Chinese name translation question

[lonny tao]

Because I like Chinese characters, I study them for hobby.

But all the time I am thinking about something.

Lots of people want there name translate in Chinese.

For a tattoo or something.

I know a translation of your name in Chinese is all about pronunciation.

My name is Ronny, a chinese person that will ltranslate my name in Chinese is going to look for two characters that sounds together as Ronny.

Only its not possible to find a character that sounds 100% like Ro so that will be lo, a character that sounds like ny no problem.

So my name will be two characters with pronunciation Lonny.

My question: my name is no problem but what when you have a short name like Mark, Rick, John?

Or typical short names that we have here in the netherlands: Jan, Piet, Klaas, Kees, Ed, Paul?

Is it possible to translate short names also or not possible?

Hope someone can tell me more.

Lonny

[fanglu]

Is it possible to translate short names also or not possible?

Anything's possible

A lot of one syllable given names are often written as two syllables in Chinese, for example:

Mark - 马克 ma ke

Paul - 保罗 bao luo

This reflects that names in Chinese are often two syllables and also that (Mandarin) Chinese syllables can only start, not end, in k, l, etc. so if you want that sound you need to add another syllable.

its not possible to find a character that sounds 100% like Ro so that will be lo

In Mandarin Chinese there are syllables starting with r that will get you close to Ro in Ronny. You don't need to use a syllable starting in l. For example 弱 ruo (don't use this as a name, btw), is close to the ro in Ronny.

[lonny tao]

Fanglu,

Thans for the reply.

Some people have the name Ronny or Ronnie, the pronunciation is the same.

Almost everywhere the name Ronny or Ronnie is written like this:

When you do this a a tattoo, a Chinese is looking strange to it I think.

The character nr.1 is meaning a net to catch a bird and the character nr. 2 is a buddist nun.

But its all about pronunciation, together these characters sounds like lonny.

But names with one syllables, that was my question, are simply writen with two syllables, that is clear to me.

Thanks for the information, now I know some more about names translate in Chinese.

Lonny.

[smurese]

but what when you have a short name like Mark, Rick, John? Or typical short names that we have here in the netherlands: Jan, Piet, Klaas, Kees, Ed, Paul?

Well, a quick check shows that for foreign names with just one-syllable, there are two-character transliterations as shown by the examples give by @fanglu above, and there are one-character transliterations as well - a few examples:

- Joe 乔, as in Joe Frazier [ http://baike.baidu.c...ter=joe frazier ]

- Ray 雷, as in Ray Charles [ http://baike.baidu.com/view/401593.htm ]

- Faye 费, as in Faye Dunaway [ http://baike.baidu.com/view/243119.htm ]

- Jane 珍, as in Jane Fonda [ http://baike.baidu.c...iew/7782861.htm ]

- Joan 琼, as in Joan Crawford [ http://baike.baidu.com/view/639651.htm ]

- Mae 梅, as in Mae West [ http://zh.wikipedia....a.org/wiki/梅�蕙絲 ]

[lonny tao]

So one character transliterations are also posible.

I was thinking about my name, my name is Ronny, a name with to syllable.

But most people say Ron to me, so that becomes a name with one syllable.

How would you translate Ron to Chinese?

[skylee]

I would use 朗 (lang3), which is quite common in names (as in the name of the pianist Lang Lang).

[lonny tao]

O.k. thanks for the information, this is all I need to know.