How to Choose a Chinese Name for Your Company?

Choos­ing a Chi­nese name for your com­pa­ny is not a triv­ial task. A good Chi­nese name can help you estab­lish your brand iden­ti­ty, attract cus­tomers, and con­vey your val­ues and vision. A bad Chi­nese name can con­fuse, offend, or mis­lead your poten­tial clients, part­ners, and investors. There­fore, it is impor­tant to fol­low some best prac­tices and guide­lines when nam­ing your com­pa­ny in Chinese.

Why Do You Need a Chinese Name?

If you are plan­ning to enter the Chi­nese mar­ket, hav­ing a Chi­nese name is essen­tial for sev­er­al reasons:

• Lan­guage bar­ri­er: Many Chi­nese con­sumers may not be famil­iar with your Eng­lish name or may have dif­fi­cul­ty pro­nounc­ing it. A Chi­nese name can make your com­pa­ny more acces­si­ble and mem­o­rable to your tar­get audience.
• Cul­tur­al rel­e­vance: A Chi­nese name can show that you respect and under­stand the local cul­ture and cus­toms. It can also help you avoid any neg­a­tive asso­ci­a­tions or con­no­ta­tions that your Eng­lish name may have in Chinese.
• Legal com­pli­ance: Accord­ing to the Com­pa­ny Law of the Peo­ple’s Repub­lic of Chi­na, every com­pa­ny reg­is­tered in Chi­na must have a Chi­nese name as its offi­cial name. The Chi­nese name must also com­ply with the Admin­is­tra­tive Mea­sures for the Reg­is­tra­tion of Enter­prise Names, which stip­u­late the for­mat, con­tent, and length of the name.

How to Choose a Good Chinese Name?

There are dif­fer­ent ways to choose a Chi­nese name for your com­pa­ny, depend­ing on your goals, pref­er­ences, and bud­get. Gen­er­al­ly speak­ing, there are four main types of Chi­nese names:

1. A name that has no resem­blance to the orig­i­nal in sound or mean­ing: This type of name is usu­al­ly cho­sen when the orig­i­nal name is too long, com­plex, or irrel­e­vant to the Chi­nese mar­ket. For exam­ple, Heineken chose 喜力 (xǐ lì), which means “hap­pi­ness pow­er”, as its Chi­nese name.
2. A name that sounds like the orig­i­nal but has no resem­blance in mean­ing: This type of name is usu­al­ly cho­sen when the orig­i­nal name is short, sim­ple, and rec­og­niz­able. For exam­ple, Audi chose 奥迪 (ào dí), which means “pro­found enlight­en­ment”, as its Chi­nese name.
3. A name that has a close resem­blance to the orig­i­nal mean­ing but not the sound: This type of name is usu­al­ly cho­sen when the orig­i­nal name has a clear and pos­i­tive mean­ing that can be trans­lat­ed into Chi­nese. For exam­ple, Col­gate chose 高露洁 (gāo lù jié), which means “high bright­ness and clean­li­ness”, as its Chi­nese name.
4. A name that has both the sound and the mean­ing of the orig­i­nal: This type of name is usu­al­ly cho­sen when the orig­i­nal name is catchy, mean­ing­ful, and suit­able for the Chi­nese mar­ket. For exam­ple, Coca-Cola chose 可口可乐 (kě kǒu kě lè), which means “tasty and fun”, as its Chi­nese name.

Of course, the fourth type of name is the best, but also the most dif­fi­cult to achieve. There are many fac­tors to con­sid­er when choos­ing a Chi­nese name that sounds and means like your orig­i­nal name, such as:

• Pro­nun­ci­a­tion: The Chi­nese lan­guage has four tones and many homo­phones, which means that dif­fer­ent char­ac­ters can sound the same but have dif­fer­ent mean­ings. You should avoid choos­ing char­ac­ters that have neg­a­tive or inap­pro­pri­ate mean­ings or asso­ci­a­tions, even if they sound like your orig­i­nal name. For exam­ple, Apple avoid­ed using the char­ac­ter 苹 (píng), which means “apple” but also sounds like “flat” or “cheap”, and chose the char­ac­ter 萍 (píng), which means “duck­weed” but also con­veys a sense of fresh­ness and vitality.
• Mean­ing: The Chi­nese lan­guage has thou­sands of char­ac­ters, each with its own mean­ing and con­no­ta­tion. You should choose char­ac­ters that reflect your com­pa­ny’s val­ues, vision, and indus­try. For exam­ple, Nike chose the char­ac­ter 耐 (nài), which means “durable” or “endur­ing”, as part of its Chi­nese name 耐克 (nài kè), to empha­size its qual­i­ty and performance.
• Length: The Chi­nese lan­guage is con­cise and com­pact, which means that you can express a lot of infor­ma­tion with a few char­ac­ters. You should aim for a short and catchy name that is easy to remem­ber and pro­nounce. Accord­ing to the Admin­is­tra­tive Mea­sures for the Reg­is­tra­tion of Enter­prise Names, your Chi­nese name should not exceed 18 char­ac­ters, includ­ing the indus­try and legal form.
• Cul­ture: The Chi­nese cul­ture is rich and diverse, which means that you can find many ref­er­ences and inspi­ra­tions from his­to­ry, lit­er­a­ture, art, phi­los­o­phy, and reli­gion. You should choose a name that res­onates with your tar­get audi­ence and shows respect and under­stand­ing of the local cul­ture and cus­toms. For exam­ple, Star­bucks chose the name 星巴克 (xīng bā kè), which sounds like “star”, “father”, and “guest”, to con­vey a sense of warmth, hos­pi­tal­i­ty, and quality.

To sum up, a good Chi­nese name for your com­pa­ny should be:

• Rel­e­vant: It should match your brand iden­ti­ty, tar­get mar­ket, and busi­ness specialty.
• Authen­tic: It should com­ply with the Chi­nese lan­guage rules, reg­u­la­tions, and culture.
• Mem­o­rable: It should be short, catchy, and easy to remem­ber and pronounce.

To help you choose a good Chi­nese name for your com­pa­ny, you can fol­low these steps:

1. Brain­storm your ideas: Think of some key­words that describe your com­pa­ny’s mis­sion, vision, val­ues, prod­ucts, ser­vices, indus­try, and mar­ket. You can use online tools such as NameS­nack, Brand­lance, or Squad­help, to gen­er­ate some name sug­ges­tions based on your keywords.
2. Short­list your nam­ing ideas: Nar­row down your list of names to a few can­di­dates that meet the cri­te­ria of rel­e­vance, authen­tic­i­ty, and mem­o­ra­bil­i­ty. You can use online tools such as Namelix, Names­ta­tion, or Namemesh, to check the avail­abil­i­ty of domain names and social media han­dles for your short­list­ed names.
3. Ask for feed­back: Test your short­list­ed names with your tar­get audi­ence, part­ners, investors, friends, and fam­i­ly. Ask them for their hon­est opin­ions on how they per­ceive, pro­nounce, and remem­ber your names. You can use online tools such as Sur­vey Mon­key, Pick­Fu, or UserTest­ing, to cre­ate and dis­trib­ute sur­veys and polls for your names.
4. Reg­is­ter your name: Once you have decid­ed on your final name, you need to reg­is­ter it with the rel­e­vant author­i­ties in Chi­na. You can use online tools such as Com­pa­ny Law of the Peo­ple’s Repub­lic of Chi­na, Admin­is­tra­tive Mea­sures for the Reg­is­tra­tion of Enter­prise Names, or State Admin­is­tra­tion for Indus­try and Com­merce, to check the require­ments and pro­ce­dures for reg­is­ter­ing your name. You also need to reg­is­ter your domain name and social media accounts for your name.

Choos­ing a Chi­nese name for your com­pa­ny is a strate­gic deci­sion that can have a sig­nif­i­cant impact on your suc­cess in the Chi­nese mar­ket. By fol­low­ing the best prac­tices and guide­lines above, you can cre­ate a name that reflects your brand, res­onates with your audi­ence, and stands out from the competition.

Frequently Asked Questions

Choos­ing a Chi­nese name for your com­pa­ny is a cru­cial step in enter­ing the Chi­nese mar­ket. By fol­low­ing the best prac­tices and guide­lines in this arti­cle, you can cre­ate a name that reflects your brand, res­onates with your audi­ence, and stands out from the competition.

Sources:

1. Com­pa­ny Law of the Peo­ple’s Repub­lic of Chi­na | Nation­al Peo­ple’s Con­gress of the Peo­ple’s Repub­lic of China
2. Admin­is­tra­tive Mea­sures for the Reg­is­tra­tion of Enter­prise Names | State Coun­cil of the Peo­ple’s Repub­lic of China
3. Chi­nese Busi­ness Names | NameSnack
4. 1000+ Chi­nese Com­pa­ny Name Ideas List Gen­er­a­tor (2023) | Brandlance
5. Chi­nese Busi­ness Name Gen­er­a­tor | Squadhelp
6. Namelix | Busi­ness Name Generator
7. Names­ta­tion | Domain Name Generator
8. Namemesh | Domain Name Generator
9. Sur­vey Mon­key | Online Sur­vey Platform
10. Pick­Fu | Online Polling Platform
11. UserTest­ing | Online User Feed­back Platform
12. AnswerTheP­ub­lic | Online Key­word Research Tool
13. AlsoAsked | Online Ques­tion Research Tool
14. SEM­rush | Online SEO Tool
15. Ahrefs | Online SEO Tool
16. Moz | Online SEO Tool
17. Yoast | Online SEO Plu­g­in for WordPress
18. Seo­bil­i­ty | Online SEO Check­er and Audit Tool
19. Uber­sug­gest | Online SEO and Key­word Tool by Neil Patel
20. Google Search Con­sole | Online Web­mas­ter Tool by Google
21. Google Ana­lyt­ics | Online Web Ana­lyt­ics Tool by Google
22. Bing Web­mas­ter Tools | Online Web­mas­ter Tool by Bing