Translation of Vietnamese name Tran Phuc Thuy An

[david_kt]

My mother in law give a Vietnamese name to my daughter i.e Tran Phuc Thuy An. I could translate Tran Phuc An to chinese i.e. Chen Fuk An or in Hokkien Tan Hok An. The problem is the word Thuy (gentle). In chinese it would be translated as Chui (willow leaf), but the meaning is not really correct. So, is it correct to translate:

Tran Phuc Thuy An to Chen Fuk Chui An?

And what is the hokkien translation?

Thanks for your help.

[renzhe]

Do you, by any chance, have the Chinese characters? It would make things much easier.

[david_kt]

May be the chinese character is as follow:

陳 福 垂 安

What is the hokkien pronunciation?

[chaxiu]

Perhaps in POJ,

Tân hok sûi an

Not to sure about 垂

[david_kt]

But is Tan Hok Sui An considered a good/proper name? And what is the meaning of the name?

[HashiriKata]

陳 福 垂 安: These characters look right for the name Tran Phuc Thuy An, but the pronunciation for it in Mandarin so far doesn't look right. It should be Chen Fu Chui An (There's no Fuk in Mandarin Chinese).

[david_kt]

Thank you for all the reply. But I need the hokkien romanization to register my child in Vietnam. She is more than 3 months now but I could not register her yet due to some rules here i.e. we must use either foreign name only or Vietnamese name only, could not use mixed name. My first born was registered as Tan Hok Nio. So, according Chaxiu suggestion, my second one should be Tan Hok Sui An, right?

In Vietnamese, the meaning is lucky, gentle, and peacefull/safe. What is the meaning of Hok Sui An? Is it the same meaning? I think for Hok and An should be correct. I only doubt for Chui/Sui. Even if it is not the same as thuy (gentle), I wil still use it as long as it is not a wierd name ( a common name) to use for a girl.

I need to make a decision as soon as possible, so I really appreciate all your feedbacks.

[Lu]

Quite sure that 垂 is sui in Hokkien (from what this dictionary says, it looks like soe5 is the informal pronounciation, and sui5 the formal, also used for names). But I don't think the meaning is much like the Vietnamese meaning. My dictionary says it means 'droop, hang down; hand down, go down in history; approach'.

Something else seems odd to me about this name, namely that it's a three-character given name. Maybe this is common in Vietnam and I just don't know about it, but I've never heard of a Chinese with such a long name. Usually it's one (sometimes two) characters for the family name, and one or two for the given name.

I hope this is of any help, and congratulations on your daughter!

[trien27]

Phuc in Vietnamese = 福 in Chinese, which borrows from the Cantonese pronunciation of "Fook", whereas it's "Fu" In Mandarin.

Edited February 8, 2009 at 04:11 AM by trien27
Additional information

[fanglu]

Something else seems odd to me about this name, namely that it's a three-character given name. Maybe this is common in Vietnam and I just don't know about it

I don't know if it it's common, but I've met Vietnamese people (in China) with 4 syllable names. I got the impression it wasn't quite as simple as 1 syllable surname 3 syllable first name though, but could be wrong.

[hanwairen]

An = Peace/Tranquility(An-Khang, Binh-An) in Vietnamese is more common for naming boys in VN. An with symbol ^ on top of letter A (meaning Grace/Favor[An-Hue, An-Oan, Hong-An]); pronounced similarly like Un[der]) is more popular for girls. Double-check with your mother-in-law which one she picked.

[trien27]

Vietnamese people, most females anyway, have two "middle names". So, it would seem like it's "four characters" when translated into Chinese, including the last name, given name & 2 "middle names". But normally, the most common of the two characters would be used as the "middle name" when the name is converted into Chinese characters.

[trien27]

hanwairen,

In your signature: "Thy" = your or "Thine" = yours, not "you". If you meant "you", you'd use "Thee".

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=thou&db=luna

I think they have this type of distinction in Archaic Chinese too. But Modern Chinese speakers would be confused as you are if they used those same exact terms from long ago.

[hanwairen]

Trien,

Thank you for pointing it out. Someone also did show me the error but I forgot to update it. I have not touched my profile for years but just updated it recently. I would not have done it without your nudge. Thank again.