The Republic of Name

Some Web sites offer free Chinese name translation services. Some of these are personal Web sites and others are Web sites that sell Chinese goods and offer free name translation to attract customers. Thousands of names available! It sounds really great. However, on closer inspection, we find that many stock names are poorly or carelessly translated.

Republic of Name by Good Characters, Inc. is different. Do you know why we ask you to describe yourself or tell us your interests before we “translate” your name? It is because of our mission: We want to show you the beauty of Chinese characters. We want to personalize a Chinese name that truly reflects YOU as a unique individual, not simply give you one of a thousand stock names.

Here is an example. A customer wanted to order a Chinese name seal as a gift for a friend whose name is John. John is a Bible name that is traditionally translated “Yue Han” in Chinese. This does not sound like the way John is pronounced in English, but it resembles the way John was pronounced when the Bible was first translated into Chinese. The same characters are traditionally used in John’s Japanese name translation, too. The character, “Yue”, means promise and “Han” means writing. It is a good meaning for a name.

However, our customer mentioned that her friend is “very athletic.” We had a better, though much less common, translation in mind. Finally, we choose the character “Chiang” (Qiang in Pingyin) for John. “Chiang” means strong in Chinese. It not only sounds much more like John in English, but it also better represented her friend’s athleticism.