help needed!

[tomvic]

hi everyone.

my friend is looking to have her name tattooed on her shoulder & has decided to have it done in chinese.

i've tried to tell her about all the pit falls of tattooing but she has decided to go ahead any way!

she has asked me to check out the spelling of her name as the man in the shop has got the symbol for (amy) but not amey as this is how she spells her name.

could someone please send me the correct symbol for amey as a tattoo is for life.

many thanks.

tomvic.

e-mail computerspec@tesco.net

[Shi Rui'en]

Unfortunately, chinese does not work this way. The best way would be to find what the name 'amey' means and then ask someone what chinese character or characters have the closest similar meaning.

[galitonwu]

I can't understand here.

she has asked me to check out the spelling of her name as the man in the shop has got the symbol for (amy) but not amey as this is how she spells her name.

This sentence , she wanted to get the spells of amy.

could someone please send me the correct symbol for amey as a tattoo is for life.

But this sentence , she wanted to get the spells of amey.

Which is correct?

Give you some words to choose:

艾米

阿媚

爱美

艾咪

[Quest]

tomvic, spellings of English names cannot be directly matched with Chinese characters. The usual way to translate western names into Chinese is either by syllables or by meaning. If Amy and Amey sound exactly the same, then the characters for Amy would usually work for Amey, too. But, I suggest that you show us a picture of the actual characters she picked. We can then tell you whether those characters would fit for a tattoo.

[confucius]

There are two Chinese characters that will give you the exact pronunciation of "Amy" and they are 欸 谜

Although Mandarin speaking Chinese people may be able to pronounce the tattoo as "ei mi" (which is equivalent to "Amy" in English) they will have no idea that the tattoo represents her name.

The common Chinese transliteration 爱 美 is pronounced in Mandarin as "I may" sounds in English. Furthermore the characters meanings, "love" and "beautiful" are more aesthetically pleasing as a tattoo instead of two characters that have no logical meaning at all.

If your friend wishes to make a fashion statement with her tattoo then I suggest that she actually choose a real statement rather than an attempted transliteration of her name.

Chinese characters are not letters. Each ideograph represents a word.

Most Chinese and Japanese tattoos are chosen for their profound meaning rather than an awkward transliteration of foreign names.

Furthermore, it would be cheaper for your friend to just get one beautiful character on her shoulder, 美 or 爱 , for example, instead of two. Or perhaps she can be creative and get 爱 on her left shoulder (near her heart) and 美 on her left.

Cordially,

Confucius

[tomvic]

many thanks for your help with this matter.

i will pass on your info & she will have to choose for her self as she's the one being tattoed.

all the best.

tomvic.

[trevelyan]

傻瓜

[Haoqide]

I totally agree with Confucius...if you're gonna do something like get a tattoo (which you'll probably regret as you get older), you might as well make it nice-looking and with a good meaning.

[Tracy]

In my mind, the young chinese prefer reading it as “a1 mei1”.(the number indicates the tone), 阿妹。（attention, 妹pronounce mei1 instead of mei4 here. it is an intimate address for a young lady.