Snazzyviper Posted June 16, 2007 at 12:37 PM Report Share Posted June 16, 2007 at 12:37 PM Hi can anyone tell me if these names are correct please? What do they read? 1- 2- 3- 4- Thanks in advance for your help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmySeal Posted June 16, 2007 at 03:04 PM Report Share Posted June 16, 2007 at 03:04 PM 1. se4 ba1 si1 sen1 2. qiao2 shu1 ya4 3. rui4 shi4 bao3 4. rui4 zhi4 xian4 Sorry about the numbers. I don't yet know how to type accents on pinyin. Please note that the last character in number 4 means "envy." There are no mistakes in the characters themselves, but 3 and 4 are unnecessarily fuzzy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HashiriKata Posted June 16, 2007 at 04:11 PM Report Share Posted June 16, 2007 at 04:11 PM Hi can anyone tell me if these names are correct please? Strictly speaking, there are no such things as correct translations of Western names into Chinese (there are only approximate transcriptions; and as such, they are based primarily on familiarity and personal preference), so no one can really tell you if the names you've got are "correct" or not. One thing I can say is that from the sounds, 1 and 2 appear to be the familiar transcriptions for "Sebastian" and "Joshua", respectively.In questions like this, if you include the original Western names these strings of characters are supposed to approximate, it would make it easier for those who want to help you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted June 16, 2007 at 05:38 PM Report Share Posted June 16, 2007 at 05:38 PM Sorry about the numbers. I don't yet know how to type accents on pinyin.Try using pinyinput. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snazzyviper Posted June 16, 2007 at 08:12 PM Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2007 at 08:12 PM Thanks for the replies so far, the names are for a mate of mine, he has two sons called Sebastian and Joshua Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted June 17, 2007 at 02:23 AM Report Share Posted June 17, 2007 at 02:23 AM Regarding these chinese "names", you might also consider reading these two threads, to get an idea of why English names don't really have a Chinese translation. http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/12372-name-translation http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/10886-chinese-characters-for-names Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trien27 Posted June 17, 2007 at 05:02 AM Report Share Posted June 17, 2007 at 05:02 AM #3 & #4 are fuzzy. But the first character of both are used as the first syllable of Sweden when translated into Chinese. For #3, the closest translation would be Sasebo, Japan? But in Japanese kanji, the first character is different, and the last character would be the simplified Chinese form, not the Traditional Chinese form of the character. I haven't a clue as to what #4 is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmySeal Posted June 17, 2007 at 03:14 PM Report Share Posted June 17, 2007 at 03:14 PM 3 & 4 are probably supposed to be Western names too, but who knows what. I'm guessing they were generated with http://www.mandarintools.com/chinesename.html and 瑞 is some rendering of their surname. I think Sasebo is 佐世保, not 宝. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anywhere Posted June 24, 2007 at 11:25 AM Report Share Posted June 24, 2007 at 11:25 AM Mr.HashiriKata's reply is very constructive! Generally speaking, the translation for Westerner's name is based on the original. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJBryant Posted October 10, 2007 at 08:31 PM Report Share Posted October 10, 2007 at 08:31 PM I think the OP -- like many others -- is conflating the concept of "translate" with "transliterate." Many people ask for translations when, in fact, they want the pronunciation (reading) of something. The translation of "吃飯" is "eat dinner" -- the transliteration (a.k.a. "reading") is /chi fan/. Tony Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmySeal Posted October 11, 2007 at 12:36 AM Report Share Posted October 11, 2007 at 12:36 AM One has to wonder why you recussitated a 4-month-old thread to say this. I think OP was indeed asking for a translation, mistakenly believing that Western names can be translated into Chinese characters and back again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AJBryant Posted October 11, 2007 at 01:05 AM Report Share Posted October 11, 2007 at 01:05 AM Well, because I *thought* I'd clicked "new posts" and was cycling through recent ones. I didn't realize this was old. Sigh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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