A name for a Chinese girl

So I have this female Chinese character in my story. I have already fleshed out her personality and background, but I'm sort of stuck on what to call her.

I'd assumed that behindthename.com would give me one, but as it turns out their list is rather short. Those names that are on the list just don’t suit the character (I don't care if Ping is an actual Chinese name, if I use that, nobody will take her seriously).

So does anyone know any good Chinese female (or unisex names, she is rather bifauxnen). It doesn't have to be special, as most of my characters have ordinary names.

http://www.names-meanings.net/names/female-chinese

EDIT: What dialect does she or her family speak, Mandarin, Cantonese, etc? It will make a difference in how the name is pronounced, and I'm pretty sure the link I gave you is Mandarin.

edited 16th Jan '11 8:09:26 PM by snowfoxofdeath

Some info on the character's personality perhaps?

She's the stoic of the group and doesn't talk much. She's also a spec ops soldier/assassin that always operates in the most pragmatic manner possible (as opposed to her teammates who are a wannabe Bond villain, a Humanoid Abomination and a Person of Mass Destruction). She is also obsessed with revenge.

I didn't think about the differences Cantonese and Mandarin, so I'm not sure which she would speak. If there is some specific regional distribution, then she was from a small village near the Russian border. Otherwise I'm gonna have to get back to you after I do some research.

edited 17th Jan '11 5:38:17 AM by Sidewinder

I'm tempted to give a Meaningful Name, well sort of: 默玲 (Mo4 Ling2). The first letter means "silent", the second is common among Chinese girl's names. Note that this is just the given name, the family name can be anything you want.

Otherwise I could probably just give a bunch of names of Chinese female classmates I knew in the past, if I can remember them.

Mia, Noa, Lee, Li, Shu (but people pronounce it like Sue)

For nicknames they repeat two characters. My girlfriend is Min Min, my nickname is Liang Liang and Kelly Hu's character from The Tournament was Lai Lai.

Most Chinese people who interact with english speakers will adopt an english name. Most simply pick one they like. Others use a transliteration: Nuo literally means "Promise". However, her surname is Li ans she chose a sort of homophone: Nuo Li goes by "Nelly". Others are either whimsical or else subvert the whole thing by choosing nonsense names like "Purple" or even "Potatoe".

There are plenty of baby name websites you can google, otherwise I can just read off a list of names I have come across.

Near the Russian border would be Mandarin or Gan. No need to worry about Cantonese.

Yes, in and around Beijing (literally, the "North Capital") most people speak Mandarin, which is the official language. Every major region has its own dialect (Canton, Fuken, Shamghai, etc). I'm not sure if Harbin, near the Russian border, has. The characters will be the same but the pronunciation will vary.

Here is a Chinese name generator, but read the caveats.

http://www.mandarintools.com/chinesename.html

@ 66 Scorpio Actually, some kind of nickname or English name would make sense. At age 12, the character ends up in a training camp with lots of other kids. Most of these kids would not quite grasp what her name is and as a result they would give her a nickname based on what they think she says. This also has some extended potential as which character use her nickname or her real name would say something about their character and their relationship.

As for meaningful names, I generally avoid those and get rather normal names. That way they contrast well to the silly superhero names in the story.

Nicknames are defined by the fact that other people choose them for you, generally without your permission. An english name is self selected although it is an honour flowing both ways to request, give and accept one. You can play with numbers. One guy ended up being number six in a group and he got the name Leo (liu is six in Chinese). If your girl is a Douglas Adams fan, maybe Sierra (si er is 4 2).

Hidden meanings in names are always fun because people tend to look for them anyways. Lai Lai could be spelled 孻孻 which means "last" (one left alive? Contrast that with Joshua - Ving Rhames's character's name - which can be interpretted as "the one who will be victorious")

In ''The Brothers Bloom" the silent Asian helper chick is Bang Bang which when written 帮帮 could mean an assistant (albeit, the character is probably Japanese rather than Chinese).

edited 17th Jan '11 7:14:32 PM by 66Scorpio