What the characters mean
Character by character, in English — not a single vague sentence about how auspicious everything is.
Curated Chinese names, with the classics behind them
A Chinese name you can explain
Tell us the qualities you are looking for. We will show you names that real people use, where each one comes from in the classical canon, how it sounds in Mandarin, and how to write it stroke by stroke.
- Hand-curated, never assembled from random characters
- No account, no email, no card to see your first name
- Understand it well enough to introduce yourself with it
Show me my names
Free. No sign-up.
宇轩
say itYOO SHWEN
Start here
Three choices. About thirty seconds.
Your candidates
Ranked by how closely they match what you asked for.
Each one is a name people actually use — nothing here was generated.
How it works
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01
Tell us who the name is for
Pick the three qualities you want it to carry, plus whether it is for a man, a woman, or either. Thirty seconds, and no account.
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02
Read the reasoning, not just the characters
Each candidate comes with its own meaning, its classical source, how it sounds in Mandarin, and why it fits what you asked for.
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03
Learn to write and say it
View the stroke sequence, hear the pronunciation when audio is available, then take a high-resolution version to a card, a print, or a stamp.
What comes with a name
Four things most naming sites leave out, and the reason this one exists.
Where it comes from
The line in the classics the name is drawn from, quoted in the original with a translation, so you can verify it yourself.
How to say it
Tone-marked pinyin, a rough English phonetic guide, and whole-name audio for curated library names. Names built from your own spelling may use your device's Chinese voice instead.
How to write it
The stroke order, in sequence. This is the part people get wrong most often, and the part that makes a signature look right.
One-time, or nothing at all
No subscription, no account, nothing that renews. Payment is handled entirely by our merchant of record.
Free
See it and choose it. Pay only when you want to take it with you.
$0
- Four curated candidates per search
- Name, meaning, pronunciation and classical source — for every candidate
- Hear it said aloud, and watch the stroke order
- No account, no email, no card
One Name
Everything behind the one name you picked — yours to keep.
$4.99one time
- Everything in Free
- The full source narrative and the original Chinese text for this name
- High-resolution PNG of your name, no watermark
- Three calligraphy styles: regular, running, cursive
- Exported for print, social, and business cards
- One-time payment — nothing renews
Full Library
Every name in the library, permanently — including everything you search from now on.
$14.99one time
- Everything in One Name
- Every name in the library unlocked in full — not just the one you picked
- Unlimited searches, every future one included
- Licence to use the artwork commercially
- One-time payment — nothing renews
Questions people actually ask
Is this a legal name I can put on a passport?
No, and we will not pretend otherwise. A name in your passport or on a residency document follows your country's own naming rules, and China does not allow adults to change their registered Chinese name for personal preference. What you get here is a Chinese name to introduce yourself with — at work, in study, in daily life — the way someone might choose an English name. Many people in that situation do eventually use it informally on a business card or a name stamp.
Where do the names come from?
Every name in the library was put there by hand. Nothing is generated by gluing random characters together, which is the failure mode you will find on most Chinese name sites. Each entry carries the classical text it comes from — a line from the Book of Songs, the Analects, a Tang poem — and we show you that source so you can look it up yourself.
What does the audio actually pronounce?
Names from the curated library have a recording of the whole name rather than separate syllables stitched together. A name built from your own spelling may instead use the Chinese voice installed on your device, and the page tells you when that fallback is being used.
Why is the writing order a big deal?
Because it is the part most people get wrong. Chinese characters are written in a fixed sequence of strokes, and someone who learned by copying a picture writes them in an order no native reader would use. Seeing the stroke sequence and practising it yourself is what makes your signature look like a signature rather than a drawing.
What do I actually get when I pay?
One payment, no subscription, nothing that renews. One Name gives you the full source narrative, original text, and high-resolution artwork for the name you picked. Full Library opens every name in the library and every future search, with the same high-resolution artwork. Downloads are real files, not screenshots.
What happens to my data?
There is no account to create, and this site does not receive your card details. Search inputs are used to produce your results; when AI explanations are enabled, the relevant name and qualities are sent to the configured AI provider and the resulting explanation may be cached. Anonymous first-party analytics and short-lived IP rate limits keep the service working without advertising or cross-site tracking.
Can I get a refund?
Yes. Because delivery is instant and digital, the window is short — but if the high-resolution file is not what you expected, write to us within 14 days and we will refund it. Refunds are processed by the merchant-of-record on the same card you paid with.
Privacy, stated plainly
No account, no advertising, and no cross-site tracking. We use a first-party anonymous identifier for aggregate counts, short-lived IP rate limits to protect the service, and configured AI providers to write explanations when that feature is available.
- No account, and no email address requested at any point.
- Nothing you type is written to a database — the trait keys are used for one request and discarded.
- Anonymous first-party usage counts, with no advertising or cross-site tracking.
- Card details go to the merchant of record, never to this site.
In the library so far
The library is small on purpose. Every entry was checked by hand against its classical source before it was added.