Using Chinese word in new business name

[DavidHK1]

Hi, I am creating a new business in Hong Kong and China (and later in other countries) - and would like to include a Chinese word in our business name. 

 

I was considering including the word "Tao" in our name.  (For example: "____tao",  with the first part being an English word)

 

Online definitions include: "Tao or Dao (/taʊ/, /daʊ/; Chinese: 道; pinyin: Dào (help. info)) is a Chinese concept signifying 'way', 'path', 'route', or sometimes more loosely, 'doctrine' or 'principle'."

 

What is general local (Cantonese and Mandarin) view on using this word in a business name? 

 

Thank you. 

[艾墨本]

I can't speak to how it's perceived in the business world, however, please use the "Dao" spelling. Writing it as "Tao" is old school and doesn't as accurately portray its pronunciation. Also, using the "d" spelling will make it slightly more recognizable to Chinese nationals.

 

As far as the meaning itself, it is philosophically related to Daoism. In the west, that's what people think of when they hear the word. In Chinese, like your online definition shows, it also has many other meaning. Since modern Chinese uses two characters (two syllables) for most words, Dao can get paired with many other words to form new meanings. Some examples are 道理: reason/principle，知道: to know, 道路: road, and a long list of dozens upon dozens of more words. 

 

A lot of companies have an English name and than another name that sounds "similar" in Chinese using Chinese characters. A creative person can often come up with incredible names, and if you find someone to do this, it is definitely something worth paying for. My personal favorite is Coca-cola which is 可口可乐 ke-kou-ke-le, which can be loosely understand as 'able to be drank, able to be enjoyed".

 

If you haven't even named your company yet, it might be worthwhile to hire someone to work with you on this. There are a lot of people on these forums that do translation work and work in China-related businesses for a living.

[muyongshi]

I think the context is important to know here. It's not just whether it is acceptable or not but rather it fits with your business.

What is your business? What is the full name you are contemplating?

A context is important for us to give you a contextual answer.

[lips]

NTTAWWT, something followed by 道 as a company name looks Japanese.

[Hofmann]

You haven't provided information on the business, so it's difficult to judge how appropriate this is.

[Kamille]

My personal favorite is Coca-cola which is 可口可乐 ke-kou-ke-le, which can be loosely understand as 'able to be drank, able to be enjoyed".

 

That's if you break it down to bits but you should perhaps look at it as words, because 可口 and 可乐 are both words, meaning "delicious" and "enjoyable". But yeah, it's a great exemple of a phonological transliteration that has meaning aside from it. That's pretty scarce, now, though.

 

Regarding the rest, if I see 道 at the and of a company's name and so long as said company doesn't specialize in building roads, I think about the abstract meaning of "way" rather than about 道路.

 

Now DavidHK1, what would be the English word before the Dao/Tao ?