How is a name translated into Chinese?

Throughout the centuries, names have been translated by the number of syllables. It is out of respect of other countries cultures.

Unlike English, there is no alphabet in Chinese language. For instance, there are 3 syllables in this name, Roberta. There will be 3 Chinese characters to represent it.

For names ending with a letter, such as b, d, k, l, m, p, s and t, are considered an additional syllable often. For example, there are 3 characters to represent a name, "Bridget" because of a "t" at the end of the name.

Certain characters can only be used in a male or female name. Therefore, we also base on the gender to use different characters when we translate your name.

Chinese Typing

The chart showing what each alphabet represents in Chinese (refer to the black squares). In each cell, it shows other Chinese symbols which look similar to the Chinese in the black squares.

Have you ever seen the Chinese computer keyboard before? If you had, you most probably saw some simple Chinese characters next to each alphabet on each key.


There are many different kinds of Chinese typing/input method based on the pronounciation of a character either in Mandarin or Cantonese and also by the structure of the character. But there is one very original input method still used by most of the people now due to its efficiency, i.e. Changjie method. This method was named after the person centuries ago who created most of the Chinese characters of nowdays.

How does it work? First of all, you must be fluent in written and spoken Chinese. The inputting method totally relies on one's knowledge of the structure of each Chinese character. It splits one character up to 5 parts which will be 5 keystrokes on the keyboard. Each alphabet represents each part of the character. It takes some time to learn even you are good at Chinese. Once you grab the theory behind it, it is just a piece of cake.

Tongs Vs “Tong”

I believe most people know what tongs are. It is kitchen equipment that you can pinch the food and transfer it from one place to another.

I always love to tell you the similarities between the Chinese culture and the western one.

In Chinese, “Tong” is a last name in Cantonese spelling. It is also a Chinese dynasty’s name which was the greatest era in the Chinese history.

What a coincidence, huh?