May I please have my name translated into chinese symbols

[Tracyann89]

can someone please help me, does this really say Tracy in chinese thank you

[imron]

First of all, it would probably help if you included a picture of what you were talking about

Even without the picture though, I can tell you that it doesn't say Tracy. There is no word "Tracy" in the Chinese language. Have a read of this thread and this thread to get an idea of why you can't really translate English names into Chinese.

Edit: Ok, now I see there is a picture, but it's uploaded to a site that is blocked in China, hence the reason it wasn't showing for me before.

Edited July 18, 2008 at 12:36 AM by imron

[zengshu]

you can transliterate English word "Tracy" into chinese symbols "特蕾西"。

[Tracyann89]

hi zengshu thank you so much for writing back with that, excuse me for being being silly lol but how do you work it out? cos the other guy said theres no Tracy in the chinese language thank you

[imron]

There is no Tracy. Zengshu just chose 3 random characters that sort of sound a little bit like the pronunciation of Tracy. They are pronounced te lei xi, but don't mean Tracy.

Just like I could choose the following words in English: two, ray and sea, and put them together you'd get tworaysea. Which sort of sounds a bit like Tracy. This is basically what Zengshu has done with the Chinese.

[realmayo]

... however this method is the generally accepted way of getting a chinese name that is based off your english one.

[skylee]

The other guy is right.

You can however still get a Chinese name that sounds like "Tracy" and with nice meaning. Perhaps you could consider 翠絲, which means "green silk" and is pronounced "Cui Si".

[claire_yu1]

wow, imron that is a good example!

Always be wary of getting anything Chinese tattooed on you, especially since the same character can mean different things in Japanese than in Chinese.

How many girls have you seen with "and" tattooed to their body?

[imron]

however this method is the generally accepted way of getting a chinese name that is based off your english one.

Accepted by some people more than others Personally, I think it's important for the OP to realise that she can go this route if she wants, but she should be aware the result doesn't mean Tracy in Chinese, and the characters may contain a meaning that she didn't realise and/or didn't want.

[realmayo]

yeah well I'm not going to disagree with you today imron, just turned on the "show avatar" setting for the first time and got a first sight of you flashing your sword.

so Tracy, the best case scenario for someone who wants their english name written in chinese characters is that the characters you choose combine to sound similar to your name, and that --as individual characters-- they have meanings that you are happy with (and which native speakers won't giggle at).

[muyongshi]

I am with Imron on this, sorry realmayo. I think a better way is to get a name that is in accordance with the standard usage of the Chinese language (meaning usually a single character 姓 and a one or two character 名).

There are a few ways to do this: get a friend that knows you to name you. Get a stranger to do it (results are usually worse. Or my personal prefrence, state something that means a lot to you, the meaning of your name or something about your personality and have someone come up with an appropriate name based of those.

[Hofmann]

I prefer looking up what the name means, and choosing appropriate Chinese characters that mean the same thing.