Chinese name

[Tasca]

Hi everyone!

My boyfriend was born in Taiwan in the mid 80s and adopted by an American couple. They kept his first name, Han, and he would like to know what it would have originally looked like in Chinese.

The Internet has been spectacularly useless in my research. Can you please help?

Thanks a lot.

Tasca

[skylee]

What does this Han mean? There are a lot of homophones in Chinese. For example, according to one dictionary, these are the words with the pronunciation "han" -> http://humanum.arts....llabary/han.htm

So unless you know what that Han means it is difficult to decide which word it is. But if nobody knows the meaning, I think he can just pick the one he likes most. The more common choices are 漢 / 翰 / 瀚 / 涵.

[Lu]

Does he (or his parents) still have the original adoption papers? It's quite likely that it would be written in there.

[Tasca]

Thanks for the fast replies!

No, we don't know the meaning. I was hoping there would be a word that's "usually" used as a name. The most common version, so to speak. I suppose the rest of his name wouldn't be of much help either, right?

As for the adoption papers, that was my first thought, too. His parents have those, but let's just say it's.... complicated. He doesn't want to ask them.

[imron]

I suppose the rest of his name wouldn't be of much help either, right?

Actually, it may help. Often Chinese names try to have characters that go well with each other and by having the rest of the name it might help to narrow the field somewhat.

[Tasca]

His complete name was Wang Yi Han.

By the way, if skylee's suggestion 涵 means 'forgive', that would be a really heartbreaking choice for a baby you're giving up for adoption.

[renzhe]

Wang is a very common family name, and Yihan as a word means regret: http://www.nciku.com/search/zh/detail/%E9%81%97%E6%86%BE/1317987

It's hard to imagine Chinese people giving a child this name, and I'm not quite sure if they'd be allowed to. It is a bit odd, though, because people usually avoid names which sound similar to "bad" words.

Yi could mean a number of nice things, including skill, harmony, idea, justice, benefit: http://www.xiaoma.info/spy.php?py=yi&fpy=yi

Han could mean a number of nice things too, like man, Chinese, heroic, or rare: http://www.xiaoma.info/spy.php?py=han&fpy=han

Without seeing the characters, it is impossible to be sure.

[OneEye]

It's hard to imagine Chinese people giving a child this name, and I'm not quite sure if they'd be allowed to.

Taiwanese! It could have some bearing on what they're allowed to do.

My teacher's parents picked a name for her with a certain meaning, and then changed the characters to ones with a more positive connotation. So I guess it isn't unheard of.

[skylee]

Re #7 and #8, while 遺憾 (yihan, regret) can conveniently fit in the name and the story, I think it is quite unlikely that this word is used as a name.

IMHO 一漢 (yihan) might be more likely. It can convey a wish for the child to grow up as a fine man (一條好漢), or it can mean that the child is the first born son. It can even express a wish for a unified China.

But as it is, we can't be sure what character that "Han" is.

[Tasca]

Guess what I found out today - there's a Chinese badminton player named Wang Yihan who just won silver in the Olympics! What a coincidence! Wikipedia says the Chinese version of her name is 王仪涵.

This sounds like an incredibly stupid question, but, in this case, does it make a difference that she's... well, female?

[imron]

Before talking more about the characters, it would also help to get a bit more clarification on the name if you can provide it. Specifically, I'm talking with regards to the ordering of the surname and given name. In Chinese the surname always comes first, however it's quite common sometimes when writing the name in English for people to place the surname to the end similar to how English names work, see for example how the IMDB uses Ziyi Zhang instead of Zhang Ziyi (for the record, I find this practice infuriating as it often causes more confusion than it solves).

Anyway, the name you provided could be a bit ambiguous in this regards, so I was wondering if you could clarify if your boyfriend has the surname Wang and the given name Yihan, or the surname Han and given name Wangyi.

[skylee]

There are plenty of different combinations of yi + han. The badminton player's name is a bit (not very) feminine IMHO. Wang is the surname, 仪 can mean graceful/elegant, 涵 can mean cultured.

Re #11, if Han is a surname, then it is very simple. It is 韓, which apart from being a surname also means Korea. Other surnames with the "han" pronunciation are not common.

[Hofmann]

So if there's no way of communicating with people who would know, then I guess that leaves it up to us to name him, right?

[Lu]

From what I've seen, if there is 'Wang' in a name that is almost always the surname.

[liuzhou]

for the record, I find this practice infuriating as it often causes more confusion than it solves

Hear hear!

[imron]

if there is 'Wang' in a name that is almost always the surname.

It's the 'almost' part that caused me to ask the question. I also know of enough people with the surname 汪 that if Wang does turn out to be the surname then there's also a slight question mark in my mind whether it would 王 (most likely) or 汪 (still possible).

[crystal123]

I think it is 韩