Chinese name generator
Type your name and you get three Chinese names a Chinese person would hear as real, not a transliteration. Each one is a one-character family name chosen from the sound of your surname, followed by a given name of one or two characters, with the pinyin and meaning of every character. It is free, there is no account, and you can ask for three more.
Already have a Chinese name?
Choose how it is written
Pick a collection and we write in it; the first piece is written now, free. The pictures below are samples of 诸葛亮 Zhuge Liang. Yours carry your own characters.
Write in this collection
The first piece is written now in your own characters, free. Unlock the rest when you like it.
Simplified is standard in mainland China; traditional in Hong Kong, Taiwan and most tattoo studios. The seals use seal script, which predates the split.
What a real Chinese name is made of
A real Chinese name is a one-character family name followed by a given name of one or two characters, two or three characters in all. The family name comes first and is not invented: it is one of the few hundred surnames people actually carry, most of them listed in the Hundred Family Surnames (百家姓, Bǎijiāxìng), a primer children have learnt by heart for a thousand years. The given name is where the choosing happens. Parents pick characters for what they mean, for how the tones fall and for how they look side by side, so a given name is closer to a short line of poetry than to an entry on a list.
That is the shape this generator builds. For an English speaker the family name usually takes the first sound of yours, so Watson leads to 王 (Wáng) or 汪 (Wāng), Miller to 米 (Mǐ), Smith to 施 (Shī). The given name may echo your first name, carry its meaning, or carry something you ask for. Our guide to how Chinese names work covers the history, and the list of the most common Chinese surnames shows which ones you are likely to be offered.
A worked example: Emma Watson
- 安 (Ān): family name, in the Hundred Family Surnames; as a word it means peace, safety.
- 思 (sī): thought, to think of someone.
- 雯 (wén): clouds with a pattern in them, a character used almost only in girls' names.
Watson's W points to 王 or 汪, and one of the three candidates should use them. This one takes its surname from the other name instead: 安 catches the open vowel and the nasal of Em-, and it is a surname a Chinese reader meets often enough to find ordinary. The given name then carries Watson, in reverse: the s of 思 and the w of 雯. The tones run level, level, rising (1, 1, 2), which is easy to say and ends lifting. Nothing in it reads as a word, and 思雯 is the kind of given name a Chinese family would choose for a daughter.
The filters every name passes
Every candidate is held to the rules a Chinese parent would apply. Some are enforced in code, the rest by the model that proposes the names and the one that scores them.
- A real surname, first. No invented family names and no transliterated ones. 艾 (Ài) is a surname; 艾米 is not.
- Common characters only. Characters come from the 3,500 most common in simplified Chinese, so anyone can read it and type it.
- No bad homophones. Read aloud, a name must not sound like something else. 杜子腾 (Dù Zǐténg) is a famous joke because it sounds like 肚子疼 (dùzi téng), stomach ache.
- Not a word or a phrase. 爱美 (àiměi) means "loves looking pretty"; a reader sees a sentence, not a name.
- Not someone famous. Candidates are checked against well-known people, places and companies. 李娜 (Lǐ Nà) is a tennis champion, and 安然 (Ānrán) is also how Chinese writes Enron.
- Not a stock name. The generator is told to avoid the handful of names a model reaches for by default, so two people with similar names do not get the same answer.
Each candidate is then scored by a second, independent model, and anything below the bar is replaced. That is a machine reading, not a person. To hear any name the way a Chinese reader would, paste it into the free Chinese name checker, and ask a Chinese friend before it goes anywhere permanent.
How it works
Enter your first and last name. Add who the name is for or what it should mean, if you like.
Read the three candidates: the meaning of each character, and why the name fits.
Choose one. The first piece of calligraphy is written for you free; the rest of a collection is a one-time purchase.
Questions
How is this different from other Chinese name generators?
Most generators pick characters that sound like your name, so Emily Watson becomes 艾米丽·沃森, which a Chinese reader sees as a foreigner's label. This one builds a real name: a surname from the Hundred Family Surnames, then one or two characters with meaning, filtered for bad homophones, ordinary words and famous people.
Is the Chinese name generator free?
Yes. Finding three names, the meaning of every character and asking for three more are all free, with no account. The first piece of calligraphy is also written free. Only the artwork collections cost money, such as the calligraphy pack at $12.90 or the seal pack at $7.90.
Can I choose a Chinese name for a girl or a boy?
Yes. Open "More about the name" and choose a woman, a man or anyone; the characters change to suit. Chinese given names lean by gender through their characters: 雯 and 婉 read as feminine, 毅 and 峰 as masculine, while 安 or 宁 work for anyone.
Is the name checked by a person?
No. Names are proposed by a language model within our naming rules and scored by a second, independent model; anything below the bar is never shown. The free name checker reads a name back the way a Chinese reader would, and a Chinese friend is the final word.
How is my Chinese surname chosen?
Your Chinese surname usually takes the first sound of your family name, chosen from real surnames: Watson can become 王 or 汪, Smith 施 or 史, Johnson 钟, Lee 李. If you give a family name in the separate field, the generator uses that; one candidate may take its surname from your first name instead.
What do the kinds of name mean?
The kind of name sets what the given name follows. Balanced echoes your sound and carries a good meaning; sound-first stays as close to your name as natural Chinese allows; meaning-first carries the sense of your name or a wish; classical uses literary characters; modern uses the light, fresh characters common among Chinese people born after 2000.
Can the name carry a particular meaning?
Yes. Write it in the box "Anything the name should carry", up to 140 characters: a quality such as patience, a place such as the sea, a grandmother's name, a season. The given name is then chosen to hold that meaning, and each candidate explains in one sentence how it does.
Why does a Chinese name have only two or three characters?
Nearly every Chinese name is two or three characters long: a one-character surname and a one- or two-character given name. Four characters usually means a rare two-character surname such as 欧阳 (Ōuyáng). A name of five or six characters is almost always a transliteration of a foreign name.
Can I use the Chinese name officially?
You can use it every day: at school, at work, on a business card, in a Chinese class. On official documents such as a Chinese visa or residence permit, the authorities use your passport name, sometimes with a transliteration. A chosen Chinese name sits alongside it, the way most expats in China use theirs.
Read more
- How Chinese names work: surname first, then one or two charactersA Chinese name is a one-character family name followed by a given name of one or two characters, each with a meaning. Which part is the first name, how the parts fit, how they are spoken and written, and what makes a name sound real.