Is 林心鹭 a good Chinese name?

Question

I’ve been looking to find a Chinese name and I found somewhere on a website the name “心鹭”. I instantly loved it because herons are my favourite birds so it’s meaningful for me, but I’m not sure if it makes sense as a name. I then chose the surname 林,but again, I’m not sure if the name makes sense altogether. If it’s not a good or suitable Chinese name, what other alternatives are there? I’d prefer a feminine or gender neutral name and another name with the meaning “heron” would be really nice, but if there aren’t any native sounding names available then I’m fine with any meaning.

Answer 1

I think this it a great name. It's both standard and unconventional. In China there is a famous actress named "林心如". "林心鹭" has a quite similar pronunciation with "林心如".

Answer 2

It sounds pretty good to me. Also it sounds like a valid female name.

Meaning-wise it is good. There is no obvious homophone with bad meanings. It is, however, not a common name either. Personally I have not seen anyone that has "鹭" in her name.

One nitpick is that, the full name "林心鹭" is slightly unbalanced in its written form, i.e., first two chars very simple, but third very complicated. Is this a concern? Probably not. It only depends on your aesthetics. :-)

Answer 3

Yes it's a good Chinese name. 鹭 is not a common using character but not a strange one, because a Chinese football player's name is 张鹭.

In addition, if you want to know, I can provide some not-so-good Chinese name features:

1. Too common name (e.g.: 王伟，刘敏，子涵，子轩，etc.). This feature is not bad, but also not good. The same name is very common in English, but most Chinese people don't want to have the same name as too many people.

2. Too strange name. Some name is too strange to be like a name. For example choosing 林 as the family name, someone may name him/herself: 林子大了。

3. The name of a famous person. Also, In English, many people pick famous person's name as their own name, but it's different in Chinese. You are hard to find Chinese parents name their child as 鳌拜， 苏东坡， 白居易， 李小龙 etc.

Answer 4

Your user name is LuLu so I think 心鹭 is a great choice. For Chinese surname I would suggest it close to your first pronunciation of surname.

Answer 5

I think it’s a great name, especially if it reflects something that you think represents you.

One thing I would consider is that it is kind of hard to pronounce for many people, especially for Chinese learners. In Chinese, there is a thing called “平仄”, which is the cadence and flow of words. ”平” are the first and second tones of a word, 仄 are the third and fourth tones. Following the rules of “平仄” makes the phrase easy to remember and 朗朗上口, if you will.

The usual cadence for naming is “平仄平” for three character names, such as 张爱玲, and “平仄” or ”仄平”, such as 张鹭, for two letter names, depending on your surname.

As you can see, your name is 林心鹭, which is ”平平仄” and has two words that start with “l”. It doesn’t follow this rule and kind of sounds like a tongue twister. Most Chinese names, if you’ve noticed, have different starting letters.

Of course, it really depends on personal opinion. If cadence and pronunciation is not as important to you, I think your name is wonderful.