Tuesday, May 11, 2010

What's in a Chinese name?

Above is Yiyun's name in Chinese as it is printed on his paperwork. Below are the three above characters translated into pinyin ("spell sound"). The number after each pinyin word is the tone used when pronouncing the word. A 2 is a rising tone from low to high, and a 4 is a falling tone from high to low.

Liu2 - a popular last name
Yi4 - skill, art
Yun4 - fortune, luck, fate; to move; to transport; to use; to apply

A good friend has speculated that the whole name might mean to have artistic luck or fate. Another good friend thinks maybe the name-giver was thinking about the Olympics when naming him Yiyun; he was born in 2008, when the Olympic were held in Beijing. Apparently quite a few people in China gave Olympic-related names to their children born in 2008.

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