Meaning of a symbol -- Help needed please

[Iainthg]

Hello all,

I need some help. I am trying to find out the meaning of this symbol and where I can get a larger version of it. If anyone can help I would really appreciate it.

Thank you for your help!

[yonglin]

It's a character, not a symbol. 嘉 means "excellent".

You can place it into your favourite text editor and resize it to any size you want. If it doesn't display above, you need to install Chinese language support in your OS.

[Iainthg]

Thank you Yonglin!

[Iainthg]

Here is one more (last one, I promise )

Thanks for your help!

[liuzhou]

Is this large enough?

http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a268/Liuzhou/jia.gif

[renzhe]

瑪, agate

Mostly used in transcriptions nowadays. Are you trying to transcribe a name into Chinese characters?

[Iainthg]

Thanks very much for the replies and the characters. Yes I am trying to do both of my kids names. I spoke to a gentleman that is from main land China and he said they were as close as I was going to get. I realize that you could ask 10 different people and get 10 different answers as there is no direct translation and it is very subjective. I am just trying to get as close as I can without it having a negative meaning!

[Lu]

The second one is pronounced ma. The meaning is fine, it's often used in transcribing names, but is your kid's name only 'ma'?

[Iainthg]

Her name is Gemma

[renzhe]

It's not even a translation. It's basically picking a completely new name, one that sounds similar to the English one.

And yeah, Jiama (the two characters put together) is quite close and the meaning is nice.

Using "Jie" instead of "Jia" could also be a possibility.

[imron]

And yeah, Jiama (the two characters put together) is quite close and the meaning is nice.

And could just as easily be used for Jamal, Jamar etc as it could for Gemma.

[renzhe]

I thought it was Jamal, actually, when first reading this thread.

[Hofmann]

A translation would be 玉 or 珠 or 璅 or something.

[renzhe]

Using "Jie" instead of "Jia" could also be a possibility.

I guess I was on the right track: Gemma Ward.

The standard transliteration for Gemma seems to be 吉瑪.

[Iainthg]

Thanks for all of the advice!

[Iainthg]

What is the meaning of 吉瑪 ?

[imron]

吉 - auspicious

瑪 - agate

Put together you have 吉瑪 "auspicious agate".

[末將糾結腦]

Just one small thing. I think that when picking a Chinese name, it's quite important to speak it out loud since there are many phrases that sounds all the same but hold different meanings. If a name sounds like something else, it can be very intresting or...embarrassing. Just a small reminder, hehe.

Anyway, the most improtant thing is that you like your name.

By the way, what's your daughter's surname?