Chinese name, help please?

[Foundinhell]

Short story: I'm half chinese and I've always wanted a chinese name. Now that I am 18, I can finally change (my mom wouldn't let me before). I asked my father if he could give me a chinese name and he did. But the problem is, his English is very poor and he doesn't know how to spell it in English letters.

He wrote me:

Kim - Gold

Lan - lovely girl

But I'm not sure it's correct? Could someone please help me with this? I can't speak Chinese fluently I might be wrong. I thought "huáng jīn" meant gold, or "jīn". And "lan" orchid.

[skylee]

Is your father Cantonese? If so then Kim = Gold makes sense.

I guess the name is 金蘭 (traditional) / 金兰 (simplified). In Hanyu Pinyin it is Jinlan. Yes it means golden orchid, and it also refers to very close friendship as in phrases like 義結金蘭 and 金蘭姐妹.

And it is a very old fashioned name.

[rootfool]

Agree with skylee.

But I'm afraid 蘭 didn't means lovely girl.And.I don't know any "LAN" means this.

May be it's just because too many people named 蘭 or 嵐 so it sounds old fashioned.

[JimmyFan2006]

u r right! 'HuangJin' is gold , and 'Lan' means blue.

黄金 gold ,蓝 blue

[Foundinhell]

skylee

Is your father Cantonese?

I don't think so? He speaks... I think it's called Fujian Taiwanese?? Minnan?

[Lu]

I'm fairly sure that in Minnanyu 金 is also Kim, so that would make sense.

Minnanyu ('Minnan language') is the dialect spoken in both Fujian (formerly known as Hokkien) and Taiwan. In Taiwan it's usually called Taiwanese.