Stamp signature translation

[tallon]

I take a Chinese brush painting class, and the teacher generally can hook us up with whatever we need. I'm excited to finally have my own Chinese signature to put on my paintings, even though I am not Chinese myself.

I was told at first when my name was designed from the teacher to me, that my name would mean "lucky snow" though its pronounced a little different from my real name.

However now that I have the stamp, and im looking at the real design, it does not look the same.

I asked him about it, and he appeared pretty reluctant to answer what the name said now. I am starting to wonder if the person who made my stamp made a mistake, or if my teacher is just shy about having a hard time pronouncing my name.

Here is the stamp. I hope someone can help me by translating what it actually says.

[tallon]

I should also add, that my real name is "Richelle"

[studentyoung]

I hope someone can help me by translating what it actually says.

The two characters in your seal are 睿雪.

睿: ruì

(会意。《说文》:“ 从目,从谷省。空虚的山洼,有畅通义。‘目’的作用是明察。合起来表示‘明智’、‘智慧’”。本义:通达;明智) 同本义 [wise and farsighted]

http://baike.baidu.com/view/345918.htm

雪：snow

I was told at first when my name was designed from the teacher to me, that my name would mean "lucky snow" though its pronounced a little different from my real name.

Well, I guess your Chinese name is “瑞雪”, right?

瑞：ruì

◎ 瑞

lucky

http://www.zdic.net/zd/zi/ZdicE7Zdic91Zdic9E.htm

Perhaps, someone mixed up these two homophones, I think.

Cheers!

[skylee]

Do smile. 睿雪, the two characters in your seal, are not bad as a name. But if you tell people that your name is Ruixue, then it is very likely that they would think it is 瑞雪, lucky snow, instead of 睿雪, wise snow.

Simple solution 1, make another seal of 瑞雪 if you prefer it. Simple solution 2, adopt 睿雪 as your name. Using 睿 instead of 瑞 makes the name uncommon. Simple solution 3, take both names. It was common for artists of ancient times to have more than one name. It might be confusing to have two names of the same pronunciation, though.

[Lu]

I thought that usually names on seals are written right to left, instead of left to right as in Ruixue's seal. I also thought Chinese names usually include a family name, that is also put on the chop (seal).

Nevertheless, 睿雪 is a great name I think, so you could just pick that one instead of 瑞雪. Another reason the seal looks different from how you would write your name is that it is written in 'seal script', a different way of writing Chinese characters.

[tallon]

Thank you all very much. That was very helpful and informative. I like what the seal says just fine, but im glad I confirmed to see what it said. I did not know that there was a different script for seals.

I think I prefer the uncommon spelling, seeing as it will be a more unique addition to anything I paint.

I just have one final question. I know both versions are pronounced the same, but phonetically how should I pronounce Ruixue? I have a definite idea, but I don't want to look silly by saying it wrong lol. ;)