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Jul 2020

Hi so I created a Chinese character.. I'm not sure if her name is correct so if a fluent speaker could correct me, I would be really thankful!

The name I choose is Huáng Chúhuā (黄菊花 ?)

(Optional!!) Also she's a scientist/robot creator and I need a name for her robot. It needs to just be a word and a number(edit:in Chinese!), not a real name!

Thank you!! 🥰:sparkling_heart::sparkling_heart:

Update! (08-17-2020)

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    Jul '20
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    Aug '20
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Ah okay, sorry that I couldn’t be of much help

It's actually ju hua, if my memory doesn't lie :thinking: sorry, no pinyin on my keyboard.
I think for a robot it could be something cute like Lingling, which could be written as Zero zero :slight_smile:

Like what Kelheor said, it's Juhua! Just a suggestion, though: although it means yellow chrysanthemum and flower names are really sweet, "菊花 juhua" in Chinese can actually be a slang for butthole :frowning: So it might not be that nice to name your character that if you wanna avoid awkwardness! You might wanna consider removing the "hua" from the name, since it'll still mean chrysanthemum!

For the robot name, if you wanna go with the usual 010101 stuff
zero -> ling 零
one -> yi 一
If you want it to sound more like a nickname-ish or something people would call their child, you can try adding 小 xiao before the name, or 儿 er at the back, like Xiao Yi / Xiao Ling or Ling er (yi er doesnt sound very easy to pronounce imo :x ) (this also applies to normal human names!)

@Kelheor @miripao Thank you so much!!

Yeah.. I would prefer to avoid the awkwardness of her name being slang for butthole haha The other names I had in mind were Zhang Lian(Lien?)(张蓮), Huang Lixue(黄丽雪) or Liu Shufang(刘术方)... I'm really not sure about the Chinese characters haha

I really like the ideas of Lingyi for the robot! Also if the nicknames Xiao Yi and Xiao Ling <3 I really like Lingling too!

Hi @ohllala, if you want to use yellow chrysanthemum as name, 黄菊 'Huang Ju' is fine. Or you can also use 黃花 'Huang Hua' or 黃秋花 'Huang QiuHua' for non-specific flower names.

Personally I think ‘Ju Hua’ (English alone) still works fine for any English audience, if your comic/novel don't cater towards the eastern Chinese audience. It's just that the two Chinese characters '菊花'-- though it means chrysantinhemum flower, in day-to-day basis -- is now a commonly used Chinese sex slang for buttholes.

For other creative way you can also reverse the Chinese characters 黃花 and you get 花黃 HuaHuang. (always look for feedbacks because the meanings could change a lot. (in this case I think it's okay)

p/s: My small personal advice for Chinese naming is to keep it short for the reader to remember easily: Two characters, or even just 1 surname.

@allenT Thank you!! What about those names? Are the characters accurate?

They're fine! ZhangLian, Huang Lixue, Liu Shufang are of the names real people could have. What i've meant earlier is for the names that are of a nickname (flower, item etc), then when changing the order of the Chinese characters the meaning could change.(sorry to throw you for a loop here, for I can't explain good enough.)

Well, to be gender specific: if all your characters are female, then 张蓮,黄丽雪 works well. 黄丽雪can also be 黃莉雪 or 黃黎雪 base on what you prefer. 刘术方 could change to 刘淑芳 or 刘素芳 (Liu SuFang) for a feminine name.

If they're male, then 张連,黃力學 or黃力雪 or 黃利學, 刘术方 or 刘书方 are good.

The examples i just wrote are the few popular gender-specific "translations" for names, (there are more variations than that), but you can always breaks the rules if you don't want it like that. I don't think there has to be exactly correct names. So don't sweat it so much :grin:

By the way, you need to decide if your Chinese characters are simplified, or tranditional. Once you decide don't switch them. (it's nothing for English readers but to Chinese readers that can be unsettling)

Simplified characters: 张莲, 黄丽雪, 刘术方

Traditional characters: 张蓮, 黄麗雪, 劉術方

Most Chinese readers can understand both types, so pick the one you are more comfortable with.

小零 (Xiao Ling) is a cute name for a robot! It means little zero.

零兒 (Ling er) also works, it sounds a bit more female to me (especially when romanized in English), but can be used for both genders.

If you want a more robotic sounding name you could call them 一零一 (Yi Ling Yi) lol, it means 101 and rolls off the tongue pretty smoothly in Chinese. But it does look kinda long in English so maybe not. Also it reminds me of the Taipei 101 XD

Oh one additional comment - you could also combine the two for 小零兒 (Xiao Ling-er) which sounds very cute and gender neutral (in my opinion). But this vs just Xiao Ling will definitely make me think your character is from Beijing and/or speaks Beijing dialect, because the -er is very very Beijingese sounding haha.

It's not quite as apparent for just 零兒 (Ling-er) since 零 (Ling) by itself is a bit awkward without something else, so it would seem more like the -er was added just to smooth it out, which might happen in any dialect. Considering that this has to be readable for English readers tho maybe the shorter names are better

1 month later

Again, thank you everyone for your help! :blush:

The final name I decided on is Huáng QiūHuā (黃秋花) (Correct me if the characters and/or the pinyin are wrong!) She also has both her parents and a little brother. Their names are Zhāng Lìxuě (张丽雪), Huáng Shùfāng (黃术方) and Huáng Lián (黃連). I read that Chinese women do not take their husband's name when they marry and that the children will take their father's name.

Here are some other ways that they may be called by other characters. I'm not sure if everything is correct.

Also!! Here is Huáng QiūHuā :heart: If you want, you can like the post I put on Instagram here :flushed:

360-CA3-F1-9-D96-411-D-8-F91-3-BB71269869-C

She is disabled and her primary diagnosis is Ehler Danlos Syndrome!

@Harelow17 @Kelheor @miripao @allenT @violin

I think the Chinese name does fit her. '秋‘ is the Fall(season), has a fragile feeling to it. Nice :+1: