Characters for the name 'Richard'

[Starr]

Hello I am wanting to get my husband name in Chinese tattoo his name is Richard. Also if I don’t do the name Richard in  Chinese, I can do his initials and they are R. C.  

Can someone help me ,I have searched on the internet but I am so afraid that I am going to be mislead from some of these Tatttoo generators. Thank you. 

[Shelley]

Oh please don't. 

It a minefield of problems. 

Even if you find the correct characters, if the tattoo artist is not trained in Chinese calligraphy you could end up with a horrible mess.

 

Why not get it tattooed in a lovely font in English, then you will all be able to read it and you won't spend the whole of the rest of your life telling people what it is or worrying that it is wrong and people who can read Chinese are laughing.

 

Also tattoos are not really very Chinese so its a bit odd.

 

Just don't, characters don't add any magic or special powers to the name. 

Please think before you ink and think again and again.

 

[NinjaTurtle]

Two possibilities are 理查 and 理查德.

 

https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=richard

 

[TheBigZaboon]

As usual, I agree with @Shelley. We seem to be the good cop-bad cop duo on tattoos. She's unfailingly polite and reasonable, and I'm-- well I'm just me...

 

So continuing in this vein, lemme give ya my take on the two selections offered. 

 

理查德 has the advantage of being a relatively straight transliteration. It includes a third character that makes the d in Richard an explicit part of the pronunciation of the name. It comes up easily on input systems as a reasonably standard transliteration of Richard. If you insist on going through with this, I think this is the better choice.

 

理查 lacks the third character and therefore the d sound. However, in a pinch, it could probably serve as a transliteration of Lisa, in case your husband ever decides he... Oh, well, I suppose we better not go there...

 

Please don't take my recommendation of one over the other as support or encouragement of your plan for this endeavor. I respect your desire to do something nice for your husband, and I'm impressed that you're attempting to do it right.

 

But in the West, tattooing has very little downside, and is extremely popular, especially as you travel down the age-generational food chain. Where I live, in Japan, however, tattoos are still a very sticky subject. My sports club has signs on the wall explicitly requiring all tattoos be covered in the club while working out. And young mothers, especially, are finding out they're not allowed to show tattoos in public places like pools or during school events with their children. Young men and women both are finding out that employers may choose the non-inked candidate when faced with hiring choices. Things may change over time, but right now, there's not much young people can do about this.

 

The Olympics in 2020 have the powers that be in a pickle about how to handle the influx of tattooed foreigners and what to do about existing rules on tattoos. I'm vicariously enjoying their discomfort.

 

But I have nothing but contempt for so-called celebrities and opinion makers who led the rush of young people to get tattooed, but now have changed their minds.  The celebrities have the resources to have their tattoos removed non-surgically, leaving their fans stuck with the results and surgical methods of removal as the only affordable option. (Namuro Amie, I'm looking at you.)

 

Some on this forum have said that in China attitudes are changing, especially among young people. But I kinda have my doubts, considering how big and diverse Chinese society actually is. Also, there's one problem with young people, namely that that's where they get older people, and we all know what they're like. And there's always the possibility that the government may come out against tattoos as they have come out against hip hop, but if you don't have anything to do with China, this should never be a problem. If your husband has occasional business in China, his Chinese colleagues will probably never mention what they think of his tats, but I don't think you would want to ask them. I doubt you would like a frank answer.  

 

I'm afraid that this rant is due to the fact that I have time to kill while the drier is drying my clothes. But I'm not a fan of most tattoos (with the obviously biased exception of military and ethnically derived ones), and I guess that it shows. Sorry. Neither my babbling nor my concerns should have any influence on your decision on what to do.

 

 

TBZ

[Lu]

You are wise to ask here and not rely on tattoo generators. If you really, really want to get a tattoo of your husband's name transliterated into Chinese, NinjaTurtle's options are good ones.

 

However, please read this post first. You cannot write 'Richard' in Chinese, you can only write something that approximately sounds a bit like 'Richard'. Initials are even more impossible: Chinese has no alphabet, so there is no 'R' or 'C'. Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise, doesn't know what they are talking about and is possibly trying to sell you something.

 

Furthermore, even if you find the correct characters, many tattoo artists outside of China or Taiwan don't know the first thing about Chinese and you run a very high risk of getting the characters upside down, or mangled so they look like the scribbles of a five-year-old, or with some other problem.

 

So all in all, please reconsider your plan. It is a sweet gesture to want to tattoo your husband's name, but consider picking a nice font and get his name in English, as it is. Or get your wedding date. Or a picture, either abstract or more clear, that represents something important for the two of you. But please don't get Chinese characters.

[edelweis]

On the other hand in case of future divorce, a Chinese character tattoo won't immediately reveal the name of your ex.

Unless your new SO can read Chinese, of course.

[Dawei3]

11 hours ago, Lu said:

approximately sounds a bit like 'Richard'.

So you know exactly how close the 2 versions are to Richard,  they are:

理查   Lǐ chá

理查德. lǐ chá dé

 

Hence,  they are only vaguely like the actual name Richard.  

 

[TheBigZaboon]

Whazzya point???

 

You've been studying Chinese long enough. You know approximately- a bit- a little- something like, etc., are as close as you're gonna get in Chinese transliteration of Western words and proper names.

 

That's exactly why I suggested 理查 would do equally well for Lisa by the usual standards, even though to Western ears you might get closer with a "sa" in there. The use of 德 would thus be a good idea to ensure a closer (obviously far from perfect) correspondence to Li-cha-de.

 

TBZ

[Dawei3]

1 hour ago, TheBigZaboon said:

Whazzya point???

The person asking the question didn't know that the letters R & C could not be represented in Chinese characters.  This suggested little knowledge of Chinese, so I was making sure they understood the sounds of the characters.  If you read the original post, you'll realize this.  The person lacked basic knowledge and it helps to give them this.  

[TheBigZaboon]

Stupid me...

 

When I read your post, i thought you were criticizing @Lu...

 

But then I'm so dumb, I thought the OP was gonna get her husband inked...

When I reread it per your orders, I realized she was gonna get herself tatted up...

 

My wife always says I'm thicker 'n a mud fence, and nearly as intelligent...

 

TBZ

[Starr]

Thank you all so much for the help advice and as well as explaining it. I have decided I am not going to do my husband name in a Chinese character. I need one more area of advice please. How about the words Love and Loyalty in Chinese characters? Would that work better?