Our service team comprises professors of Chinese from top-tier Chinese universities — Zhejiang University, Nankai University and Fudan University — alongside seasoned media professionals. Having helped numerous Chinese entrepreneurs and corporations devise Chinese names, we have conducted extensive case studies and summarized the following principles for creating Chinese names for businesses or individuals:
A. Chinese audiences notice English names and are capable of pronouncing them
For an English brand name like Moose Knuckles, most Chinese people will largely tune it out. It is therefore pointless to adopt an awkward, hard-to-pronounce Chinese rendering such as 慕瑟纳可. A better approach is to draw creative elements from the brand's scissors logo for name creation, or simply use a direct transliteration like 摩斯纳克斯 to guide people's attention to the original English name.
B. The pronunciation of the Chinese name precisely matches the syllables of the English name, allowing Chinese people to perceive the connection between the two
Brands including Carrefour (家乐福) and Head & Shoulders (海飞丝) were mistaken for local brands by the vast majority of Chinese consumers in an era of poor information transparency. Today, even for a brand like Clinique (倩碧), whose Chinese name bears no connection to its English counterpart at all, people can easily learn of its American origin.
C. The character selection and word formation of the Chinese name are precise, ingenious and coherent, guiding people's understanding of newly coined terms
Names such as Coca-Cola (可口可乐), Pampers (帮宝适) and Revlon (露华浓) are widely praised not only for echoing the phonetic features of their English names, but more importantly for the thoughtful selection and combination of Chinese characters. 可口可乐 evokes a delicious beverage that brings joy; 帮宝适 conveys the idea of helping babies stay comfortable; 露华浓，derived from a famous verse by poet Li Shangyin, conjures up a hazy yet stunning oriental beauty.