Help me come up with a Chinese name

I have something of a problem. As the title might suggest, I need a name for an ancient Chinese character, and seen as how I'm not Chinese, don't speak any of the Chinese languages or know much about Chinese culture, I run a very serious risk of coming up with a name that's not only very stupid, but actually stereotypical and offensive. Hence why I need your help.

But I don't come empty-handed, oh no! I have a character already mostly made. I ran his costume through the Costume Request thread, and despite using all legacy pieces, people assured me it was just fine. He looks like this:



I even have a story written up for him: This is a man who was born 600 years ago and his father started him training in martial arts since he was four years old. by the time he was 90, he mastered all martial arts he had access to and was still going strong, so he gave himself to meditation, looking for the wisdom to decipher the meaning of life, if martial arts mastery wasn't it. By the time he was 130 years old, he found a way to transcend the physical world and simply left for the spirit world, where he could study the teaching and techniques of the gods. For 500 years he learned all he cared to know and found the spirit world insufficient, so he returned to the physical world, no longer looking for meaning but instead choosing to give meaning to his own life by guiding mankind to greatness and sharing his wisdom with the unenlightened.

*note* Yes, that description is a repost.

Originally, when thinking about Chinese names, the first that came up in my head was "Shen Long." I ran a google search for the name and it turns out it's a very famous Street Fighter hoax character. Famous enough for the name to be taken already. That, and "Shen" is the name of the villain from King Fu Panda 2. I thought about just replacing vowels or using other vaguely Chinese names I could think of, but not knowing what to do, I decided to read up on it.

In the 15 minutes of research, I found some interesting facts. It turns out a Chinese name is comprised of a family name spoken first, then a combination of a generation and given name romanised as a contraction. This produces some interesting names, but notably, some names very much unlike what I've mostly heard in fiction. More specifically, I'm speaking of names like the aforementioned Shen Long, the famous Chun-Li and others. What I believe is happening is that games and movies may sometimes call Chinese characters by just their generation name and given name as two separate words (which it seems isn't uncommon, either) and dropping the family name entirely. That's probably what I'll want to go with, as a full name would be unnecessarily heavy, as well as because I don't want to tie the character down to his roots, given his story.

Unlike last time when I asked for a meaningful Japanese name, I'm not actually interested in meaning this time around. Considering Chinese names appear to be contractions of two characters, I mostly just need two romanised Chinese characters that I could put together into a name, as well as making sure that that name still makes sense for a male child. I'm not quite sure what that actually entails, since certain concepts are considered masculine or feminine in Chinese culture based on a logic I can't quite comprehend being a foreigner who grew up speaking a language where gender is assigned to nouns via suffix.

To be honest, I'd still like to us the name "shen" in whatever contraction I come up with, so I'm mostly looking for just one, but I'd take a brand new name if someone has a better idea. I'm not above discarding my own ideas and taking other people's as my own

So if you speak any of the Chinese dialects or have any idea how Chinese people from, say, about half a millennium were named, please help me out, because I'm very much stumped here.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I would start here:

Eight Immortals (which sounds very much where you're headed)

and

Shaolin Kung Fu

Hmmm, are you asking for a name name, like for the character himself? Because, honestly, you can just pick a random existing Chinese name (one that isn't common, or maybe of a historical person with a similar myth around them) and just copy that and no one would really know or question.

Or are you talking about a name used to refer to the character by other players? You can put the full name in the bio, but what is present above the character's name is what NPCs will refer to you as well.

Frankly, since chinese names can be pretty complex, I tend to rely on people that know the language to just give me a random name and I'll just nod or shake if I like it. But that's if I can't find an actual person from history or an existing person with that name to copy.

When all else fails, since this is a superhero character and martial artist, a title + family name works. If I were making my old Chinese kung fu teacher, I'd enter in something like 'Master Gao' or 'Gao Zongshi'.

I don't know if this is what you're looking for, but it helps me when brainstorming for ideas.

Chinese - English Dictionary

Type in a word and it should spit out one or more results.

If I'd ever made a Martial Arts character, I'd have been tempted to name him after this fruit, just because its name sounds like an appropriate Chinese name:



"Flee, villains! You face the flying fists of Lo Quat!"

It's 3 AM and I want to put this down somewhere so I don't forget by tomorrow.

After searching dictionaries and lists of common names, I came up with three words that I think should be usable:

"Shen," as I mentioned before, which the dictionary offered to me before lists as meaning "god" and "soul" among others. I wouldn't want to use it for its meaning, but it IS a real word, and it also seems to be a real name.

"Shi," as I found in this dictionary, which seems to mean a whole bunch of things, but "history" is the one I was able to trace back to Traditional Chinese characters, and also a real name, apparently.

"Shao," which also means a whole bunch of things but is, above all else, on the list of popular Chinese surnames, so it is an actual, real surname.

I actually like all three of those and think I might go ahead and use them (probably costing myself another $10...), but at this point I'm not sure what order to use them in. Randomly searching for "Shen Shi" in Google gave me an article about the famous Chinese astronomer Shi Shen. Again, as Chinese names are complex, I can't tell if this is a family name / given name combo or just a given name split into its two characters. I'm also not sure I want to use a famous person's name, something which I read is considered to be in very poor taste. However, the reverse and what I originally searched for does not appear to be famous. Considering Shao appears to mostly be used as a surname and given the above, I now have a name to consider:

Shao Shenshi

I'm not sure if I'll go with that name and I do so hope that it won't make me look like a complete *** if I run into any North Korean gold farmers, but it is a start and definitely something worth sleeping on. This isn't done yet, but thank you kindly for the help so far.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

I like that you are doing research in order to improve your character concepts.

There is a fairly extensive article on Chinese names here:

http://www.top-100-baby-names-search.com/chinese-male-names.html

I'm not sure how reliable it is. It is a good idea to do further research any names you pick up on.

This article explains naming traditions:

http://www.thetop100babynames.com/Nationality/ChineseBabyNames.htm

Again I am unsure how accurate it is. At least part of it is lifted directly from Wikipedia. The challenge will be finding a name that was appropriate 600 years ago. You have to be careful not to accidentally pick a name like "Brittany." Of course, sometimes names that sound ridiculous now were legitimate in their day, like "Nimrod."

Another possible source of names is to look at historical events from the time period you are working with. 600 years ago might put him in this period of Chinese history, although admitedly I'm not an expert:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ming_Dynasty

Hu Flung Pu
Sum Ting Wong
Hu Yu Hai Ding
Kum Hia Nao
Dum Gai
Tai Ni Po Ni
Wai Yu So Tan?
Ai Bang Mai Ni
Chin Tu Fat
Wai So Dim?
Wai Yu Mun Ching?
No Pah King
Wai Yu Kum Nao?
Lei Ying Lo
Wa Shing Ka
Yu Stin Ki Pu
Wun Hung Lo

Chon Wang.

Clicking on the linked image above will take you off the City of Heroes site. However, the guides will be linked back here.

Just thought I'd put in my 2 cents:

I am of Chinese descent, but I am not fluent by any means...

"Shi" can mean the number 4, and is also the same sound as "death," which is why most (superstitious) Chinese will not buy a house with that number in it. It is considered bad luck.

"Shao" means little or small. Bruce Lee's Chinese name was Li Shao Long, which translates into Lee (Family Name) Little Dragon.

Hope this helps.

http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/chi.php

Have fun, Sam!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Samuel_Tow City of Heroes is a game about freedom of expression and variety of experiences far more so than it is about representing any one theme, topic or genre.

The one problem with naming a character with Chinese "words" is that since Chinese is a tonal language, it depends on pronunciation, context and/or written character to be properly understood. SOOO, if you choose to use a name that is rendered with English characters using Pinyin, you will inevitably lose out on all of those... it will have no tone marker (unless you intend the name to look like this: Shi3 Tou2 Ma4), won't have any context and will almost always be pronounced by folks who have no idea how to say it correctly. As such, making it "real" is actually somewhat of a disadvantage in this situation, I would think.

But, if you want to pick a name, use the MandarinTools site and search for things in Pinyin without any tones and see what other meanings come up.

For example:
Shao — is a word all by itself, and exists as a different meaning with all of the different tones in Chinese. It ranges from a surname, place name, a spoon/ladle to meaning "very little" (which is the meaning I am most familiar).

So, in other words, do glance down a list once you pick a word with a meaning you like (especially at words with different tones than the one you have chosen). Also, as Leo said, don't just smash two words together. Most all of the Chinese I know consists of strings of independent characters. In fact, the only words I know that are made up of two parts like that are words that have a particle attached (eg. to make something plural or past tense) or are approximations of English words (like when they smash a few random characters together to approximate the sound of the English word "whiskey"). Of course, now that I said that, someone who speaks fluent Chinese will come along and tell me how incredibly wrong I am.

Actually, many style names I've seen (such as in Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Outlaws of the Marsh) seem to be made up of two characters/words put together.

My own forum name is similarly constructed, though I typically use the Japanese pronunciation of the first character rather than "Tian".

I like Shao Shenshi. It's got that ring of pseudo-authenticity and it simultaneously has the American comic book alliterative-name thing going.

It's easier to come up with a meaning than pick a name for you... in fact, you can pick some tones that you like, and I'll come up with some meaning that you like.

Let's go with Shao Shenshi for now. (Going to use traditional characters here since he's old and names look nicer that way)

邵 as surname. If you don't like writing it as Shao, you can write it as Shaw.

Now Shenshi. There are a lot of characters that can be pronounced that way, but not all sound good in a name. Don't worry about the generational name and what not. This can be his 'nom de guerre'.

神士 - "amazing knight/gentleman"
深士 - this is like a "hermit scholar"
慎士 - "cautious warrior"
神視 - "supernatural vision"
深視 - "penetrating insight"

On the more mystical side,
神石 - "magic stone" ... a bit weird but hey

Maybe people can give him titles like
神師 - "amazing master"
绅士 - "sir/gentleman"

And if you like him to be evil, there's always
神尸 - the "magic corpse". Err lol

Hope that helps.
N.B: The tones are different but don't worry about it, people from different regions would pronounce the name differently anyway, i.e. not as "shenshi" but something else.

Wow, I honestly didn't expect such a strong response. Thank you! I don't think I can piece-quite and respond to everybody, so I'll try to sum up what I can with just a couple of quote.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leo_G Why would you care what some goldfarmer thinks of your name when their naming schemes are usually random letter patterns?

I was joking More I mean that all kinds of players play City of Heroes, and I expect to run into at least one or two Chinese people, so I want my name to be non-stupid for their benefit. I've seen enough faux-Russian to simply not want to do that to anybody else.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Freem It's easier to come up with a meaning than pick a name for you... in fact, you can pick some tones that you like, and I'll come up with some meaning that you like.

Thank you, Freem! If I have your ear, I actually have a few questions and suggestions:

First of all, if mashing characters together, is it appropriate to split a character's name in three parts and, for instance, write my example name as Shao Shen Shi? Having slept on "Shao Shenshi" has made me realise I made exactly the same kind of mistake that I did with "Yamikane no Rikimaru," which was to produce a name that was meaningful but not something I actually liked on merit of sound and aesthetic.

I want to call this character "Shen" as the name with which he is addressed most often, which would be his given name. Not Shenshi, not Shen Shi, just Shen. The problem, as I understand it, is that if this does act like a generation name, then addressing someone by that is confusing since it can apply to any one of his immediate family. I don't want to flip the name around as it then has him named after a historical figure, which I understand is frowned upon.

I think I might just take you up on your offer and just offer you a sound I'm going for. In this case, I think I've found what I liked - a name which relies on the aliteration of the "sh" sound. I don't know how a genuine Chinese person would pronounce those, but they way they sound in English spelling, you have this VERY heavy, repeating "sh" sound in the whole of "Shao Shenshi," and that's the sound I want to go for.

Would you, however, advise me to go with a simpler name if I want the character to be referred to as just "Shao" by his friends and enemies? Would dropping a character and going with simply Shao Shen be appropriate for a name? I could do that. It would be simpler and give me the given name I want... I think.

As far as meaning goes, I'm actually not that concerned with finding the perfect meaning for the name, so long as it's not something stupid, like "Master Pink Unicorn" or some such. I'm also going to try an avoid including any Traditional Chinese symbols into City of Heroes, both because I have NO knowledge of the language whatsoever and because adding Chinese keyboard layouts causes my Microsoft Language Bar to get stuck in them permanently. I know City of Heroes supports Unicode and will display them just fine, but I can't actually type or read them, and I have a policy of not including text I can't replicate or translate So as long as the name doesn't have some silly alternate meaning, I should be happy with it.

Basically, I want someone you can address as "Shen" and possibly with the family name of "Shao." If we can add in more characters for the person's full name in his bio, that would be even better, but I want a name above his head that a Chinese person would look at and go "Hello, Shen."

And again - I'm honestly shooting in the dark here, as I know practically nothing about the subject matter.

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On a somewhat unrelated topic and purely out of curiosity, can someone tell me what Chun-Li's name... Is? Does it mean anything, which part of it is what name, is it missing a surname, etc.? This isn't important, it's just something that's bothered me since I was about 5 years old watching people play old arcade games

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Overall, I have a costume for the guy all set, I have powersets for him so all I need is a name and he can be made.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Arcanaville Samuel_Tow is the only poster that makes me want to punch him in the head more often when I'm agreeing with him than when I'm disagreeing with him.

Not really that knowledgable about Chinese names, but I did read about etiquitte (lol sp?) on the wiki page. It's not polite or honorable to refer to someone by part of their name without a title. They used the example of Yao Ming: You would call the person by the full name, Yao Ming or Mr. Yao Ming or just Mr. Yao. You would not refer to that person as just Ming or just Yao or as Mr. Ming.

Even popular examples like Chun-Li (which the symbols mean beautiful spring, i believe), that's her full name. If you don't want those NPCs disrespecting you, better have them say your full name, put a title before the surname or something.

If you want people to refer to your character as Shen, that could be a possible pen-name and not his real name...or make Shen his surname, and put a title in front of it, like Mr. Shen or Master Shen Shao Shi or some other...

But that's just info going off the wiki. That may be particularly formal while in reality, China may be far more casual than that.

I know I am late with this, but as I was sipping my morning hot tea I noticed it is a "Authentic Chinese Tea" and is called Wu-Yi.

Last night in the help channel I saw someone, whose toon was named after a book, insist that any name is alright as long as it is not a Super Hero name.

Wu-Yi has a nice ring to it...and the tea is wonderful

Lisa

So for character name of "Master Shen Shao Shi", that can be changed to Shen Shao Shifu in pinyin (please please please correct me if i am wrong on this one though)

*edit* Looking up on Wikipedia Shifu is pinyin for "master" anyway *arrgh!*

In Japanese, the honorific "-San" is something people use when addressing or referring to other people. It's never used on yourself; i.e., you would never introduce yourself as Samuel-San or Tow-San, even though in English it's perfectly acceptable to introduce yourself as Mr. Tow.

You may want to check if Chinese is the same way with titles and honorifics. If so, ideally you'd want to set it up such that other people refer to you by title, but you yourself would leave it out.

*shrugs*

I know that the titles, while they carry the same definition may have different context.

For 'fu', it may mean 'master' but it may mean master in the instructional/teacher sense. I know a martial arts teacher would use the title 'shifu' or 'sifu' but I have no clue on the rules if you'd shorten that when adding it to a name.

Could be Shen Shao Shifu, Shen Shao Shishifu, Shen Shao Shisifu...I'm actually curious about it myself. Since we'd always just put our old teacher's name infront of a 'sifu' and be done with it >_>