Help Choosing Name For Baby Girl

[EarthRabbit]

Hello all! This is my first post so sorry for any faux pas... my partner and I are expecting our first child, a girl, next year and were hoping for some help choosing her Chinese name. 

 

I am white, my boyfriend is Chinese but grew up here in the UK. His Mandarin is somewhat mediocre due to a number of factors, but he really regrets this and wants things to be different for our daughter. Subsequently, we would like her to have a good Chinese name to connect her to her culture. This would go alongside her English name. We did ask his mother too, but apparently her suggestions sound "old" (no idea what that means... I'm not getting involved lol!)

 

He tried looking through poetry and dictionaries and came up with a few things, but what we are really lacking is Native/fluent speakers who can tell us if these names suck ? We did also do "LinkedIn checks" on all of these names to see if there are real people using them, but I still want to be sure we are not saddling our child with something terrible. We are also completely open to suggestions if anyone has any as well. His surname is Wong 王 so lucky for us, common and easy to write.

 

So far we have:

路遥 

恩霖  

霏霏 - apparently this is also the name of a singer?

 艾雯 or 莉雯

露涵 - is this too hard to write?

 

I am probably forgetting some... anyway, thank you so much in advance for your feedback/suggestions ?

 

 

 

[Jim]

We went for aspirational meanings and chose characters that aren't the simplest - you'll always learn how to write your own name was the feeling. Also I wouldn't go for a redoubled character as the formal name, chances are they'll get called by that by everyone as a pet name regardless, for example our son gets called Qi-Qi based on the full name 齊穆. So your first option could give you a Lulu!

[vellocet]

On 5/15/2023 at 10:16 PM, EarthRabbit said:

her suggestions sound "old" (no idea what that means

It means giving your little girl an old lady name like Mabel or Gertrude or Muriel. 

[Lu]

On 5/16/2023 at 1:59 AM, Jim said:

We went for aspirational meanings and chose characters that aren't the simplest - you'll always learn how to write your own name was the feeling.

On one hand yes, on the other hand: I know a Taiwanese man with a many-stroked name who was adamant that his daughter would get a simple name, because it had taken him such pains to learn how to write his. And there's author Sanmao who at a young age shortened her name from 陳懋平 to 陳平 when she found the middle character too hard.

 

My contribution:

路遥 - this is the pen name of a writer. Not that that necessarily makes it a bad name, just something to consider.

恩霖  

霏霏

艾雯 or 莉雯 - I think I like this one best

露涵 - I read a book with a character named 汪露涵, who was not a great person and got a not-great ending, so personally I wouldn't pick this one.

[Echo W]

路遥: “路遥知马力，日久见人心”, this ancient poem contains it.  I think 路遥 is ok, but it probably looks more like a boy's name.

恩霖: Looks like the name that the Taiwanese would take, it has a good symbolism, the sweet rain of heaven's grace.

霏霏: This word is from the 《诗经》 and describes the rain and snow, the only drawback of this name may be too common, quite a lot of people with this name.

艾雯 or 莉雯：It is better not to use these two names, like a direct phonetic translation from the English name.

露涵：Not good and not bad, I cannot see its specific meaning.

 

As a native Chinese speaker, I suggest you also go to Zhihu to see if there are any suitable ones.

some related link：

有哪些适合取名的诗词或名句？ - 知乎 (zhihu.com)

50个藏在诗词中的好听名字 - 知乎 (zhihu.com)

 

PS：

I've seen a great name 乐兮, very simple and beautiful, the symbolism is happiness, but I do not know if its corresponding English name lexi is good.

 

 

 

 

[anonymoose]

Have you thought of an English name yet? Not that there has to be a correspondence between her Chinese and English names, but it may be nice if there is some relation...?