Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.
For a dummies-guide pronunciation, "lee yoo hann" - Lee, like the name, yoo, like English "you" and han, like Han Solo. Steewi (talk) 23:07, 8 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Can the characters be literally translated, or are there some characters used in names whose literal meaning (if any) is Lost in the Mists of Time? —Tamfang (talk) 03:48, 9 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, Tamfang:
李: a traditional surname, but also "plum"
雨: "rain"
涵: "patience, restraint, retaining"
The combination 雨涵 does not appear in big dictionaries I have consulted, but we might speculate that the notions associated with the two components are somehow combined to suggest a composite meaning. A native speaker, please?
Newsflash from my correspondent in Beijing: no, no special meaning. But it is a beautiful name. Probably a girl's name; and 涵 is typical for girls, suggesting virtue and inner beauty. (I set aside the gender issues arising from this post-Maoist stance.)
Well, "雨" isn't exactly pronounced "you". Try saying "you", but not fully pronouncing the "u" part, and keeping your lips held back more. ~AH1(TCU)01:29, 10 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Wow, this is a pretty hard one. The thing with most Chinese words and names is, some are very easy to translate and some are not. This one, it's like "rain" and some other word I can't quite translate. Mine is 梁燁文 (Liang Yewen; literally "Glorious culture"). I know the last one means "patience" or "contain". I don't know what it is, but the only explanation I can cook up is like, "Patience through hard times" because they put "rain" in front of "patience".
Also, none of you have mentioned, Ms. Li is actually a Chinese (or Taiwanese) celebrity. I showed this to my parents and they said she's a singer/actress.