Why Western Celebrity Names Sound So Weird in Chinese

Donald Trump in Chinese is WHAT?!? 唐纳德·特朗普 (Tángnàdé Tèlǎngpǔ) What? 阿诺德·施瓦辛格 (Ānuòdé Shīwǎxīngé) Huh? 莱昂纳多·迪卡普里奥 (Láiángnàduō Díkǎpǔlì'ào) WHAT IS GOING ON?!? Why are Chinese names for Westerners so weird? Hey, everyone! It’s Jared Madsen here with Learn Chinese Now. So if you haven’t been living in a cave, you probably know there’s this guy named Donald Trump who’s been in the news lately. So let’s say you’re chatting with your Chinese friends, and the news comes up. How do you say Trump in Chinese? And what if you want to talk about other politicians, celebrities, and athletes? Do you just say their names English-style? Or do you make something up in Chinese? Or is there a standard Chinese name? Well, we’re going to lay it all out for you today. But before we do, if you like this channel and the stuff we’re covering, give us a nice little like and subscribe, would you? So there’s an official Chinese name for Donald Trump, and here it is: 唐纳德·特朗普 (Tángnàdé Tèlǎngpǔ) Wait, wait, wait. Let me say that again. 唐纳德·特朗普 (Tángnàdé Tèlǎngpǔ) Whaaat? That doesn’t sound anything like the original! OK, to get this, you have to understand that Chinese is actually in some ways a really limited language. You see, English has something around 15,000 syllables. “Trunk” is a syllable. “Foot” is a syllable. “Be” is a syllable. But Chinese only has about 1,300 syllables. So less than one-tenth. What does that mean? Well, let me give you an example. Chinese doesn’t have complex consonant clusters. So the “str” in strength — Chinese doesn’t have it. The “gth” in strength — Chinese also doesn’t have it. Chinese words are pretty much all consonant-vowel, like dū or mǎ, or maybe they have an “n” or “ng” at the end, like dūn or máng. And that’s it. Now, you might say, doesn’t that make Chinese kind of a crappy language? No it doesn’t! Because Chinese has a million different homophones, so the same sound can sometimes mean dozens of different things depending on context. So Chinese is great for rhyming, puns, poetry, and all sorts of other cool stuff. Alright, so let’s get back to the name Donald Trump. So the “ald” in Donald and the “ump” are impossible in Chinese. So to approximate “nald” we use 纳德 (nàdé), and instead of “ump,” we use 普 (pǔ). And because Chinese doesn’t have the “tr” in Trump, you have to start the word with 特朗 (Tèlǎng). Here’s another example: Bill Clinton. 比尔·克林顿 (Bǐ’ěr Kèlíndùn) Chinese can’t end words with an “l,” so Bill is Bǐ’ěr. And Chinese can’t start words with “Cl,” so “Clin” is Kèlín. But here’s another question. Why does the word for Donald start with a T, 唐 (Tángnàdé)? Why not say 当 (Dāngnàdé)? Remember I mentioned that there’s a million different meanings for each sound in Chinese. So you really want to avoid any sounds that might have a bad meaning, and try to use sounds that might have good meanings. 唐 (Táng) sounds like “Tang Dynasty,” so it has a broad, powerful appeal. Whereas 当 (Dāng) sounds like 麦当劳 (Màidāngláo / McDonald’s), which is maybe a little low-class. Although maybe Trump doesn’t mind. Here’s another example. The easiest translation of Disney would be 迪死尼 (Dísǐní), but the middle character means “die,” so that’s not going to work. So the official translation of Disney is 迪士尼 (Díshìní), even though it doesn’t sound quite as close. The Elon Musk translation is interesting. They call him 马斯克 (Mǎsīkè), because 马 (mǎ) means horse. And so for a guy creating electric cars with insane horsepower, this name fits right in. So if you’re a Western company or celebrity going to China, you gotta make sure that you have a good Chinese name. When Coca-Cola went to China back in 1978, they didn’t put any Chinese on their bottles. The problem was at the time, no one could really read English. So shopkeepers would make up their own Chinese translations to sell the bottles. And these were ridiculous translations. One of them was 蝌蚪啃蜡 (Kēdǒu Kěnlà), which means “tadpoles gnawing on wax.” Maybe not so great for branding. So Coca-Cola decided to take over, and put four Chinese characters on their bottles: 可口可乐 (Kěkǒu Kělè), which means something like “it tastes good and it makes you happy.” So yeah: significantly better. So does everyone have to come up with a good name in Chinese for themselves when they go to China, or does someone do it for them? So nowadays it’s pretty much all done officially, especially for politicians and the like. Basically, the Chinese and Taiwanese governments come up with a standard translation of people’s names that they require all media organizations to use. There’s even a giant dictionary called the 世界人名翻译大辞典 (Shìjiè Rénmíng Fānyì Dà Cídiǎn), which is called the Great Dictionary for Translating Names of People from Around the World. But China and Taiwan actually don’t see eye to eye on a lot of these translations. When George W. Bush was president, China called him 布什 (Bùshí) and Taiwan called him 布希 (Bùxī). When Bill Clinton was in office, China called him 克林顿 (Kèlíndùn) and Taiwan called him 柯林頓 (Kēlíndùn). So they’re not completely different, but you can still tell a difference when you hear them. OK, so the official name for Donald Trump is 唐纳德·特朗普 (Tángnàdé Tèlǎngpǔ). Do you have to spell out all six syllables each time? No. Fortunately, pretty much everyone famous has a nickname because their full Chinese names are too long. For Trump, most people call him 川普 (Chuānpǔ), which is a cute little nickname. There are a bunch of other funny examples. The soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo’s Chinese name is 克里斯蒂亚诺·罗纳尔多 (Kèlǐsīdìyànuò Luónà'ěrduō). Yeah, try saying that five times fast. So people just call him C罗 (C-Luó). The actor Benedict Cumberbatch is 本尼迪克特·康伯巴奇 (Běnnídíkètè Kāngbóbāqí). So people just call him 卷福 (Juǎnfú), which means “curly blessing.” So if you really want to talk news, talk celebrities, learn their nicknames, and save yourself a lot of effort! So there you go, folks. Now you know that Chinese translations of English names sound nothing like the original, you know why they sound nothing like the original, you know who comes up with the names, and you know that there’s probably an easier nickname out there. Are there any crazy names for people or places you’d like us to talk about? Let us know in the comments! Until next time, Zai Jian. If you enjoy the deeper meaning behind Chinese culture, folklore, legends, and strange true stories, then come explore more with me on Jared Tells Tales, where mystery, meaning, and the otherworldly still live on. Click the link to watch your first tale.