I had this seal made in...

[retoid]

China Town, Vancouver, Canada.

Can someone confirm what it means?

Thank you.

[studentyoung]

It looks like two Chinese characters engraved on it, “拜仁 bai4 ren2 ”. I suppose it is an English name (might be Brian, Bryan or some similar to the pronunciation) written in a Chinese form.

Thanks!

[skylee]

That's right.

It is also the translation of the name of the German football team Bayern Munchen.

[Lu]

Maybe a stupid question, but as it is on a seal, shouldn't it be read left to right, saying 仁拜?

[adrianlondon]

Are seals read backwards?

I know they're "made" backwards so they stamp the right way around, but the question above points to the characters themselves being in the wrong order.

[skylee]

Sorry I don't understand. 拜 is the character on the left and 仁 is the one on the right.

My own seal (I use it to issue letters etc at the office) is also read from left to right - the first character (surname) on the left and the other names on the right, one charcter on top of the other.

I think this thread is also relevant -> http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/10-is-chinese-grammar-easy-dont-you-just-love-chinese-words112

[Lu]

Sorry, I was mixed up, I mean right to left (the 'wrong' way around). I also have a seal, and it reads right to left (when stamped, that is). But apparently that's not standard, so this seal might still read 拜仁.

[skylee]

How my memory has failed me. I am at my office and has just used my seal on a letter and it is read from right to left (when stamped), i.e. the surname/1st character is on the right with the rest on the left one on top of the other. So it is like Lu's.

But then 拜仁, being a very common name, makes sense whereas 仁拜 doesn't appear so.