Non Chinsese names written in Chinese characters

[2_infinity]

It has always perplexed me how non-chinese names can be written in chinese characters. It seems to me that the pronounciation would affect the way it is written.

For example (and please correct me if I am wrong) the name Maria can be written as 玛丽亚 or 玛利亚 with the middle character being totally different. Is one more correct then the other? Or are they both subjective? For those who can read chinese, would you be confused if you saw one version, as opposed to the other, in a text?

大卫

[eddiewouldgo]

玛丽亚 is as corrrect as 玛利亚.

Most translations are done phonetically and more.

It can be translated as 麻里阿，馬立啊， but they dont look as nice as 玛丽亚, 玛利亚. We can tell 玛丽亚 and 玛利亚 are girls' name right away, because they sound/look feminine.

Mercedez Benz is 奔馳, phonetically close but also gives a nice image of car cruising freely.

BMW is 寶馬 = treature horse, a treatured ride, I would guess 寶馬 comes from beamer/bimmer.

[opper567]

This is called transliteration.

Japanese and Korean (possibly Vietnamese and other southeast asian) names already have Chinese counterparts so eventhough their names would be pronounced differently in China, their names still have same Hanzi, usually.

ex. Yamamoto 山本 Shan1ben3

ex. Kim Jong-IL 金中一 Jin1Zhong1Yi1

Western names are written with Hanzi in the manner in which a Chinese would hear it spoken normally. Western transliterations usually don't mean anything and sound stupid. Sometimes dots appear between the syllables to tell the reader that the name is foreign and to ignore the meaning.

ex. John 约翰 Yue1han4

ex. Mark 马克 Ma3ke4

ex. Anna 安娜 An1na4

[eddiewouldgo]

Western transliterations usually don't mean anything and sound stupid

Even they dont mean anything, but I'm sure some thoughts are given into translating the names.

If you are to tranlate the names Mari and Marley.

Mari would be 瑪麗/瑪莉/瑪利。 Even these names dont mean anything, but they do give off a girlly image. 麗=beautiful, 莉=jasmine,。

Marley would be 馬里，馬立。 Which are more neutral/or manly.

[盤古]

Western transliterations usually don't mean anything and sound stupid.

Sometimes they do have meaning and I rarely hear any that sound "stupid" although they do sound very foreign.

Sometimes dots appear between the syllables to tell the reader that the name is foreign and to ignore the meaning.

No, the dot • is only used between the surname and given name to separate the two.

Example: 喬治 • 華盛頓 Qiaozhi • Huashengdun (George Washington)

[fenlan]

Individual common western names do often have a standardised transliteration, however, eg Edward = 爱得华 (I think), David = 大卫 etc.

[atitarev]

Check this link. You get many English names transliterated in Chinese:

http://chineseculture.about.com/library/weekly/aa103199.htm

[gato]

Chinese transliterations of names are pretty easy to recognize for English names because they're so common and the names short. But once you move to other languages, such as the Slavic languages, German, or Spanish, it seems to be much more difficult to translate the Chinese transliteration back to the original language. I have this problem when reading Chinese academic literature when they don't include the original spelling of foreign names.

[Daan]

I have been wondering about this for quite some time...when I was in Singapore, I bought a souvenir with the name "Daniel" on it in Chinese characters. Sadly, the pinyin are not included on the note that came with it; only the translation of the characters (centre and prescription). Could anybody please comment on what the pinyin for these two characters is?

I'm aware of the fact that their quality is not 100% but I had to draw them using Paint.

Thanks in advance

[gato]

Looks like 丹纽 (dān nǐu)

[Daan]

Right!

谢谢你

[Joldo Mundus]

The Chinese versions of Western Names don't ALWAYS have to be phonetically accurate though, do they?

[amego]

yes...cos u cant sometimes, as some english sounds are missing in chinese..so the readings are adjusted to chinese to be as close to the original as possible...

[klortho]

This was discussed recently at this thread: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/806-chinese-monsters0

[amego]

I bought a souvenir with the name "Daniel" on it in Chinese characters.

Daniel is oso sometimes jokingly called 大鸟 da4 niao3 "big bird", muahahaha, but only do it with close frens...

Danny is oso 大泥 da4 ni2 "big soil".

PS These are all Made in Singapore.