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This is the name: 陳威穎 (Chen Wei-Ying).

I've always been curious about this topic because Japanese names are written in Kanji. However, they usually have 4 characters.

So I wonder how would that Chinese name above be transformed into Japanese?

I consulted Jisho. And I'm pretty sure 陳 would become Chin.

As for 威穎, I get something not very Japanese sounding on Google Translate: Gi Ei (at least, when referring to Japanese names).

However on Jisho I get:

たけし 【威】 Given name, gender not specified 1. Takeshi​

さとし 【穎】 Male given name 1. Satoshi​

So I'm very confused. What the Japanese version of the name is supposed to be? At least, the Japanese-sounding version?

(I'm a bit new to this site so I'm not sure if this question is off-topic. If it is, Sumimasen.)

1 Answer 1

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You could transcribe it using the on'yomi reading of the kanji characters:

陳威穎 => ちん・い・えい (chin i ei)

Examples for each character: 舜臣, and 海市, and

Since on'yomi is an approximation of the original Chinese pronunciation, this is what's usually done for translating names.

If you want to create a "Japanese sounding" name, you could adapt the given name as:

威穎 => たけひで (takehide)

Like the pronunciation in or 山崎一.

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  • Thanks for answering! So the two-letter name will be "Chin Iei"? That looks a bit strange to me. Takehide sounds good.
    – alex
    May 18, 2018 at 14:17
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    @alex Well, yes, at that point you're transcribing from Chinese into Japanese into English, so it's bound to feel weird. In Japanese you can just write out the kanji characters.
    – Semaphore
    May 18, 2018 at 14:19

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