Mumsnet Talk

DH is half Chinese would really like us to use Chinese middle names for our children.

If it's a boy then it's easy because there is some complex family tree system that will sort out the name for us (although I think we can change it a bit if it ends up being rude - like anything with Wang in), but if it's a girl then we sort of choose ourselves (or FIL will enforce a name on us which is why we need to think of one first!).

So far I like LiLi and Mei Lin. Does anyone have suggestions??

Why/how will FIL enforce a name on you She's your baby, how odd.

Not much help with names, really, as I have a friend who's married to a Chinese national and her children have Welsh names like her I like Mei Lin, it's pretty. A quick google throws up Jiang Li or Jia Li, which I think has a lovely sound to it.

Jia Li sounds cute. I should add that DH's family are mandarin speaking rather than Cantonese.

To explain the questions above, I would have to introduce you to FIL. As much as I love him... ;)

I always liked Jing Mei as a Chinese girl's name. It was a character in ER a long time ago. It has a nice musicality about it - no idea if it's Mandarin or Cantonese though?

Don't know how traditionally Chinese this one is but there's a lovely little girl in ds2's nursery called Hana.

Is the family tree bit where every member of the same generation has a 2-part name, with the first part being the same? From an old Chinese poem? If so, that can easily be used for girls as well (my family have done this).
I like Jia Chi
or Jia Mi
or Su Ling

Hana is Japanese. It means flower. How about:

Ming - bright
Mei - beautiful
Li - beautiful
Jin - gold
Hua - flower
Fei - flying

tbh I think you need to speak to a chinese name expert really, because although the single characters can be translated, a chinese name is never just 'picked', there are various rules etc, and some characters would not be put together, and a name would always be two characters, so you need to check out the combinations with someone who is utterly familiar with how it all works.

I think in China, this would be done as a matter of course, to check how 'auspicious' a name is!

There are (usually) 3 parts to a chinese name :

<Surname> <2-characters person's name>

Traditionally, families(from great-grandparents' time or earlier) will have set a naming tradition which is known as a "Generation" name, ie if surname is Tan,

Tan <Li> Meng
Tan <Li> Wei

<Li> being the generation name.. a generation name can be the 2nd or 3rd character. ie

Tan Wei <Li>
Tan Jay <Li>

My brother follows the generation name while us girls have a different character but like a spin-off from the generation name.

Mei/May Lin is a very common and pretty chinese name. My name is also pretty common in Sout East Asia, pronounced as Sue Lin (Su Lin/ Sue Lyn/ Soo Lin). Good luck and hope you have found just the right one for DD.