姓名
Your Chinese name
A real Chinese name, not a transliteration: sound, meaning of the characters and how it lands.
Methodology
How Chinese names work (中文名)
姓名
A Chinese name is not a transliteration but a short statement of two or three characters in which both sound and meaning matter. For a foreigner in China, a good name works like a business card people remember the first time.
Surname, given name and meaning
A Chinese name consists of a surname, which almost always comes first and is usually a single character, followed by a given name of one or two characters. The most common surnames are Wang (王), Li (李) and Zhang (张), while two-character surnames such as Ouyang (欧阳) are rare. Parents choose given-name characters carefully, weighing meaning, euphony, tones, sometimes the five-element balance and a family generation character. A name like 志远 (“aspiring to go far”) reads as a wish, not just a string of syllables.
Transliteration versus a real Chinese name
A transliteration writes your name in Chinese syllables — Michael becomes 迈克尔 — which is how documents render it, but it sounds long and foreign. A real Chinese name is shorter, has a surname and carries meaning: Mikhail Ansimov is known in China as 米硕 (Mǐ Shuò), where the surname echoes the first syllable of his given name. Foreigners usually receive such names from Chinese teachers, colleagues or business partners. A good name must not sound silly in its tone combination or clash with an unfortunate word in a dialect.
How our generator works
The generator first picks a real, commonly used Chinese surname that sounds like your surname or the first syllable of your name. It then chooses given-name characters that combine phonetic similarity with a positive meaning, checking that the tones do not blur together. Each option comes with pinyin and tone marks, the Russian Palladius transcription (for example, 张伟 is Чжан Вэй) and a translation of every character. We have excluded characters with ambiguous or archaic meanings that machine translators often produce.
How to choose and use your name
Show your favourite option to two or three native speakers; their reaction will tell you more than any algorithm. A two- or three-syllable name is ideal for business cards, WeChat and introductions at meetings. Do not get a tattoo or register a company based on a generator alone — for that, commission an individual name. For study, first trips and business correspondence, though, a meaningful name instantly earns goodwill from Chinese counterparts.
Questions
Can I just translate my name into Chinese?+
You can transliterate it, but the result is a long chain of meaningless syllables. Chinese people prefer short names with a surname and a meaning, so foreigners are usually given a separate Chinese name.
What is the Palladius system?+
It is the standard Russian transcription of Chinese, created by Archimandrite Palladius (Kafarov) in the 19th century. We include it for Russian-speaking users alongside pinyin, which is the international standard.
Why do tones matter in a Chinese name?+
The same syllable with different tones is a different word, sometimes with an unexpected meaning. A good name sounds melodic and does not create awkward puns through its tone combination.
Can I use this name officially?+
Chinese documents usually record foreigners by the transliteration of their passport name, while the Chinese name is used socially and in business. It works well on business cards and WeChat, but have a native speaker check it before printing.