A character from a name

[chrisbeh]

I have try to seach in many dictionary and yet could not find this character but some people say there is such a word. Please help and is urgent. Thanks!

[chrisbeh]

Sorry the picture file is not uploaded. Here is the chinese character. This is a character from a name. Thanks!

[skylee]

Edit - should be 興.

[chrisbeh]

Thanks skylee. This is actually my son's name which is given by a man and I could not get to call this person to verify the name. So I'm very confuse whether should I change to 兴. Are you sure there is not such character?

[chrisbeh]

HI skylee, I go to the link that u give me, I found this character. So, do u think this is the actual character? May I know what is the meaning of this character?

[jbradfor]

That still looks pretty different.... Is that a common handwriting simplification? Or is that a Japanese variant? [The simplified is 兴]

[skylee]

What makes you think that it is "Japanese"? Have you read the link in post #3?

[jbradfor]

Yes, I read your post; that's how I knew it was 興, I would have never figured it out by myself.

That said, 興 and what was posted still look very different to me. So I was wondering why.

It also looks different than all 異體字 in the link; the posted one clearly has an 'x' in the middle, the link all look more like 人 to me.

I've noticed in the past that Japanese have simplified a number of characters, but simplified them in ways that are different than the current Chinese 简体字. So I was just wondering if this is a case of that.

[chrisbeh]

What is the 部首 of this character? Some people asked me to look up in 康熙大字典 but I don't know how to look up at the dictionary since I don't know what is the 部首.

[Glenn]

No, at least officially Japanese uses 興. I can't recall having ever seen a simplification for it. As far as the inside, given the proportions of the character in the image (doesn't seem to be that well written), I just figured it was supposed to be 人, but they screwed it up. On another note: man, that's a lot of 異體字!

[jbradfor]

@chrisbeh: According to MDBG, the radical is 臼 .

@Glenn: OK. I'm still a bit confused by it, however. It's obviously written recently (ball point pen), so most of the 異體字 would not be used today. Oh well, another thing I don't understand about Chinese, add it to the list.....

[chrisbeh]

Glenn "As far as the inside, given the proportions of the character in the image (doesn't seem to be that well written), I just figured it was supposed to be 人,"

Do u mean this shoud be the correct character? Is this character also read as "xing"?

[skylee]

chrisbeh, you asked if the word in your picture is actually that variant of 興.

I can only tell you that I looked at your picture and searched on the variant dictionary and found that one of the variants of 興 to be most similar to your picture. I did not realise that it was a cross instead of a 人 in the middle of the word in your picture. But I still think that it is 興, which is very common in names.

I suppose you know that in Chinese there are a traditional script (used in Taiwan, Hong Kong and many overseas Chinese communities) and a simplified script (used in Mainland China). And on top of them there are many variants, some are still in use, others are obsolete. 興 is a traditional character, and its simplified form is 兴. Both of them are pronounced "xing" and they have the same meaning -> http://cdict.net/?q=%E8%88%88

You also asked if you should change it to 興. If you believe that it is 興, then you should. But if you do not think so, or if you want to use the written form as in your picture, or even the form of the variant of 興, you should note that you might encounter difficulties in that 1) there is no printable font of the word (thus the jpg) which will make it impossible to type it; and 2) other people might not know how to pronounce the word. Someone I know who has named her daughter using a slightly rare variant told me so.

Perhaps I am completely wrong (I hope I am not). Characters of similar shape include 奐 and 奧.

[chrisbeh]

skylee, thanks you for your explaination.

[Hofmann]

It is common for the second stroke of 人-like shapes to cross the 丿 to form something like 乂. I think it is 興. However, that is not a very common variant. More common is this.

[chrisbeh]

Hi Hofmann, thanks for your reply.

So do think I should replace to this character? May I know what is the meaning of this character?

[jbradfor]

Sorry to all about the confusion I caused about the cross vs the 人 question.... chrisbeh, ignore that and don't worry about it.

@chrisbeh, I'm not sure what you mean by "replace it to" the other character. Both of the forms you have posted as pictures, 興, and 兴 are all the same character, same meaning, same pronunciation. They are just different ways of writing it. May I ask what this is for?

@skylee, is the posted picture of the 異體字 a common handwriting form of 興?

[skylee]

May I ask what this is for?

It's for his/her son's name. Read post #4. That's why it is important.

No it is not common.

[jbradfor]

I realize it is the OP's son's name. But why does the OP want to know the son's same?

If the OP just wants to know the name in general, then which form is not important, right? But if the OP wants to get the son's name as a tattoo, or for a drawing, then the form is important.

[chrisbeh]

Chinese name is important because it's given according to the date of birth. At first I thought of changing to 兴 but I was advised not to change because the stroke count is not same. The strokes count is important because it's also according to the date of birth.

Many people told me with the 乂 in the middle is wrongly write. That's why I 'm thinking to change it to 人 since the stroke count is the same.

Thanks all of u for giving me your opinion.