<p>There are two directions you mentioned:</p>

<ul>
<li><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization" rel="nofollow noreferrer">transliteration or romanisation</a> using <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wade%E2%80%93Giles" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Wade-Giles</a> (<code>Tao</code> for <code>道</code>) or Pinyin (<code>Dao</code> for <code>道</code>) to write/spell/pronounce chinese characters/words (see <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daoism%E2%80%93Taoism_romanization_issue" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Taoism VS Daoism</a>). This facilitates the usage of Chinese words in English language (e.g. Beijing).</li>
<li><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_loanwords_in_Chinese" rel="nofollow noreferrer">loan words</a> or using English words in Chinese language</li>
</ul>

<p>You are asking for the latter.</p>

<h3>How to choose characters?</h3>

<p>For the selection of <em>matching</em> chinese characters  there is always the trade-off between <strong>phonetic</strong> (sound) as well as <strong>semantic</strong> (meaning) <strong>similarity</strong>.</p>

<p><strong>Some are just resembling phonetic:</strong>
For example <code>打的</code> (dadi) means <em><a href="https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=worddict&amp;wdrst=0&amp;wdqb=c%3A%E6%89%93%E7%9A%84" rel="nofollow noreferrer">(to go by) taxi</a></em>. It's colloquial although there are "original" chinese idioms for that, e.g. <code>出租车</code> (chuzuche) meaning <em>taxi</em> (or <em>rental-car</em> in Taiwanese).</p>

<p><strong>Difficult to reflect both, sound and meaning:</strong>
Especially foreign businesses are smartly applying creativity to give there <em>brands</em> recognizable <strong>chinese names</strong> (easy to associate and remember).</p>

<p>That effort leads for example to <em><a href="https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=worddict&amp;wdrst=0&amp;wdqb=c%3A%E5%AE%9C%E5%AE%B6" rel="nofollow noreferrer">IKEA</a></em> translated to <code>宜家</code> (yijia) literally <em>proper-home</em>, or <em><a href="https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?wdqb=c%3A%2A%E5%8F%AF%E4%B9%90&amp;wdrst=0" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Cola</a></em> to <code>可乐</code> (kele) literally <em>amusing/entertaining</em>.</p>

<h3>Localised Foreign Brand Names</h3>

<p>Since you are asking especially for the "translation" of <strong>brand names</strong>, there are further aspects for selecting the right characters/words:</p>

<ul>
<li><strong>cultural</strong> fit</li>
<li><strong>socioeconomic</strong> and <strong>psychological</strong> associations</li>
<li><strong>historical</strong> and <strong>traditional</strong> reflections</li>
</ul>

<p>Above factors are essential for designing brands, not only for translating their names.</p>

<p>The difficulty in selecting a suitable chinese brand name may even include visual (stylish) aspects: <strong>aesthetic and beauty</strong> of the characters, since they should appeal visually to the target audience:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>The translation from English brand to Chinese brand involves issues of “translating a name from a letters -and- phonemes-based phonographic language (i.e. English) to a visual-character-based logographic language (i.e. Chinese)”  (Schmitt &amp; Zhang, 2012, p.656).</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Refer to examples where the name was selected to incorporate such aspects, although neither matching phonetically nor semantically:</p>

<ul>
<li><strong>Poison</strong> (a luxury fragrance) was retranslated to <code>百爱神</code> (Bai Ai Shen), which means <em>everyone will love it</em>. So that people would like to purchase it, rather than they would if it has a negative connotation like its original name and meaning.</li>
</ul>

<h3>Further Reading</h3>

<p>Branding in China is covered by many Studies and Research Papers, published at Universities by sinologists and economists alike:</p>

<ul>
<li>Shi, H. (2017). <strong>Translation Strategies from Target Culture Perspective: An Analysis of English and Chinese Brands Names</strong>.  International Journal of English Language &amp; Translation Studies. 5 (1), 15-22.</li>
<li>Berende, B. (2012) : <strong>What’s in a Name?  A study on the success factors of brand naming in China</strong>. Master Thesis, Jönköping International Business School</li>
</ul>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-23T17:25:21.227Z
Yes this is what I was looking for, I updated to state that my use case is for brand names, which you covered :) Thanks!
Lance Pollard
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-23T17:25:57.710Z
So can you summarize what the rules are for selecting such a name? Is it just pick best match between the phonetic and the literal meaning as you can?
Lance Pollard
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-23T17:52:00.270Z
@LancePollard A good name will surely cover phonetic and semantic aspects, but also produce beauty in Chinese culture. e.g. 百达翡丽Patek Philippe，露华浓Revlon，赛百味Subway. You can hire a native to help you with it since you may lack this kind of perception as a foreigner(maybe?)
Toosky Hierot
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-23T19:03:49.693Z
@TooskyHierot Great you mentioned this important aspect of branding and visuals  I updated to incorporate that. Strongly agree on support of native speaker.
hc_dev
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-23T19:15:39.367Z
@LancePollard Oh, branding There are no rules to selection. But if it's really about branding, then similarity (be it phonetically or semantically) is the least important  Luckily you can approximate that too, as others could 
hc_dev
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-23T11:32:08.453Z
2020-04-23T18:58:44.313Z
2020-04-23T18:58:44.313Z
hc_dev
<p>Say you have a word in English like "stone" or "parabola". How do you write that in Chinese literally so that it is pronounced in Chinese like it is in English? That is, you can write the pinyin version perhaps of these words, so you get the sound right (stoan perhaps, and p'raboaluh I don't know haha). Then you convert that to Chinese characters.</p>

<p>How does this work?</p>

<p><em>I am not asking how to <strong>translate</strong> simple words from English to Chinese. Instead I am asking how to sort of <strong>transliterate</strong> English words (or any non-Chinese word) into Chinese.</em></p>

<p>Basically, in English you can take Chinese words like 到 and go to pinyin "dao" and to english "Tao". So we can write any Chinese word in English (Not perfectly accurately because of tones, but pretty close). But how do you do the reverse, and write an English word in Chinese?</p>

<p>The use case is I would like to create a brand such as "MyBrand" and then have it pronounced "My Brand" in Chinese as well, or as close to it as possible.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-23T12:00:41.993Z
The question addresses a crucial issue when translating _foreign names_ to Chinese Can you clarify bit more on the purpose/use-case?
hc_dev
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-04-24T01:23:31.967Z
Just a remind, in practice, if your brand name is simple and your target customer are young or mid-aged people, you could consider use your brand’s original name in English alphabet, but you still need use a Chinese transliteration without literary features and meaning in company registration. e.g. H&M keeps its original name in China, but its name in registration is **海恩斯莫里斯** （上海）商业有限公司. Gap keeps its original name in China, but its name in registration is **盖璞** （上海）商业有限公司.
Bósài
<pronunciation><writing><transliteration>
How to pronounce English words in Chinese
# How to pronounce English words in Chinese

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-04-23)

Say you have a word in English like "stone" or "parabola". How do you write that in Chinese literally so that it is pronounced in Chinese like it is in English? That is, you can write the pinyin version perhaps of these words, so you get the sound right (stoan perhaps, and p'raboaluh I don't know haha). Then you convert that to Chinese characters.

How does this work?

*I am not asking how to **translate** simple words from English to Chinese. Instead I am asking how to sort of **transliterate** English words (or any non-Chinese word) into Chinese.*

Basically, in English you can take Chinese words like 到 and go to pinyin "dao" and to english "Tao". So we can write any Chinese word in English (Not perfectly accurately because of tones, but pretty close). But how do you do the reverse, and write an English word in Chinese?

The use case is I would like to create a brand such as "MyBrand" and then have it pronounced "My Brand" in Chinese as well, or as close to it as possible.

**Tags:** pronunciation, writing, transliteration

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: The question addresses a crucial issue when translating _foreign names_ to Chinese Can you clarify bit more on the purpose/use-case?  
> **username_2**: Just a remind, in practice, if your brand name is simple and your target customer are young or mid-aged people, you could consider use your brand’s original name in English alphabet, but you still need use a Chinese transliteration without literary features and meaning in company registration. e.g. H&M keeps its original name in China, but its name in registration is **海恩斯莫里斯** （上海）商业有限公司. Gap keeps its original name in China, but its name in registration is **盖璞** （上海）商业有限公司.  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2020-04-23. Score: 3 | Accepted answer

There are two directions you mentioned:

* [transliteration or romanisation](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization) using [Wade-Giles](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wade%E2%80%93Giles) (`Tao` for `道`) or Pinyin (`Dao` for `道`) to write/spell/pronounce chinese characters/words (see [Taoism VS Daoism](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daoism%E2%80%93Taoism_romanization_issue)). This facilitates the usage of Chinese words in English language (e.g. Beijing).
* [loan words](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_loanwords_in_Chinese) or using English words in Chinese language

You are asking for the latter.

### How to choose characters?

For the selection of *matching* chinese characters there is always the trade-off between **phonetic** (sound) as well as **semantic** (meaning) **similarity**.

**Some are just resembling phonetic:**
For example `打的` (dadi) means *[(to go by) taxi](https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=c%3A%E6%89%93%E7%9A%84)*. It's colloquial although there are "original" chinese idioms for that, e.g. `出租车` (chuzuche) meaning *taxi* (or *rental-car* in Taiwanese).

**Difficult to reflect both, sound and meaning:**
Especially foreign businesses are smartly applying creativity to give there *brands* recognizable **chinese names** (easy to associate and remember).

That effort leads for example to *[IKEA](https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?page=worddict&wdrst=0&wdqb=c%3A%E5%AE%9C%E5%AE%B6)* translated to `宜家` (yijia) literally *proper-home*, or *[Cola](https://www.mdbg.net/chinese/dictionary?wdqb=c%3A%2A%E5%8F%AF%E4%B9%90&wdrst=0)* to `可乐` (kele) literally *amusing/entertaining*.

### Localised Foreign Brand Names

Since you are asking especially for the "translation" of **brand names**, there are further aspects for selecting the right characters/words:

* **cultural** fit
* **socioeconomic** and **psychological** associations
* **historical** and **traditional** reflections

Above factors are essential for designing brands, not only for translating their names.

The difficulty in selecting a suitable chinese brand name may even include visual (stylish) aspects: **aesthetic and beauty** of the characters, since they should appeal visually to the target audience:

> The translation from English brand to Chinese brand involves issues of “translating a name from a letters -and- phonemes-based phonographic language (i.e. English) to a visual-character-based logographic language (i.e. Chinese)” (Schmitt & Zhang, 2012, p.656).

Refer to examples where the name was selected to incorporate such aspects, although neither matching phonetically nor semantically:

* **Poison** (a luxury fragrance) was retranslated to `百爱神` (Bai Ai Shen), which means *everyone will love it*. So that people would like to purchase it, rather than they would if it has a negative connotation like its original name and meaning.

### Further Reading

Branding in China is covered by many Studies and Research Papers, published at Universities by sinologists and economists alike:

* Shi, H. (2017). **Translation Strategies from Target Culture Perspective: An Analysis of English and Chinese Brands Names**.  International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies. 5 (1), 15-22.
* Berende, B. (2012) : **What’s in a Name? A study on the success factors of brand naming in China**. Master Thesis, Jönköping International Business School

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Yes this is what I was looking for, I updated to state that my use case is for brand names, which you covered :) Thanks!  
> **username_0**: So can you summarize what the rules are for selecting such a name? Is it just pick best match between the phonetic and the literal meaning as you can?  
> **username_3**: @username_0 A good name will surely cover phonetic and semantic aspects, but also produce beauty in Chinese culture. e.g. 百达翡丽Patek Philippe，露华浓Revlon，赛百味Subway. You can hire a native to help you with it since you may lack this kind of perception as a foreigner(maybe?)  
> **username_1**: @username_3 Great you mentioned this important aspect of branding and visuals  I updated to incorporate that. Strongly agree on support of native speaker.  
> **username_1**: @username_0 Oh, branding There are no rules to selection. But if it's really about branding, then similarity (be it phonetically or semantically) is the least important  Luckily you can approximate that too, as others could   

---

