Is this name male or female? 李琴

[scottishlaura]

Pretty self explanatory, I got a work email from a new contact by the name of "Li Qin/李琴" and want confirmation of gender. I'm guessing female but that's only based on the fact that "qin" means piano which I think of as somehow being female, really who knows!!!

Related to this, is there an online resource at all that tells you whether names are most likely male or female, as it's pretty hard for me to know without asking a native speaker.

[zening]

Pretty self explanatory, I got a work email from a new contact by the name of "Li Qin/李琴" and want confirmation of gender. I'm guessing female but that's only based on the fact that "qin" means piano which I think of as somehow being female, really who knows!!!

Related to this, is there an online resource at all that tells you whether names are most likely male or female, as it's pretty hard for me to know without asking a native speaker.

This one is female, I think. As a native speaker, some names really confuse me because sometime a girl and a boy may use the same name. So if there is a way to distinguish, I need it, too. ;)

[snowfly]

definitely female

I'am Chinese guy :rolleyes:

[Lu]

That one is female.

I don't know about an online resource. Names related to beauty, gentleness, or plants are usually female, as are names with a 女 radical, and names with the same character twice. Names related to strength, courage or the country are usually male. But every so often there's a woman with a distinctly male name (吳健雄), or the other way around (馬友友), so you can never be 100% sure. What can help is looking up the name on google images and seeing what comes up.

[doraemon]

Most likely a female name, but not that it can't be used for a male(still very unlikely though).

[scottishlaura]

Consensus is female so I will reply to Ms Li, many thanks.

[gougou]

To be safe, you could also just write "Dear Li Qin".

[芝麻小胖子]

female I'm sure

[anonymoose]

To be safe, you could also just write "Dear Li Qin".

Agreed.

Unlike English where it is unusual, even impolite sometimes, to refer to someone by their full name, it is very normal in Chinese, especially when the name only consists of two syllables.

[yuhe]

The name would be a famale name. For chinese people "qin" 琴 means more elegant.

I can confirm it.

[scottishlaura]

THanks for the input everyone.

I guess I could say "Dear Li Qin" but I like to know if I'm talking to a man or a woman.