Help reading a Chinese name stamp

[silverstarry]

Many years ago, my parents bought chops (name stamps) for my sisters and me. I have a picture of my sister's name stamp but I don't know any Chinese. I have been trying to translate her name by comparing the characters to what I can find online, but due to the calligraphy style used on her chop I have not been able to figure out what some of the characters are.

 

I think the first one is Min, but can anyone confirm if this is correct? 敏

 

I would also love help with the second character if anyone recognizes it. Thanks!

 

[skylee]

翁敏莉 (Weng Minli in Hanyu Pinyin).

Meaning and pronunciation in Mandarin - http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=1&wdqtm=0&wdqcham=1&wdqt=%E7%BF%81%E6%95%8F%E8%8E%89

[silverstarry]

Thank you so much for your help and the link!

 

My parents spoke Cantonese (not Mandarin) so the way that they pronounced her name when we were little sounded like Lay Mon. I know that Chinese is read right to left, but shouldn't Li be on top of Min?

[skylee]

Modern Chinese, when arranged horizontally, goes from left to right the same way as English does. If the characters are arranged vertically, they should be read top down from right to left.

In Hong Kong, where Cantonese is spoken, the name is typically romanised as Yung (rhymes with tone) Man (rhymes with fun) Lee (rhymes with lay).

PS - in the chop, the characters are arranged like this -

敏公

莉羽

The surname 翁 is on the right side and is stretched to take up the space of two characters.

[skylee]

Ah I see your point.

If your parents called her "Lay Mon", then the name should be 莉敏. However this is not what is in the chop. The chop says "Mon Lay / 敏莉". Some possibilities - (1) your parents called her by a different / wrong name; (2) your parents provided wrong information to the person who made the chop and / or the person who made the chop got it wrong; (3) you remember / heard it wrong.