# gender ambigous asian names **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 20, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873 "2010-12-20T20:40:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/21 "2010-12-21T18:16:34Z")
I think China has no real rules. Most Chinese names are a compound word with some kind of pleasant meaning. Sometimes these meanings can be pretty out-there…I had friends named “Little Square,” “Ten Thousand Books,” and “Sky Speak.” There are a few common names that you’d associate with a specific gender, but there are also lots of unique names essentially made up by the parents. Characters make things more complicated. You’d probably guess someone named “Stone Solider” is a man, but you couldn’t know for sure from the English translation because you wouldn’t know exactly what words the name refers to. Chinese has lots of homophones that can only be distinguished by looking at the character. It’s common when telling someone your name to mime out writing the characters. Without the characters, they really don’t know your name…if the meaning is not there it’s not really your name. This is why it’s pretty easy for Chinese people to take on English names- their Chinese names don’t really translate anyway without the characters. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/22 "2010-12-21T18:25:02Z")
Non-Sikh, non-Muslim Indian names ending in -a are typically female. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/23 "2010-12-21T18:29:48Z")
A huge number of Indian men have names that end in A when written in Latin characters. It’s not a good assumption to make. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/24 "2010-12-21T18:32:06Z")
I couldn’t think of any. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/25 "2010-12-21T18:38:43Z")
> [@Anaamika](#): > > Here’s a fun fact: most Sikh names are completely gender-neutral. That is, “Harjeet” or “Sukhwinder” can be male or female and I’ve seen it both ways. Fun for the whole family! Okay, I’ll bite: is there a reason for this? ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/26 "2010-12-21T18:41:57Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I couldn’t think of any. Ananda Apurbva Chandra Raja Soumitra Subrata Krishna Gautama Annada Rabindra I could go on ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/27 "2010-12-21T18:42:55Z")
Oh, I suppose I could think of some. I just, er… didn’t. _Mea culpa._ ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/28 "2010-12-21T18:47:13Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Okay, I’ll bite: is there a reason for this? In Sikh culture, women traditionally took the surname Kaur and men took the surname Singh (which is why there are so many Singhs), so the first name doesn’t need to be gender specific. Nowadays those are typically adopted as middle names instead, or not at all. The first names are mostly taken from Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/29 "2010-12-21T19:01:22Z")
And just to add to that – “singh” means “lion” and “kaur” means “lioness.” Most Panjabi names ending in -der can be converted into -dra names in other languages. E.g., Ravinder-Robindra. ---
**Author:** ![nani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58956e/32.png) [@nani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nani)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 10:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/30 "2010-12-22T10:03:11Z")
If you can read Chinese characters, there are clues that tell someone’s gender. For example, if you see this anywhere in someone’s name as part of a character: 女 then they are almost definitely a girl. That is the character for woman, nü. **Even sven** mentioned how certain traits that are more associated with a particular gender (like, usually men are not named for flowers) give clues also, but you really need the characters to even begin to guess, it is often difficult even for Chinese people to tell a name based on just hearing it. The way that Chinese people explain characters to each other when speaking is very interesting to me, and I’m sure **even sven** heard this sentence a lot: (X) (Y) 的 （Y） You want to explain to them which Y you mean. Since Y has many different meanings using similar pronunciations, you choose a common compound word that has the Y in it you want, that anyone would recognize. For example, if you had the character 美 （mei, which means beautiful and is usually found in girls’ names) then you could clarify it from all the other meis by saying 美丽 的 美 (mei li de mei) which means “the ‘mei’ from ‘mei li,’” a common Chinese compound word that means beautiful. When you say that, everyone will know what mei you are talking about, and be able to understand its connotations. Chinese parents tend to eschew choosing names based on sound or personal connections (like naming your son Reuben after that sandwich you had before you unexpectedly aced your first big job interview), instead favoring auspicious names that are tied to religious traditions. Therefore, the day your baby is born is very important for choosing a name, which must have the correct number of strokes and do appropriate justice to family traditions like generational names. This leads to the unique names sometimes, when the names that are cosmically suitable are limited for that baby. The meaning must also be appropriately nice, though not necessarily TOO nice, naming your daughter Xi Shi (西施, the name of one of the 4 legendary beauties of China) would be seen as presumptuous by lots of people. Although, I guess you could name her that if you foresaw her as having big feet. Lots of older people have names like “Great Revolution” stemming from Maoist times, that doesn’t happen much these days though. I’m trying to wrack my brain in thinking about which Chinese names, when read, are ambiguous about gender. I am sure I confronted that situation several times, but I can’t remember why the names confused my Chinese friends. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/31 "2010-12-22T10:57:38Z")
To echo ñañi , in older generations in Taiwan there are generally characters that are giveaways to girls’ names: 春 “spring,” 小 “little,” 鳳 “phoenix” and so on. When I suggested to my wife that we name our daughter a Chinese name with any of the above characters, she glared at me and said I was trying to give our little girl a trashy name. :shrug: Huh, go figure. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/32 "2010-12-22T11:39:39Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > In Spanish, most names which end in A are female and O are male. For example Rosario or its diminutive Charo? “Most”, yes, but it doesn’t always work. And while in Spain Rosario will usually be a woman, I’ve met guys from Peru and Mexico called Rosario (also a Pilar and a Carmen, both of which would have been woman’s names in Spain, both of which are (m) when not applied as a firstname, neither of which ends in either -a or -o). Any rules will always be language-by-language if not location-by-location, and almost-always a general rule with exceptions. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/33 "2010-12-22T14:32:09Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > To echo ñañi , in older generations in Taiwan there are generally characters that are giveaways to girls’ names: 春 “spring,” 小 “little,” 鳳 “phoenix” and so on. When I suggested to my wife that we name our daughter a Chinese name with any of the above characters, she glared at me and said I was trying to give our little girl a trashy name. :shrug: Huh, go figure. Isn’t 鳯 (feng) the male phoenix specifically? My dictionary says 凰 or 皇 (huáng) is the female phoenix. Is that wrong, or are girls just named for the male of the (legendary) species? ETA: I just noticed a subtle difference between your 鳳 and my 鳯; I don’t know if that’s hugely significant or a mild variant of style. It sucks to be ignorant. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/34 "2010-12-22T16:28:40Z")
Whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/35 "2010-12-22T16:34:24Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Whatever. 😕 If that’s a response to my post, I don’t understand. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/36 "2010-12-22T16:49:31Z")
Sorry, thought you might have been purposely pedantic for the sake of showing your mad dictionary skills. In any case, I don’t know, I’m just making my best approximation of the dozen or so women I know with name@ like “Mei-feng” and such. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/37 "2010-12-22T16:59:33Z")
> [@Koxinga](#): > > Sorry, thought you might have been purposely pedantic for the sake of showing your mad dictionary skills. In any case, I don’t know, I’m just making my best approximation of the dozen or so women I know with name@ like “Mei-feng” and such. Oh, gotcha. No mad skillz here. The only reason I had the phoenix characters to hand is that I made a note when I came across them. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/38 "2010-12-22T17:37:57Z")
Showing off your mad note-taking skills, then. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/39 "2010-12-22T17:48:50Z")
Struck me as a perfectly valid question and one I was interested in seeing the response to. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873/40 "2010-12-22T18:36:29Z")
> [@ñañi](#): > > Lots of older people have names like “Great Revolution” stemming from Maoist times, that doesn’t happen much these days though. I thought it was odd that my co-worker Daqing was named after [the largest oilfield in China](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daqing_Field). > [@nani](#): > > I’m trying to wrack my brain in thinking about which Chinese names, when read, are ambiguous about gender. I am sure I confronted that situation several times, but I can’t remember why the names confused my Chinese friends. My wife’s name is Nan (as in the Chinese character for “south”). From what I gather, that’s more feminine-sounding in English than it is in Chinese. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gender-ambigous-asian-names/564873.md?page=3)