How to Choose a Chinese Name for Yourself as a Foreigner

Learners, expats, adoptees reconnecting with a birth culture, and people who simply love the language all reach the same moment: you want a Chinese name, and you want one that sounds like a name, not a phonetic spelling of your English one.

Native speakers notice the difference at once. This guide covers the rules they notice, in the order a Chinese reader sees them: surname, length, meaning, sound and era. For how Chinese names are built in the first place, start with How Chinese Names Work.

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Two kinds of "Chinese name"

There are two very different things people call a Chinese name.

A transliteration spells out the sound of your foreign name with Chinese characters. Chinese newspapers do this for foreign public figures: a Michael becomes 迈克尔 (Màikè'ěr). It is accurate to the sound, it is long, and it marks the person as foreign. It is not a Chinese name in the sense native speakers mean.

A real Chinese name follows Chinese conventions: a genuine Chinese surname followed by a one- or two-character given name with a meaning. That is what this guide is about, and it is what the best-known Western China scholars have.

• The historian John King Fairbank was 费正清 (Fèi Zhèngqīng). The name was given to him by the architect Liang Sicheng: 费 is a common surname that echoes Fairbank, and 正清 means "upright and clear". Wikipedia and China Times (中国时报) both record the story.
• The Yale historian Jonathan Spence was 史景迁 (Shǐ Jǐngqiān), a name chosen by the historian Fang Chao-ying. 史 echoes Spence and means "history", and 迁 is the given name of the Han historian 司马迁 (Sīmǎ Qiān); 景 means "to look up to". So the name reads "the historian who admires Sima Qian." Wikipedia and Jiemian (界面新闻) both give this account.

Both names do three things at once: they sound faintly like the English name, they look like ordinary Chinese names, and they say something true about the person.

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Rule 1: Use a real surname

A Chinese reader looks at the surname first, and it has to be a real one. The pool is small: according to the Ministry of Public Security's 2020 National Name Report, reported by Xinhua, just 王 (Wáng), 李 (Lǐ), 张 (Zhāng), 刘 (Liú) and 陈 (Chén) cover 30.8% of China's registered population, and Wikipedia's Chinese name article notes that about a hundred surnames cover more than 85% of people.

The common approach, and the one Fairbank and Spence's names use, is to pick a real surname that echoes the first sound of your own:

• Fairbank → 费 (Fèi)
• Spence → 史 (Shǐ)
• A Lee or Leigh has an easy match in 李 (Lǐ); a Wong or Wang in 王 (Wáng); a Martin or Mason might choose 马 (Mǎ).

What you should not do is invent a surname from a nice-sounding character that is not a surname. Readers notice that instantly. If you are unsure, check the classical list of surnames, the 百家姓 (Bǎijiāxìng), Hundred Family Surnames.

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Rule 2: Three characters is the default

Your full name should normally be three characters: one surname plus a two-character given name. The 2020 Ministry report found that more than 90% of people in China have a three-character name and only 6.3% have two. Two-character names were most common in the 1990s, so a short name today can sound like a person of that generation. Our article on why some Chinese names have only two characters explains the history.

Avoid four or more characters unless you have a two-character surname like 欧阳 (Ōuyáng). A long name is the clearest sign of a transliteration.

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Rule 3: Choose meaning, but not too much of it

Chinese given names are chosen for meaning, but a name that is all meaning and no restraint sounds like a slogan. A few patterns that read naturally:

• A pair of characters that answer each other, the way a classical courtesy name answered its given name: 正清, "upright" and "clear".
• Two characters from a line of poetry or an idiom, so the name carries a source. See Chinese Names From Poems and Chinese Idiom Names.
• A character that says something true about you, as 史 does for a historian.

What to avoid: stacking grand characters (伟, 龙, 王, 帝) into one name, or using a character only because you like its look. Ask a native speaker what the name sounds like, not just what it means.

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Rule 4: Say it aloud with the tones

Chinese has many homophones, so a name with a fine meaning on paper can sound like something unfortunate. The classic test is to say the full name, surname included, with its tones, and ask whether it sounds like any common word.

Two examples of what goes wrong:

• 范 (Fàn) is a perfectly good surname and 统 (tǒng) a fine character, but 范统 (Fàn Tǒng) sounds exactly like 饭桶 (fàntǒng), "rice bucket", which means a good-for-nothing.
• 吴 (Wú) is a common surname, but 吴德 (Wú Dé) sounds like 无德 (wú dé), "without virtue".

Tones matter too. A run of three of the same tone can be hard to say, while a mix rises and falls more naturally. That is a matter of taste, not a rule, but native speakers will hear it.

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Rule 5: Know what era your name sounds like

Chinese names date people the way Gertrude or Brittany do in English. Xinhua's summary of the Ministry's 2020 report gives the pattern:

• 建国 (Jiànguó, "build the nation") and 建华 (Jiànhuá): the founding years of the People's Republic.
• 军 (Jūn), 勇 (Yǒng), 丽 (Lì): the 1960s and 70s.
• 伟 (Wěi), 磊 (Lěi), 静 (Jìng): the 1980s.
• 浩宇 (Hàoyǔ), 浩然 (Hàorán), 欣怡 (Xīnyí), 梓涵 (Zǐhán): after 2000.

So a name like 建国 will sound like a man in his seventies. A name built from 2020's most popular characters, such as 梓, 子, 宇, 辰 and 一, will sound like a child. Neither is wrong, but choose knowingly. An adult learner usually wants something that does not sound tied to a decade at all.

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Rule 6: Match the name to its gender reading

Many characters read as male or female to a Chinese ear. Xinhua describes the 1980s as the moment strongly gendered characters like 伟 and 磊 (male) and 静 and 丽 (female) took over. Characters such as 婷 (tíng), 娟 (juān) and 芳 (fāng) read as female; 强 (qiáng), 勇 (yǒng) and 军 (jūn) as male. If you want a neutral name, ask a native speaker to check each character.

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Rule 7: Avoid the famous and the sacred

A name identical to a very famous person, living or historical, reads as a joke. So does a name that borrows an emperor's personal name, a habit that goes back to the old naming taboo (避讳), when subjects could not write a reigning emperor's name at all. See How Chinese Names Work for how strict it once was.

Also avoid very obscure characters. A name that cannot be typed on a phone or read by a cashier is a burden every day.

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Should you have a courtesy name too?

Probably not. The 字 (zì), or courtesy name, used to be given to men at adulthood, and nobody uses one in everyday life today. But knowing the system helps you understand why historical figures, and characters in costume dramas, seem to have several names each. See Chinese Courtesy Names (字) and Art Names (号) Explained and our C-drama character names guide.

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A quick checklist

1. A real, common surname, ideally echoing your own.
2. A two-character given name, for three characters in all.
3. A meaning you could explain in one sentence, ideally with a source.
4. Said aloud, it sounds like no unfortunate word.
5. It does not shout a particular decade, unless you want it to.
6. Its gender reading matches you.
7. A native speaker has heard it and not laughed.

Get those right and your name will do what Fairbank's and Spence's did: sound Chinese, say something about you, and live up to itself. In Chinese that last quality has its own idiom, 名副其实 (míng fù qí shí), the name matching the reality.