Chinese Name: Ma dì nà - Real meaning?

[Tinaaa]

Hey there!

When I was doing a short Chinese program last year in Beijing, my Chinese teacher gave me (I'm called Martina) a corresponding Chinese name - namely "ma dì nà". She told me that this means something like "Pearl Girl" or "Girl of Pearls". Then, however, I met some Chinese people and when they asked me about my name and I told them they laughed...so now i'm a bit irritated...

could anybody of you help me and tell me the "real" meaning of "ma dì nà" and in case that this translation is indeed a weird one - suggest me an other Chinese name that sounds like "Martina" but really makes sense ;-) ??

Thanks a lot in advance!

Cheers,

Martina

[atitarev]

I don't know about the reason for giggles (or rather I won't make any assumptions) but here's how I have seen Martina transliterated into Chinese (e.g. for Martina Hingis - tennis player): 玛蒂娜 Mǎdìnà

[Philee]

If it is 马蒂娜 ma di na as the translation by pronounciation, there is really nothing amusing. 马 is a common family name for Chinese. 蒂means stalk of flowers or fruits. It's very common to name a girl with a plant or flower name simply showing good will towards her. 娜 is for girl's name meaning slender and attractive figure, a widely used character for girl.

I guess, meaning no offence, maybe you pronounced them incorrectly. For example, you may pronounced it somewhat like ma ti ne which means where is the horse hoof?

[renzhe]

Ma di na could correspond to a number of characters, and nobody will know unless they see the characters themselves.

What atitarev posted is a standard transliteration, used to write "Martina" in Chinese publications and the like, and the meaning is secondary. The first character means agate, the second is stem of a fruit, and the last one means "elegant". The name itself doesn't really have a meaning as a whole, it's a combination of characters used for transliterating, chosen primarily for their sound, but also for a nice meaning.

In the absence of other information, I assume that this is the name given to you.

Why people laughed, no idea. Maybe the way you said it.