Can I use a rare character like 飂 in a name?

Question

I am trying to find a new Chinese name for myself. Before, I simply used a transliteration of my western name. Now, as my Chinese progressed, I would like to find something that does not immediately reveal that I am a foreigner. While leafing through my dictionaries, several rare characters attracted my attention. I like them, not only because they are exotic, but also because of their meanings and their components.

But I am not sure if they may be used for names. I tried to baidu that question, but they seem to be to rare... I think my question is twofold: First, do native speakers use rare characters for names? And, specifically concerning the character 飂:

• Could I use a character like 飂 for my name?
• would a native speaker use a rare character like 飂 as name?
• what does a native speaker think seeing a name containing such a character? Is it simply rare? Or really strange?

From what the dictionaries (mainly Longman and the dictionary of the Taiwanese ministry of education) told me, 飂 is used as 姓 (although I could not find any examples), and can mean either the sound of wind, wind in high places, or a west wind (what perhaps somehow fits to a westerner).

edit: I'm comfortable with reading Chinese sources when needed.

Answer 1

Q1: Could I use a character like 飂 for my name?

Yes. In fact, you can freely choose any character for your name. However, for whether it is a good Chinese name, there may be many criteria. The most important criteria are supposed to be:

• Elegant meaning. 飂 is a good one, meaning gone with the wind and implying a noble, unsullied, lofty, and proud character of a person. One derivation of this character is in 道德經

  澹兮其若海，
  飂兮若無止，
  衆人皆有以，
  而我獨頑似鄙。

  Well, I'm not good at writing English poem ... the translation below is just a simple explanation line by line for the piece of 道德經 above:

  Being indifferent to fame and wealth, as floating on the sea;
  Being gone with the wind, as never heading for an end that can be seen.
  Everyone is too busy, for their own living;
  But just stubborn as me, keeping such an attitude like this!

  I guess you can feel the feeling of 飂 now :)

• Good and easy pronunciation. It depends on character combinations so I can't tell whether a name containing 飂 (liù or liáo) sounds good or not. But it's really a rare character so that most people would have to look up a dictionary before calling your name; and being even worse, 飂 has two kinds of pronunciation -- people would be confused for which one is your preference. This is unlike a Japanese name. As a character would have many sounds in Japanese, they often write down the phonetic symbol, i.e. Hiragana or Katakana, for each name that is intended to be read out in documents. Thus, in conclusion, although polyphonic characters are even sometimes (in fact not often) used by native Chinese speakers for their names, I don't recommend to use them.

Other criteria, like some superstitious rules (e.g. 姓名學), won't be introduced here. If you are interested in them, you can see the link for more information.

Q2: Would a native speaker use a rare character like 飂 as name?

Yes. But it will be probably considered as you are showing off.

Q3: What does a native speaker think seeing a name containing such a character? Is it simply rare? Or really strange?

Whether it is strange depends on character combinations. That is to say, only when seeing a full name, one can answer such a question :)

Answer 2

Yes and no.

Yes, you can use it as long as it is a real Chinese character.

However, as a native Chinese with a rare character in my own name, it bothers me in life in various ways. First, some people don't know how to pronounce it. Second, some banks and airplane companies still limit their database of Chinese character to GB2312 which includes only about 7 thousand Chinese characters. Third, rare characters are usually hard to write and also hard to input in computers.

But since you won't use this Chinese name in passports or so, I guess it's not a problem after all.

Answer 3

You may use it, but you will be the uncalled one when the teacher makes a roll call. Because he will be confused about how to pronounce this character.

In China, although characters are complicated, the basic elements you need to communicate are few, especially compared with hard-to-pronounce complex traditional characters.

It may sound like someone named "the-wind-go-so-fast-and-ferocious". Some parents will do, they pick a child's name in the dictionary, or by consulting a feng shui master, who'll determine which characters should be used in their child's name based on the birth date.

When people want to be specialized, they will also do the same, but anyway, in most cases, you will be regarded as one who has parents with smell of inkhorn. [???]

Answer 4

In my opinion, our name is used as our mark to identify. If your name owns a rare character, it makes others (friends around you) hardly recognize and called. The simple things just goes unfriendly. Although, I admit it is a cool idea, but not easy to me.

Of course, you can try your best to figure it out -- a perfect name using other easy-read words.

BTW, as a newly father, the name-thing almost killed me. (一航 is my final decision for my boy )

Answer 5

You'd better not use such a rare character. I have '煦' in my name, which is much more common than your '飂', and it still bothers me for even some of my teachers don't know how to pronounce it.

Answer 6

yes, it's your freedom, but not recommended, not many people know how to read it and what's it means