Beyond Transliteration
When traditional English names are rendered into Chinese, the approach is almost exclusively transliteration. For instance, "Tom" is transliterated as 汤姆，"John" as 约翰，and "Holland" as 赫兰德. Devoid of inherent semantic meaning in the Chinese language, such names struggle to foster cultural identification and resonance among Chinese people.
By contrast, a Chinese name with profound connotations is often steeped in allusions and famous lines from ancient Chinese classics, encapsulating one's family background, personal cultivation, birth details and beyond. A case in point is John King Fairbank, the prominent Harvard scholar. His Chinese name is 费正清，with each character corresponding to his surname, middle name and given name respectively: 费 echoes Fairbank, 正 aligns with King, and 清 matches John. The name carries a simple yet fine implication — true to its literal sense, it evokes the image of an upright and incorruptible person.
Frederick W. Mote, who formerly taught in the Department of East Asian Studies at Princeton University, adopted the Chinese name 牟复礼. The characters 复礼 are drawn from the celebrated line in The Analects of Confucius:
To subdue oneself and return to propriety is benevolence.
British actress Rosamund Pike goes by the Chinese name 裴淳华。裴 bears a close phonetic resemblance to her surname Pike; 淳 conveys the qualities of frankness and simplicity; 华 stands for China and also carries the meaning of "flower", which aligns with her original given name Rosamund — a name referring to the most beautiful rose in the world.
These Chinese names are not products of mere transliteration or conventional translation methods. They are genuinely well-crafted names that leave a deep and lasting impression on Chinese people.