List of characters used in names?

[Jan Finster]

I am still getting frustrated with Chinese names. Probably I will have to brute force them into my brain with Anki or Tofu learn... ?

 

Do you guys have lists of characters used in proper names? 

[phills]

I don't know about the given names, but here's a list of 100 common last names.   One of these characters + 1 or 2 characters after that is probably a name. 

 

After that is mostly stereotypes.  As far as I can tell, male names often have various strength/patriotic/health connotation words (ala the author 王强), while female names have flowers, elegance or beauty type words (ala the tennis player 李娜), and may be doubled (like the actress 范冰冰).

 

https://mandarinhouse.com/100-common-chinese-family-names

 

1.            李           Lǐ

2.            王           Wáng

3.            张           Zhāng

4.            刘           Liú

5.            陈           Chén

6.            杨           Yáng

7.            赵           Zhào

8.            黄           Huáng

9.            周           Zhōu

10.          吴           Wú

11.          徐           Xú

12.          孙           Sūn

13.          胡           Hú

14.          朱           Zhū

15.          高           Gāo

16.          林           Lín

17.          何           Hé

18.          郭           Guō

19.          马           Mǎ

20.          罗           Luó

21.          梁           Liáng

22.          宋           Sòng

23.          郑           Zhèng

24.          谢           Xiè

25.          韩           Hán

26.          唐           Táng

27.          冯           Féng

28.          于           Yú

29.          董           Dǒng

30.          萧           Xiāo

31.          程           Chéng

32.          曹           Cáo

33.          袁           Yuán

34.          邓           Dèng

35.          许           Xǔ

36.          傅           Fù

37.          沈           Shěn

38.          曾           Zēng

39.          彭           Péng

40.          吕           Lǚ

41.          苏           Sū

42.          卢           Lú

43.          蒋           Jiǎng

44.          蔡           Cài

45.          贾           Jiǎ

46.          丁           Dīng

47.          魏           Wèi

48.          薛           Xuē

49.          叶           Yè

50.          阎           Yán

51.          余           Yú

52.          潘           Pān

53.          杜           Dù

54.          戴           Dài

55.          夏           Xià

56.          钟           Zhōng

57.          汪           Wāng

58.          田           Tián

59.          任           Rén

60.          姜           Jiāng

61.          范           Fàn

62.          方           Fāng

63.          石           Shí

64.          姚           Yáo

65.          谭           Tán

66.          盛           Shèng

67.          邹           Zōu

68.          熊           Xióng

69.          金           Jīn

70.          陆           Lù

71.          郝           Hǎo

72.          孔           Kǒng

73.          白           Bái

74.          崔           Cuī

75.          康           Kāng

76.          毛           Máo

77.          邱           Qiū

78.          秦           Qín

79.          江           Jiāng

80.          史           Shǐ

81.          顾           Gù

82.          侯           Hóu

83.          邵           Shào

84.          孟           Mèng

85.          龙           Lóng

86.          万           Wàn

87.          段           Duàn

88.          章           Zhāng

89.          钱           Qián

90.          汤           Tāng

91.          尹           Yǐn

92.          黎           Lí

93.          易           Yì

94.          常           Cháng

95.          武           Wǔ

96.          乔           Qiáo

97.          贺           Hè

98.          赖           Lài

99.          龚           Gōng

100.        文           Wén

[phills]

Actually wikipedia has a list of most common given names too.  Just for curiosity I stripped out the duplicates:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_given_name

 

1   麗  Lì  Pretty, Graceful
2   偉  Wěi     Big, Great
3   芳  Fāng    Fragrance, Virtue
4   秀英    Xiùyīng     Outstanding Beauty, Elegant & Brave
5   娜  Nà  Elegant
6   敏  Mǐn     Quick, Clever
7   静  Jìng    Peaceful, Tranquil
8   强  Qiáng   Strong, Better
9   磊  Lěi     Mound of Rocks, Great
10  军  Jūn     Army
11  洋  Yáng    Ocean
12  勇  Yǒng    Brave
13  艳  Yàn     Gorgeous
14  杰  Jié     Outstanding, Heroic
15  娟  Juān    Beautiful, Bewitching
16  涛  Tāo     Large Wave
17  明  Míng    Bright
18  超  Chāo    Overleap, Surpass
19  秀兰    Xiùlán  Beautiful Orchid, Elegant & Graceful
20  霞  Xiá     Rosy Clouds, Mist
21  平  Píng    Peaceful, Tranquil
22  刚  Gāng    Hard, Strong
23  桂英    Guìyīng     Laurel & Beautiful, Brave

 

[Lu]

On 1/28/2022 at 9:13 AM, Jan Finster said:

I am still getting frustrated with Chinese names.

What kind of frustration? Not recognising them when you see them in a text, or having trouble remembering the names of people you meet, or something else?

 

For the first problem, that list of surnames is helpful. Sentence is weird but one of these characters is in it: see if perhaps part of the sentence is a name and if that resolves the weirdness. For the second, what helped me is, yeah, learn the name basically as a vocab item. Ask the person which characters (that can be helpful), come up with a mnemonic, repeat (to yourself or out loud to someone) a few times within the hour, repeat again that evening, the next day, etc. Put it in your Anki queue, even.

[Jan Finster]

On 1/28/2022 at 10:40 AM, Lu said:

What kind of frustration? Not recognising them when you see them in a text

This! (i.e. the pinyin, tone)

 

I guess the list of characters used in names is much longer than 100, but I am grateful for phills list.

[Jim]

There is a list of characters permitted in names, 通用规范字表, a fact I discovered when we wanted to use a classical variant in our son's but weren't allowed as it wasn't listed. The clerk had a small printed booklet they consulted.

Obviously there'll be names that predate its introduction or are given in other jurisdictions but reference for contemporary PRC at least.

[Jan Finster]

On 1/28/2022 at 11:24 AM, Jim said:

通用规范字表

Thanks, but this list is so extensive that it borders on useless for learners. 

 

[phills]

It just occured to me that 百姓, aka the people, literally means the 100 last names.

 

So that must mean that list should cover majority of the people.  I wonder if it does?!
 

[mungouk]

On 1/28/2022 at 4:13 PM, Jan Finster said:

I am still getting frustrated with Chinese names.

 

What's your reason for studying them?

 

I'm working towards HSK 5 (and struggling!) and there are LOADS of them dropped into the texts and dialogues. The most common names as listed in @phills first post here are pretty easy because you see them so often. 

As for recognising entire names (not just family names), I guess you just have to assume that 等等 / 等等等 is probably a name if the first character is a common family name, since most names are 2 or 3 hanzi.

 

The other issue is transliterated names of non-Chinese people. Usually there's that dot to give it away for a full name.

 

[Jan Finster]

On 1/28/2022 at 1:52 PM, mungouk said:

What's your reason for studying them?

 

Well, first of all, I want to be able to learn them eventually and not just skip them ( 等等 / 等等等). 

Secondly, if I (ever) go back to China to do seminars (in English with translation), students in the seminar have name tags on them and it would be "cool", if I could address them by their proper name. Also, at the end of the seminar I am handing out certificates and it would be nice if I could read out the names correctly. (I know I could just get the list of participants before and memorise them, but ...(see first point)).

[Demonic_Duck]

On 1/28/2022 at 10:24 AM, Jim said:

There is a list of characters permitted in names, 通用规范字表

 

That's just the entire list of mainland standard characters though. It'll have lots of characters that would never (or very unlikely) be used in names, like 个 or 耻 or 臀.

[MoonIvy]

This is something you'll just need to get use to, the more characters you know, the easier it will become. There are some characters that are only really used as a surname (i.e. 吴), but there are some that's commonly used in words (i.e. 顾 王 张). As for the other parts of a name, they are usually characters that are used in words/literature not just as a name. When Chinese people name their children, they like to give them a meaningful name, so often they're characters that you'll see elsewhere. Of course, sometimes they're uncommon characters. 

I wouldn't learn names, that sounds super boring. Just read and read and read, you'll eventually get use to all the common surnames. You can even get into celebrity gossip! That's a great way to learn loads of surnames. Once you reach 4-5k characters, you should have no problem.

Are you struggling to tell that XXX is a name when reading? Like you read a sentence, and didn't know that 3 of those characters is a name?

[Jan Finster]

On 1/28/2022 at 4:04 PM, MoonIvy said:

Are you struggling to tell that XXX is a name when reading? Like you read a sentence, and didn't know that 3 of those characters is a name?

 

Yes, sometimes.

 

On 1/28/2022 at 4:04 PM, MoonIvy said:

....5k characters, you should have no problem.

 

Well that is just around the corner ... ? (I wonder how many foreigner know 5k characters (?))

[Lu]

On 1/28/2022 at 2:01 PM, Jan Finster said:

Well, first of all, I want to be able to learn them eventually and not just skip them ( 等等 / 等等等). 

OK I think I get it. Some characters in names are commonly-used enough that you already know them (强，英，美), but there are also some that are almost exclusively used in names (婷，娜) and you want to know all those characters too, so that you can immediately read them when you encounter someone with these characters on their name tag, because Chinese people would be able to do that too. And then there are names of people with creative and/or extremely literate parents and grandparents and ideally you want to know those characters too, even if many Chinese people would also struggle with them.

 

I don't know of any list that would give you what you need. Reading the political news would give you a good vocabulary of male names from the 1950s onwards or so (a shortcut would be to study a list of CPPCC members); reading celebrity gossip would give you male and female names from the 1990s onwards or so. Apart from that, meeting lots of Chinese people will help, naturally. And if you meet a bunch of Chinese people at once, and there is a list of their names, and you are in a position to ask for that list, ask for it. Preferably before the event, but afterwards is still useful. That will give you the kind of names you actually encounter (because like elsewhere, Chinese names vary by age, background and location).

[MoonIvy]

On 1/28/2022 at 3:47 PM, Jan Finster said:

Yes, sometimes.

Yeah this one is hard. I don't have any advise for this unforunately. It does get easier the more you read. Sometimes it's just a feeling, and you can sometimes tell that it's a name due to the way the sentence is written E.g. 小狗跳到飞雨的膝盖 you can tell that 飞雨 is the name here especially with the 的膝盖 part. It will come with experience and exposure. The app Readibu does have a name recognition feature if you pay for the premium, so maybe a tool might be helpful for now? 

 

On 1/28/2022 at 3:47 PM, Jan Finster said:

I wonder how many foreigner know 5k characters

I would say a good amount, especially those that are into Chinese literature. 

Exposure yourself to lots of names if you want to learn fast. Lu's suggestion is a good one, read political news, celebrity gossips etc

[abcdefg]

On 1/28/2022 at 3:40 AM, Lu said:

For the second, what helped me is, yeah, learn the name basically as a vocab item. Ask the person which characters (that can be helpful), come up with a mnemonic, repeat (to yourself or out loud to someone) a few times within the hour, repeat again that evening, the next day, etc. Put it in your Anki queue, even.

 

And next time you meet that person, "finger write" it on your palm and ask them to confirm you've got it straight. Doing that is one of "those China things." If nothing else, it will help set you apart from the tourists. 

[MoonIvy]

Oh I just thought of something you can do. If you're into Chinese anime, tv shows or movies, whenever you watch one of these, you'll get exposed to the character names, but then also look up the names of the actors/actress, the voice actors, directors, producers etc Don't need to memorise them of course, but it's just a way to expose yourself to more names and characters too. 

[Demonic_Duck]

Go to https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/最常見名字列表

 

Follow the link to 《中国公民身份信息系统库而做的同名同姓(测试版)》 (archived version; live version is a dead link), then you get a list of the 500 most common PRC 姓名s.

 

Parse them out into [ first char, ...other chars ], then take the set of characters from each, and you get the following lists of 14 姓s and 99 characters used in 名s:

 

• 姓s (better to use phills's list, as it's more comprehensive):
  张王李刘陈杨赵高周黄吴马孙徐
   
• Characters used in 名s:
  伟芳娜敏静秀英丽强磊洋艳勇军杰娟涛超明霞兰刚平燕辉玲桂丹萍鹏华红玉飞鑫波斌莉宇浩凯珍健俊帆雪帅慧旭宁婷梅龙林凤晶欢颖佳倩阳建亮成琴畅云洁峰国柳淑春海晨冬荣瑞莹志兵雷东琳欣博彬香坤想芝岩杨文楠利瑜花璐

 

[Lu]

I was thinking 'the 500 most common names', how useful is that going to be, the vast majority of people will have a different name. But that list of 99 名字, that is amazing. Yes, there they all are! I think I've encountered absolutely all of these characters in the wild, either in the names of people I actually knew or in names in the news or in offices or such.

[phills]

That's a great list.  Can any native speakers divide those 99 first names into typically male / female / both for us?

 

I know Chinese people will tell you that a name "sounds" like a male/female so they have mental classifications of name characters.

 

I can guess a few based on heuristic of strength/health=male v. flower/beauty=female, but I'd rather get a native speaker's judgment.  Also, I have no idea which ones would be classified as "both"?  I can only think of maybe 平/安?