Chinese names for fictional characters

[periko]

Hello! I have a few characters in the making and would like to have someone check to see if their names make sense and if I put together the correct letters (traditional vs simplified Chinese) since I'm getting some confusing search results. I try to google my names after I put them together to see if it's a real name someone out there has haha..

 

The names I'm going for (ordered family name, given name):

 

1. Xu sisters (Did these 2 weeks ago, my memory is deteriorating) I just picked a random family name I liked
   1. Xu Lian - 徐莲 (water lotus/lily)
   2. Xu Lifen(Li-fen?) - 徐(莉奋 / 莉芬)? going for the Lifen that means fragrant?
2. Ming Yue (明月) /Female/ - I was going for bright moon pretty literal translation there... I found it to be a common compound surname on Google though so is it possible to use it without compounding? Ming = last name, Yue = first. I'd still like a different Ming if I can't use the bright Ming.
3. Xingcheng (星尘) /Male/ - can this be a family name? I can't find a given name I'm satisfied with so I'll take suggestions of anyone has any (favoring Chen and Li atm). I'd like star somewhere in his name and he's going to be a dark/silent type of character. I saw Sying for star on a few name lists but I'm not sure if I want it to literally be star like I did for Yue and moon.

 

If you have the spare time to help me, I'd be really grateful! Feel free to critique names and tell me where I'm wrong.

Also if they're weird for real life names but passable for just fictional characters you could point that out too.

[Lu]

Xu Lian: fine

Xu Lifen: 芬 means fragrant. If they're sisters, you might want to pick matching names, this is quite common in Chinese name-giving. So perhaps Xu Fang 徐芳 and Xu Fen 徐芬 (both fragrant) or Xu Lian 徐蓮 and Xu [some other flower which I can't think of now]. But Xu Lian and Xu Lifen is also fine. If they're from current-day China, consider explaining why their parents have two children.

 

Ming Yue: yep, 'bright moon'. Pretty but a bit trite, I think. Ming is a surname, but a very rare one. I've never met anyone with this surname.

 

Xingcheng: you might want to reconsider this. I've had a coworker with this exact given name and while she was a lovely person, people agreed that her name was a bit odd. It literally means 'Stardust'. Also it's spelled Xingchen, not Xingcheng.

 

Surnames are almost always one character (one syllable). Xingcheng/Xingchen is not a surname. Li and Chen are both good. Sying = Xing = 星. I guess you could just use the name Li Xing or Chen Xing, but that is very literal, as you say.

 

Perhaps @skylee has some good ideas, if she has time to weigh in? Either way, wait for confirmation from a native speaker, which I am not.

 

Good luck with the story!

[periko]

Aa thank you very much for the detailed response! : )

 

Xu Lifen: I was trying to match them a bit since I found Lifen to mean fragrant like a flower, but an actual flower might be a better choice like you said. I wanted both of the sisters to start with the letter L so my choices are a bit limited but so far I like 露莉 Luli (dewy jasmine?) and 兰 Lan (orchid), but the latter looks really close to Lian when it's romanized hmm I'll look for more flowers when I wake up but I'm open to suggestions if anyone else has any.

 

Xingchen: Oops my finger slipped, I had it spelled right on my notepad ^^;; I should've noticed the one syllable surnames long ago thank you for pointing that out! And yeah I didn't find many results for Xingchen besides a Chinese Vocaloid. I'll keep pondering over this character's name then. 

[abcdefg]

One way to "test" your names after selecting ones you like, is to type them into a search engine and see if any actual people, living or dead, had them. Such a search also turns up popular literary characters, movie and TV characters. It can also give you a feel for how common they are: for example if you get hundreds and hundreds of hits for one, it's not too rare.

 

I use Baidu for things like this, since I live in China, where Google is blocked. Not sure if Google would work, but you can try. Would suggest using the actual Chinese characters, not their Romanized/Anglicized form.

 

-------------------

Edit to add: I tried 明月 just now, and only found one reference to a person in several pages of hits. So that might not be a great name for a character.

[imron]

3 hours ago, Lu said:

But Xu Lian and Xu Lifen is also fine.

I'm not sure how common it is to have one sibling with a two-character name and one sibling with a single character name.

 

I'd go for both with a single character or both with a double character for sisters.

[skylee]

1.1 OK. For flower, you could also consider 梅 (plum blossom). Both water lily and plum blossom are highly regarded by Chinese people.

 

1.2 OK. For fragrance, you could also consider 馨.

 

2. Very good IMO. 明 as a surname is not that rare AFAIK.

 

3. I know someone with 塵 (dust) in his name and at first I did not believe it. It is unusual but apparently does appear in names. 星 (star)  Is much more common. You could perhaps consider 雲漢, which means the galaxy (lots of stars, all the way). 雲 (cloud) is a good surname. 漢 (galaxy, among other meanings) is a good given name.

 

So,

 

1.1 徐蓮、徐梅

1.2 徐芬、徐芳、徐馨

2 明月

3 雲漢

 

These names look pretty good to me.

 

I write in traditional Chinese.

[periko]

Thanks for all the feedback everyone ^^

I used google for the romanized names because I wasn't confident about putting the Chinese characters together, but now I see that I didn't do too bad of a job so I'll use this method to check from now on.

 

1. I'm keen on keeping Xu Lian and I think for her sister I'll scrap the L name idea and find a single character flower name that I like. Maybe take 梅 for her if there's nothing else I like, but my mom and bf's mom are named May/Mei so I'd like to not have another one around haha...
2. skylee says it's ok but abcdefg's search result.. hmm I still quite like it I'm not sure, are there any surnames that pair up nicely with Yue?
3. Thank you skylee I really love 雲漢! I'll be using this one : )

[imron]

27 minutes ago, periko said:

my mom and bf's mom are named May/Mei so I'd like to not have another one around haha...

Make that character really nice, and drop hints that you named it after them.

[lips]

How about 朗月？

朗 is a surname, albeit uncommon.

[陳德聰]

Fwiw, my aunt's name is 陳美月. I can see 明月 as a given name but find it less likely as a surname+given name.

 

I also think of 黃月英.

[Lu]

5 hours ago, periko said:

skylee says it's ok but abcdefg's search result.. hmm

Search results are a useful tool, but I'd believe Skylee in cases like this one.

[abcdefg]

I believe her too. There's no replacement for a well-read native speaker. Anything else is second best.