how to write wifes name in chinese for tattoo

[terryb]

hi i want to have my wifes name tattooed on my arm her name is Cherie can anyone help please

[Mouseneb]

谢莉

[Daan]

Whoa! Beware. Western names cannot be used in Chinese. It's simply impossible to write Western names in Chinese characters. The best you can get is an approximation, such as the one posted by Mouseneb. See here: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/1824-wife-and-husband7

[Hofmann]

My best translation is 愛.

[fanglu]

Alternatively, if you're not after anything vaguely accurate, but want something like what most tattooists will do (see hanzismatter), you can try this site: http://www.dafont.com/ming-imperial.font which will let you type any string and get an output in an 'asian' font (there are ones other than the 'ming imperial' that I linked, so look around).

[skillphiliac]

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[Xiwang]

For some English names, there may be 100% agreement on how to write them in Chinese (e.g., "Obama"). For other names, especially first names, there may be more than one way to transliterate the name. There are thick books out there that act as style manuals for various organizations. They don't all agree.

If someone has a name such as "Gold," that name may be translated directly into Chinese as "gold." On the other hand, if there is no direct translation, then certain characters are used to approximate the sound of the English name (e.g., Wal-Mart becomes "Wu Er Ma"). However, since the same sound can be created by lots of different characters, Chinese usually like to pick the characters with the best underlying meaning.

That said . . .

As Mouseneb notes, "Cherie" may be written as 谢莉 (pronounced roughly as "shieh-lee"). However, the pronunciation begins with the Sh- sound so it can also sound like "Shelly" in addition to "Cherie." The first character in 谢莉 means "thanks."

In Mainland China, the Xinhua and CCTV news organizations transliterate "Cherie" as 切丽 (pronounced roughly as "chieh-lee"). This version begins with a Ch- sound and so may be closer to "Cherie," depending on how you pronounce your wife's name. The first character in 切丽 can mean "absolutely" while the second character means "beautiful."

For what it's worth, Cherie Blair (the wife of the former British prime minister) uses 切丽 for the Chinese version of her first name. (In English, she pronounces her first name with the Sh- sound.)

Note: Taiwan uses the traditional version of written Chinese so 切丽 would be written as 切麗 there. (The second character is a bit fancier.) Mouseneb's 谢莉 would be 謝莉 in Taiwan.

Good luck.

Edited November 10, 2009 at 05:40 PM by Xiwang
Edited to include the traditional character versions, just in case.

[skylee]

You can also consider 雪麗 / 雪莉.