Hello,
I'm Having a few different names that i want to have written in Chinese signs, I've searched on sites but some give me different signs than i already found.
I hope you can help me cause i really don't want to have some wrong names on my body.
I'll send a collage with all names in it,
the names should be, Ibrahim, Chloë, James, Jill, Julian and Jessica.
So could you please tell me which one is the right one?
Thank you already.
Greetings Jessica
Answer Hi Jessica,
Well, I have to say, different as they are, all these signs are probably right. The thing is that Chinese characters are not in alphabetic writing like English. Each character (sign) is pronounced as one single syllable (usually with one consonant and one vowel or sometimes just one vowel) and it is often difficult to find the exact equivalent to that English sound. So the Chinese take the easy way out: we simply find the next closest equivalent to that English syllable. During this transformation, the original sound is usually changed to some extend, and personal flavor and local dialect are inevitably brought in. This results in the different translations from different areas of China(Mainland vs Hongkong vs Taiwan) and times (old vs new).
Another dilemma is that the same pronunciation of syllable can be shared by tens of different characters. For instance, for one most common name Jessica, there is usually a unanimous translation in sound: Jie Shi Ka, however, it can be written in at least two forms "杰西卡“ ”洁西卡" and I can go on like this "杰希卡" and etc, especially for unfamiliar names like Ibrahim (no offense, but most Chinese have probably never heard of or read it).
To sum it up, my suggestion is that you may keep Jessica, Julian and Jill, for their signs that you included in the collage are commonly accepted. For James, you may choose either one, for they are equally accepted. For Chloe and Ibrahim, I personally prefer the 1st ones, but they are all acceptable(by different group of Chinese respectively). I've also recorded each combinations of signs for you, you may download from the link below and decide for yourself.
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