhuì and 美玲 Měilíng. Children born since 2011 are instead called 承恩 Chéng'ēn, 宥廷 Yòutíng and 品睿 Pǐnruì, or 品妍 Pǐnyán, 子晴 Zǐqíng and 詠晴 (咏晴) Yǒngqíng. Taiwanese call the overused ones 菜市場名 (菜市场名) càishìchǎng míng, "market names": shout one in a wet market and several heads turn.

Can you tell gender from a Chinese name?

Often, but not reliably. Characters such as 美 měi (beautiful), 麗 (丽) lì (lovely), 芳 fāng (fragrant), 婷 tíng (graceful) and 淑 (virtuous) point to a woman. 偉 (伟) wěi (great), 強 (强) qiáng (strong), 軍 (军) jūn and 豪 háo (heroic) point to a man.

A large middle ground is neutral: 文 wén, 華 (华) huá, 明 míng, 子 zǐ, 安 ān and many more. When writing to a stranger called 王文華, do not guess at Mr or Ms. Ask, or use the job title.

How foreigners get a Chinese name

There are three usual routes.

1. Transliteration. Your own name is rendered by sound: Mark becomes 馬克 (马克) Mǎkè, David becomes 大衛 (大卫) Dàwèi. It is quick and honest, but long names turn into four or five syllables that nobody remembers.
2. A teacher's choice. Many learners are handed a name in the first week of class. In Kungfucius's experience these names are usually sound and occasionally a little old-fashioned, because teachers choose safe, classical characters. Ask what it means and how it strikes a twenty-year-old.
3. A real Chinese-style name. A genuine surname plus a one or two character given name, usually echoing the sound of your own. This is the old scholarly way. Matteo Ricci became 利瑪竇 (利玛窦) Lì Mǎdòu, the historian John King Fairbank was 費正清 (费正清) Fèi Zhèngqīng, and the former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd is 陸克文 (陆克文) Lù Kèwén.

Pitfalls when choosing a Chinese name

• Unfortunate homophones. Chinese jokes are full of them: 杜子騰 (杜子腾) Dù Zǐténg sounds like 肚子疼 dùzi téng, "stomach ache", and 范統 (范统) Fàn Tǒng like 飯桶 (饭桶) fàntǒng, "rice bucket", meaning a useless person. Say your candidate name aloud to several native speakers, with the surname, and watch their faces. See puns and homophones.
• Brands and jokes. A name that matches a car, a soft drink or a cartoon character will be remembered for the wrong reason.
• Too poetic or too old-fashioned. Dictionary browsing produces names like "Jade Dragon Soaring over Clouds". Locals hear a wuxia novel, or their grandfather.
• Famous people. Calling yourself 李小龍 (李小龙) Lǐ Xiǎolóng, Bruce Lee's Chinese name, guarantees the same joke at every introduction for life.
• Characters that are hard to write. You will write this name on forms by hand. 鬱 (郁) yù is lovely and has 29 strokes in its Traditional form.
• Mixing Taiwan and mainland conventions. Transliteration habits differ: Donald Trump is 川普 Chuānpǔ in Taiwan and 特朗普 Tèlǎngpǔ on the mainland, and Taiwanese renderings tend to be shortened to look like a local three-character name. Even the verb differs, 取名字 qǔ míngzi in Taiwan and usually 起名字 qǐ míngzi on the mainland. Decide where you will mostly use the name, and check the characters in both scripts.

A local-sounding name or a foreign-sounding one?

Kungfucius sees a fair case on both sides.

For a local-sounding name: it is far easier for locals to say and remember than five syllables of transliteration, it signals that you intend to stay a while, and it fits the three small boxes on a form. In Taiwan especially, a three-character name saves a great deal of spelling at counters.

For a foreign-sounding name, or no Chinese name: it is who you are, it matches your passport, and it avoids the slight theatre of a tall foreigner announcing himself as Wang Daming. Plenty of long-term residents get by with their own name pronounced the local way.

Kungfucius's view is that the choice should follow use. If you will live in a Chinese-speaking place, a short, real-sounding name earns its keep daily. If you visit twice a year, your own name is enough.

Chinese names on official documents

What counts officially differs by place, so check with the office concerned before you commit.

In Taiwan, a Chinese name has administrative weight. The Name Act and its enforcement rules, last amended in November 2024, require a foreigner who naturalises or registers a marriage with a Taiwanese national to declare a Chinese name, which is expected to follow local naming customs. A Chinese name can also be recorded for your residence papers, and once it is on record, banks and other offices will use it.

In mainland China, your legal name is the one in your passport, in Latin letters. Visas, residence permits, bank accounts and rail tickets follow the passport, and a Chinese name is, in Kungfucius's experience, a social convenience there and not a registered identity. Insist that every office copies the passport spelling exactly, including middle names.

How to introduce your name in Chinese

Chinese	Pinyin	English
你叫什麼名字？(你叫什么名字？)	Nǐ jiào shénme míngzi?	What is your name? (casual)
我叫馬克。(我叫马克。)	Wǒ jiào Mǎkè.	My name is Mark.
我姓費，叫正清。(我姓费，叫正清。)	Wǒ xìng Fèi, jiào Zhèngqīng.	My surname is Fei, my given name is Zhengqing.
我的中文名字是陸克文。(我的中文名字是陆克文。)	Wǒ de Zhōngwén míngzi shì Lù Kèwén.	My Chinese name is Lu Kewen.
我沒有中文名字。(我没有中文名字。)	Wǒ méiyǒu Zhōngwén míngzi.	I do not have a Chinese name.
叫我馬克就好。(叫我马克就好。)	Jiào wǒ Mǎkè jiù hǎo.	Just call me Mark.
是哪兩個字？(是哪两个字？)	Shì nǎ liǎng ge zì?	Which two characters is that?
怎麼寫？(怎么写？)	Zěnme xiě?	How do you write it?
這個名字是老師取的。(这个名字是老师取的。)	Zhège míngzi shì lǎoshī qǔ de.	My teacher chose this name.
你的名字有什麼意思？(你的名字有什么意思？)	Nǐ de míngzi yǒu shénme yìsi?	What does your name mean?

The last question is a reliable conversation starter. Most people know exactly why their parents chose their characters.

What to do next

1. Decide where you will use the name, and whether you need one at all.
2. If you do, pick a real surname from the surname list that echoes your own, and one or two common characters with a plain, positive meaning.
3. Test the full name aloud on at least three native speakers of different ages, and ask directly whether it sounds like anything else.
4. Practise writing it by hand until it looks like a signature and not a drawing.
5. Then keep it.