List of characters used in names?

[Lu]

Not a native speaker, but this is a fun challenge (and also I should be working so I do this instead).

Female: 芳娜静秀英丽艳娟霞兰燕玲桂萍玉莉雪慧婷梅凤晶颖佳倩琴洁淑春琳欣香芝瑜花璐珍莹

Male：伟强磊洋勇军杰涛超明刚平飞波宇浩凯健俊帆帅旭龙阳建亮成畅峰国海晨荣瑞志兵雷坤岩鹏

Both: 丹华斌东文

Both but leaning female: 敏红

Not sure: 辉鑫宁林欢云柳冬博彬想杨楠利

 

Not in the list: 小晓 (both, but leaning female).

[Publius]

鹏 is more masculine.

珍莹 more feminine.

You're quite right about 敏. It's often a female name with a masculine touch, e.g. 贾敏 (林黛玉's mother), 李敏 (毛泽东's daughter).

And there are always exceptions. For example, I know a 燕渤 who is a male; a 惠斌 also male; a 帆 who is female; a 岩 also female; a 蕴涛 who is female; a 红兵, a 令军, both female, born in the cultural revolution. And there's 贾珍, 周瑜, 洪秀全, 叶剑英, 张爱萍, 孔祥明(女), 郎平(女), 邵佳一...

... This really isn't a good idea. Who started this madness? Off with his head! ?

[Demonic_Duck]

On 1/31/2022 at 7:01 PM, Lu said:

Not in the list: 小晓

 

Yeah that's one weakness of the list: it contains all the 名 characters from the top 500 two- or three-character 姓名s, but that's not necessarily the same as the top list of individual characters used in 名s.

 

I'd be really surprised if 晓 wasn't in the top 50, probably even the top 10 individual characters. But it's almost never used alone and can be paired with a massive range of other characters, so I guess none of those individual pairs made the top 500.

[phills]

Sorry if I've asked a "no-no".  In the past, when a non-Chinese person has made-up a Chinese name and polled it with a group of Chinese persons, someone often interjects that the made-up name is one for the opposite gender.  So I thought I'd shortcut the process by classifying the 99 common name chars ?

 

It'd be worth knowing if this is something some Chinese would consider offensive.  Or not applicable because many names are not assigned in a gender specific way or switched gender connotations.  Like the Aiden's, Dakota's and Peyton's in the U.S (or the Chris', Robin's, Kelsey's). 

 

I don't know if how much of a thing that is in China though.  If it is, I'd be curious what are the most gender-neutral name chars in Chinese?

[Lu]

On 1/31/2022 at 10:13 PM, Publius said:

鹏 is more masculine.

珍莹 more feminine.

Thanks, I did know that but I mistyped in my post. I've corrected them.

 

On 1/31/2022 at 10:13 PM, Publius said:

And there are always exceptions.

Yeah, when I first saw 吴健雄's name I had to read at least twice to make sure I had understood that correctly and she was really a woman. There are always exceptions, but in many of those cases, many Chinese people would also be confused and one can blame their parents.

[Publius]

@phills No, it's nothing wrong you want to take a shortcut. It just feels... futile. I'd rather look at each full name and tell you whether it's masculine or feminine or neutral. I'll see if I can merge the given names without breaking it down to characters. But I gotta eat first. ?

[phills]

Sorry don't mean to interrupt your new year festivities!  新年快乐! ??

 

Later, after your festivities and you're back to posting, I have another related name question. Are some chars are more likely to be middle characters in a 3 character name, rather than an end character?

 

Like 一 I imagine is more often a middle character, 王一伟 vs 王伟一.  Google immediately finds a 王一伟 picture, no 王伟一 (except stray hits from 王伟, 一个blahblah).

[Publius]

Ha, not everything needs a script. I used Notepad++ (for regex) and Excel (for sorting) and this is an updated sheet thanks to @phills' work (F=feminine, M=masculine, N=neutral, X=inconclusive). Comments welcome.

王	丹丹	F
张	丽	F
王	丽丽	F
王	丽华	F
王	丽娟	F
刘	佳	F
张	倩	F
张	兰英	F
李	冬梅	F
王	凤兰	F
张	凤英	F
李	娜	F
李	娟	F
王	婷	F
张	婷婷	F
李	慧	F
张	敏	F
李	春梅	F
杨	柳	F
王	桂兰	F
李	桂珍	F
李	桂芝	F
王	桂花	F
李	桂芳	F
李	桂英	F
王	桂荣	F
王	桂香	F
王	梅	F
李	欣	F
张	洁	F
王	海燕	F
王	淑兰	F
王	淑华	F
王	淑珍	F
王	淑英	F
张	燕	F
王	玉兰	F
王	玉梅	F
王	玉珍	F
王	玉英	F
李	玲	F
王	琳	F
王	琴	F
张	瑜	F
王	璐	F
王	秀云	F
王	秀兰	F
王	秀华	F
王	秀梅	F
王	秀珍	F
李	秀芳	F
王	秀英	F
王	秀荣	F
李	红	F
李	红梅	F
李	红霞	F
王	艳	F
王	芳	F
张	莉	F
王	莹	F
李	萍	F
李	雪	F
李	雪梅	F
李	霞	F
李	静	F
张	颖	F
王	东	M
王	亮	M
张	伟	M
李	俊	M
张	健	M
李	兵	M
李	军	M
王	凯	M
王	刚	M
王	勇	M
张	华	M
王	博	M
王	坤	M
张	宇	M
高	峰	M
王	帅	M
王	平	M
张	建	M
王	建军	M
王	建华	M
王	建国	M
王	建平	M
李	强	M
李	彬	M
王	志强	M
王	成	M
王	斌	M
张	旭	M
李	明	M
李	杰	M
李	波	M
刘	洋	M
王	浩	M
张	涛	M
王	磊	M
王	超	M
王	辉	M
李	阳	M
张	雷	M
王	飞	M
王	鹏	M
陈	龙	M
王	丹	N
李	云	N
王	宁	N
李	岩	N
杨	帆	N
李	想	N
李	文	N
陈	晨	N
王	晶	N
李	杨	N
李	林	N
张	楠	N
刘	欢	N
张	玉	N
王	玉华	N
王	瑞	N
刘	畅	N
王	英	N
王	鑫	N
王	利	X
王	荣	X

Edited February 2, 2022 at 12:59 PM by Publius

[phills]

Bravo @Publius.  That's very helpful!

 

From that list, it looks in 3 characters, the given names mostly form a word or a descriptive phrase, rather than just 2 isolated chars combined together.  So my previous question probably doesn't make much sense.

 

For what it's worth, I ran a google image search on your last set of X's, and just scanned the faces that popped up.  李岩 and 王英 seem to be the most gender neutral of that set. 

 

王利 X (mostly male, 1 or 2 female pics)

李岩 X (very even male & female pics, first row 3 of 7 females)

张建 X (mostly male, few females)

李林 X (fairly even, first row mostly males, later more females)

张玉 X (fairly even male/female)

王瑞 X (mostly female, first row all female, few males later on)

王英 X (very even, male & female)

王荣 X  (almost all male)

[Publius]

You did a great job too! I'll do some research and update that list.

 

Yes three character names are often meaningful. Take 一 for example, 一鸣 is a fairly common name, associated with 一鸣惊人. 守一 is also a good name, shared by a few historical figures, the apparent association being 抱元守一. There probably aren't many 伟一 out there, but I bet you can easily find 十一 or 五一. Also since 建 is a verb, 建国, 建军, 建业 etc are very common, especially in the older generation.

 

Two characters too can make a meaningful name. 杨 and 高 are not the most common surnames, but 杨柳 and 高峰 are disproportionately popular.

 

Looks like my hunch about 岩 is right. It sounds masculine but many females use it.

 

There's also a historical thing about characters with 玉 radical. These names are traditionally given to males, because 弄璋之喜. For example 贾珍, 贾琏, 贾瑞, 贾珠, 贾环 from 红楼梦, and of course 周瑜周公瑾 from 三国. But the tide seems to have turned. Now they are mostly found in female names. 陈琳 is the name of a late Han scholar and a 100-year-old English professor, both male; but it's also the name of a female singer, who will surely turn up first if you search the name.