Common problems adding pinyin to Chinese names

While working on CedPane I tried to keep these in mind (please let me know if I missed any):

娜 tends to be nà in names, not nuó as in words like ēnuó 婀娜

什 tends to be shí in names, not shén as in words like shénme 什么

菲 tends to be fēi in names, not fěi as in words like fěibó 菲薄 (but 斐 is still fěi)

耶 tends to be yē in names, not yé as in words like shìyéfēiyé 是耶非耶

贾/賈 tends to be jiǎ in names, not gǔ as in words like gǔmǎi 贾买

柏 tends to be bó in names, not bǎi as in words like bǎishù 柏树

伯 could be bó or bǎi

莎 tends to be shā in names, not suō

切 tends to be qiè in names, not qiē as in words like qiēcàidāo 切菜刀

的 (e.g. in Scandinavia) is dì not de

勒 is usually lè rather than lēi

塞 could be sài, sāi or sè (depending on the name)

宁/寧 tends to be níng in names, not nìng as in words like nìngkěn 宁肯

兴/興 tends to be xīng in names, not xìng as in words like gāoxìng 高兴

更 tends to be gēng not gèng

茜 tends to be xī not qiàn

冯 tends to be féng not píng

佛 tends to be fó in names, although fú can also be acceptable in some

Simple-form 云 (yún) tends to correspond with Full-form 雲 in names (but 里 is not usually 裡)

Additionally 藏 is zàng not cáng in names about Tibet, and 蒙 is měng not méng in names about Mongolia, but these are rarely used in names outside those contexts.

Please do not trust the website namespedia.com—their pinyin appears to have been generated automatically by software that does *not* apply the above rules.

Legal

All material © Silas S. Brown unless otherwise stated.