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linghxr · 2 years ago

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Analyzing Chinese Names: Syllables & Tones

It’s been a while since my last post about Chinese names. In one previous post, I wrote that I wanted to explore tones and syllable structure in Chinese names. And now here we are. I ended up shifting my focus a bit throughout the process, but I’m still excited to be sharing my results.

These questions/ideas guided this post:

Sometimes you don’t know how a name is written because you’ve only heard it or seen a transliteration. Setting aside the written language (Chinese characters), what syllables/sounds are most common?

I have read about naming conventions regarding tones. For example, using a mix of tones (instead of reusing the same tone) gives names a dynamic flow. So how are tones distributed in names?

Buckle up, everyone. This is gonna be a long one.

About the Data

I started with the data from my previous in-depth post about Chinese names. Like before, most names are from contestants on idol shows or members of idol groups. I added more names in this category and also some names of athletes (since for athletes it is also relatively easy to discern gender). In total, there were 4361 names (2340 female, 2021 male). Most names belong to individuals from Mainland China, but there are also names belonging to people from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Singapore. See my past post for more details.

I had to do a lot of work to process the name data for this analysis. I will add some details towards the end of this post for those who are interested. I just want to note here that:

I did some work to account for tone sandhi for yi 一. As a result, you may see this character labeled as 1st, 2nd, or 4th tone.

I also applied tone change rules when there were multiple 3rd tones in a row (but not for surnames as it shouldn’t change there).

I had to correct for duoyinzi 多音字. Most of the time, it’s pretty clear which pronunciation is used, but there are some ambiguous cases.

I use standard Mainland pronunciation, not Taiwanese pronunciation. Characters like 薇 are pronounced differently in these locations.

I’m an imperfect human and probably didn’t catch everything. So keep that in mind.

Given Names (Overall)

First we will examine the overall results for all syllables across all given names to get a nice overview. Then we will dive into single-character given names vs. two-character given names.

Top Given Name Syllables (w/ Tones)

Pictured: Some of the most frequent characters for the top 11 syllables.

List format: Syllable / count Corresponding characters that occurred more than once

Yǔ / 263 宇雨羽语予禹瑀

Xīn / 229 欣鑫馨心昕新歆芯薪

Jiā / 216 佳嘉家加珈

Yì / 201 一艺奕逸亦毅懿翊义易翼忆意译轶熠羿亿薏

Zǐ / 139 子梓紫

Qí / 134 琪琦奇祺麒淇齐棋其岐崎

Wén / 116 文雯闻纹

Jié / 112 杰洁婕捷颉倢

Yù / 102 玉钰煜昱郁裕喻谕毓育誉

Jùn / 99 俊峻珺骏浚竣

Yáng / 99 洋阳扬杨炀旸

Top Given Name Syllables (w/o Tones)

List format: Syllable / count Corresponding characters that occurred more than once

Yu / 419 宇雨玉羽钰语瑜予妤煜禹昱郁俞渝裕于喻瑀谕余娱愚毓育誉

Yi / 356 一怡艺奕仪依逸亦伊毅宜懿翊义祎易翼苡忆意译轶颐乙以熠羿亿倚薏

Xin / 232 欣鑫馨心昕新歆芯薪信

Jia / 217 佳嘉家加珈

Jun / 165 俊君峻钧军珺均骏浚竣

Zi / 157 子梓紫姿兹

Qi / 151 琪琦奇祺绮麒启淇齐棋其岐崎

Hao / 141 豪浩昊皓灏淏濠

Wei / 139 伟玮威维薇蔚微炜唯纬葳为崴巍𬀩苇韦

Xiao / 136 晓小笑筱孝潇篠箫肖

Given Name Syllable Tones

List format: Tone / count

2nd / 2729

1st / 1993

4th / 1885

3rd / 1167

Single-Character Given Names (单名)

There were 948 single-character names in total. That comes out to about 22% of all 4361 names.

Top Single-Character Given Names (w/ Tones)

List format: Syllable / count All corresponding characters

Xīn / 41 鑫欣昕馨新心锌

Yáng / 29 洋扬杨阳旸炀

Yǔ / 20 宇雨禹羽瑀语

Lì / 18 丽立莉俐栎栗

Yì / 18 艺奕逸忆易毅燚羿

Yuè / 18 悦玥越月粤跃

Jié / 17 洁杰倢婕捷颉

Hào / 16 浩昊淏灏

Jìng / 14 静婧靓* 竞靖

Qiàn / 14 倩茜**

*Can be pronounced jìng or liàng. I went with jìng. **Can be pronounced qiàn or xī. I went with qiàn.

Top Single-Character Given Names (w/o Tones)

List format: Syllable / count All corresponding characters

Xin / 41 鑫欣昕馨新心锌

Yu / 31 宇雨钰煜玉瑜禹羽昱渝瑀语

Yang / 29 洋扬杨阳旸炀

Yi / 23 艺奕怡逸一忆易毅燚祎羿

Wei / 22 伟威炜维蔚薇𬀩玮

Hao / 19 浩昊豪淏灏

Jing / 19 静晶婧靓* 璟竞菁靖

Li / 19 丽立莉俐李栎栗

Ying / 19 颖莹影滢赢瀛盈

Yue / 18 悦玥越月粤跃

*Can be pronounced jìng or liàng. I went with jìng.

Single-Character Name Tones

List format: Tone / count

2nd / 308

4th / 264

1st / 253

3rd / 123

Full Name Tone Patterns for Single-Character Given Names

Look at the darker “stripes” for the 2nd tone. The 3rd tone’s low popularity also stood out to me.

List format: Tone of surname, tone of given name / count

2nd, 2nd / 140

2nd, 1st / 127

2nd, 4th / 123

1st, 2nd / 80

1st, 4th / 73

1st, 1st / 68

2nd, 3rd / 52

4th, 2nd / 45

3rd, 2nd / 43

1st, 3rd / 39

3rd, 4th / 37

4th, 4th / 31

3rd, 1st / 29

4th, 1st / 29

4th, 3rd / 17

3rd, 3rd / 15

Two-Character Given Names (双名)

Now for two-character given names. There were 3413 total (about 78%). First I will look at these given names as a whole. Then I will separately examine the 1st syllable and 2nd syllable positions.

I was very interested to see the most common name going by sound and not characters. Living in the US, I often see transliterated Chinese names with no characters in sight. This effectively “merges” names that are distinct in Chinese. All I can do is guess what the characters (and thus tones) are.

Top Two-Character Given Names (w/ Tones)

Pictured: Character combinations that occurred more than once for the top 12 two-character given names.

List format: Given name / count All corresponding character combinations

Jiāxīn / 17 嘉欣佳欣佳薪佳鑫嘉新嘉歆嘉馨

Jiāyí / 12 佳怡嘉怡佳仪嘉仪家仪家怡

Xīnyǔ / 10 心雨新宇心语欣宇欣雨鑫宇馨予

Xīnyuè / 10 馨月心玥昕玥欣悦歆玥馨悦馨玥

Hàorán / 9 浩然皓然

Jùnjié / 9 俊杰俊洁

Chénxī / 8 晨曦晨熙晨晞晨晰晨溪

Jiāqí / 8 佳琦家齐佳琪嘉琪嘉祺嘉齐

Shānshān / 8 珊珊杉杉姗姗

Xīnyí / 8 心怡欣怡心仪鑫怡

Yìwén / 8 一文奕雯艺文译文逸文

Yǔqíng / 8 雨晴语晴宇晴雨情

Top Two-Character Given Names (w/o Tones)

List format: Given name / count All corresponding character combinations

Jiaxin / 17 嘉欣佳欣佳薪佳鑫嘉新嘉歆嘉馨

Jiayi / 16 佳怡嘉怡佳仪佳依加一嘉仪嘉艺嘉谊家仪家怡家毅

Xinyu / 15 心雨欣妤新宇心妤心玉心语欣宇欣雨鑫宇馨予

Junjie / 12 俊杰军杰俊洁钧杰

Xiaoyu / 12 小雨晓玉晓钰小钰晓宇晓瑜晓雨笑语

Yifan / 12 一凡艺凡一帆一幡一璠依凡屹繁怡凡薏帆

Xinyi / 10 心怡欣怡心仪欣佚鑫一鑫怡

Xinyue / 10 馨月心玥昕玥欣悦歆玥馨悦馨玥

Yuqing / 10 雨晴语晴宇庆宇晴钰清雨情

Two-Character Given Name Tones

The grey square is due to the 3rd tone tone change rule.

List format: Tone of given name 1st syllable, tone of given name 2nd syllable / count

4th, 2nd / 560

1st, 2nd / 421

3rd, 2nd / 373

2nd, 2nd / 304

4th, 1st / 282

3rd, 1st / 191

1st, 1st / 183

2nd, 1st / 177

1st, 4th / 169

2nd, 4th / 152

1st, 3rd / 134

2nd, 3rd / 130

4th, 4th / 121

3rd, 4th / 120

4th, 3rd / 96

Full Name Tone Patterns for Two-Character Given Names

Pictured: The top 10 full name tone patterns for two-character given names.

I found these results very interesting. As I mentioned earlier, I’ve read about how using certain sequences of tones creates a pleasant-sounding flow. I had some fun saying aloud names that fit these patterns and judging the dynamic ups-and-downs of how they flow.

List format: Tone of surname, tone of given name 1st syllable, tone of given name 2nd syllable / count

2nd, 4th, 2nd / 273

2nd, 1st, 2nd / 179

2nd, 3rd, 2nd / 179

2nd, 4th, 1st / 138

1st, 4th, 2nd / 135

2nd, 2nd, 2nd / 129

1st, 3rd, 2nd / 98

2nd, 3rd, 1st / 95

2nd, 1st, 4th / 92

1st, 1st, 2nd / 89

These are only the top 10 patterns. See the bottom of the post for the full list.

Two-Character Given Names: First Syllable

Top First Syllables for Two-Character Given Names (w/ Tones)

List format: Syllable / count Corresponding characters that occurred more than once

Jiā / 171 佳嘉家加珈

Yì / 138 一艺奕逸亦翊易义懿翼译亿忆毅羿薏轶

Zǐ / 123 子梓紫

Yǔ / 115 雨宇语羽禹予

Xīn / 95 欣心馨鑫新昕歆薪芯

Xiǎo / 79 晓小筱

Jùn / 69 俊峻珺竣骏

Sī / 63 思斯

Yù / 53 玉钰煜昱郁裕喻毓育誉

Mèng / 49 梦孟

Top First Syllables for Two-Character Given Names (w/o Tones)

List format: Syllable / count Corresponding characters that occurred more than once

Yi / 201 一艺奕怡依逸亦翊伊宜易苡义乙以懿翼译亿忆毅祎羿薏轶

Yu / 188 雨宇语玉钰羽禹煜俞昱郁于渝裕予喻毓瑜育誉

Jia / 171 佳嘉家加珈

Zi / 133 子梓紫姿

Xiao / 118 晓小笑孝潇筱

Xin / 98 欣心馨鑫新昕歆信薪芯

Jun / 84 俊峻君钧军珺竣骏

Jing / 67 静婧景敬靖晶京竞

Zhi / 61 智志芷之治知祉

Si / 60 思斯

First Syllable Tones for Two-Character Given Names

List format: Tone / count

4th / 1059

1st / 907

2nd / 763

3rd / 684

Two-Character Given Names: Second Syllable

Top Second Syllables for Two-Character Given Names (w/ Tones)

List format: Syllable / count Corresponding characters that occurred more than once

Yǔ / 128 宇雨羽予语瑀禹

Qí / 100 琪琦祺奇淇齐棋麒岐

Xīn / 93 欣鑫馨昕心新歆芯

Jié / 83 杰洁婕捷

Wén / 68 文雯

Yí / 63 怡仪宜颐

Lín / 61 霖琳林麟淋

Tíng / 61 婷廷庭

Yuán / 59 源元媛圆园缘原

Yáng / 58 阳洋扬杨炀

Top Second Syllables for Two-Character Given Names (w/o Tones)

List format: Syllable / count Corresponding characters that occurred more than once

Yu / 200 宇雨玉羽瑜妤予钰语昱煜谕郁余瑀禹

Yi / 132 怡仪一毅依艺逸亦伊宜懿颐义奕意祎熠翼轶

Qi / 105 琪琦祺奇淇绮齐棋麒岐

Xin / 93 欣鑫馨昕心新歆芯

Jie / 83 杰洁婕捷

Wei / 75 伟玮薇维威微炜蔚葳崴纬

Hao / 74 豪昊浩皓濠

Jun / 72 君俊钧峻军均珺骏

Wen / 68 文雯

Yuan / 68 源元媛圆远园渊缘原

Second Syllable Tones for Two-Character Given Names

List format: Tone / count

2nd / 1658

1st / 833

4th / 562

3rd / 360

Surnames

Because the majority of the population shares a relatively small number of surnames, I decided to only look at tones.

Surname Tones

List format: Tone / count

2nd / 2047

1st / 1072

3rd / 640

4th / 602

Just take a look at the top 20 surnames in China. Clearly, the 2nd tone is dominating. There’s only one 4th tone surname!

Data Processing

I segmented the names so each character was alone. I just did this in Google Sheets, because that’s where I store the names I’ve gathered. Then I exported the data in CSV format.

I discarded names longer than 3 characters—because these are less common, I decided not to address them to make things easier for myself.

I used the pinyin library for Python to obtain pinyin for each character. I used the numerical format (ie. “ni3��) so that I could easily obtain the syllable w/o tone, the syllable w/ tone, and the tone. I also utilized pandas and numpy. This was done in Google Colabs. I made the unfortunate mistake of not commenting my code, and I wrote it a while ago, so I now I have no idea what is going on (whoops).

Next I dumped this data into a tibble in R for the real analysis.

For as many 多音字 as I could identify, I had to check and potentially fix the pinyin transcription. For example, I had to make sure that 曾 was going to zeng1, not ceng2. Honestly, I’m sure I missed something, but this was so, so tedious. This is also the step where I accounted for the 3rd tone tone change and yi 一 tone change rules.

I used a Python script to convert the toneless pinyin to my own syllable notation system. This was tricky to figure out, but fortunately I was able to use some code I already had from a project I was involved in during college.

I added the syllable info to my giant tibble in R. Because everything was separated into surname, given name 1st character, and given name 2nd character, I also had to create some new columns to combine information to get information for whole given names and full names.

Then it was basically a lot of pipes. Here’s an example: names %>% filter(nchar(names$name) > 2) %>% group_by(given_struc) %>% summarise(count = n()) %>% arrange(desc(count)) %>% view()

Bonus Lists

There were some other things I was curious about but felt didn’t have a place in the main body of this post.

I wanted to see which syllables were represented by the most unique characters in my dataset. If the number of unique characters is high, that’s a sign that I would probably have trouble guessing which character someone’s name contains.

I was also curious about open vs. closed syllables and closed syllables ending in /n/ vs. /ŋ/. For instance, take a pair of names like Yixin and Xinyi or Xinling and Lingxin. These names consist of the same syllables in a different order. I wanted to know which order is more common.

Syllables with the Most Unique Characters (w/ Tones)

List format: Syllable / count All corresponding characters

Yì / 27 一艺奕逸亦毅懿翊义易翼忆意译轶熠羿亿薏佚佾埸屹异弋怿燚翌

Qí / 15 琪琦奇祺麒淇齐棋其岐崎圻祁祈骐

Yú / 14 瑜妤俞渝于余娱愚宇*** 愉榆舆雨*** 鱼

Yù / 14 玉钰煜昱郁裕喻谕毓育誉寓浴芋

Xīn / 12 欣鑫馨心昕新歆芯薪妡忻锌

Yuán / 12 源媛元园圆缘原嫄沅湲芫袁

Líng / 11 玲灵凌翎绫伶羚铃龄苓陵

Xī / 11 希熙曦溪晞惜熹 �� 浠晰西

Hóng / 9 宏红弘鸿泓虹洪闳汯

Lì / 9 丽莉立力俐利俪栎栗

Zhēn / 9 珍真臻蓁祯桢榛甄贞

***3rd tone character that is pronounced as 2nd tone due to appearing before another 3rd tone character.

Syllables with the Most Unique Characters (w/o Tones)

List format: Syllable / count All corresponding characters

Yi / 45 一怡艺奕仪依逸亦伊毅宜懿翊义祎易翼苡忆意译轶颐乙以熠羿亿倚薏佚佾埸壹夷屹异弋怿沂洢燚翌谊铱

Yu / 33 宇雨玉羽钰语瑜予妤煜禹昱郁俞渝裕于喻瑀谕余娱愚毓育誉寓愉榆浴舆芋鱼

Qi / 20 琪琦奇祺绮麒启淇齐棋其岐崎圻期柒栖祁祈骐

Wei / 20 伟玮威维薇蔚微炜唯纬葳为崴巍𬀩苇韦卫惟未

Yan / 19 妍言燕彦艳岩延谚嫣琰雁晏研颜砚衍严炎焱

Yuan / 16 源媛元远园圆渊缘原嫄愿沅湲芫苑袁

Xi / 16 希熙曦汐溪晞玺喜惜熹兮浠习晰禧西

Xiao / 15 小笑筱孝潇篠箫肖宵效枭校萧霄

Yun / 15 云芸韵昀赟允匀沄筠韫妘澐蕰蕴运

Zhen / 15 振珍真臻蓁祯震镇朕桢榛甄贞轸圳

Two-Character Given Name Syllable Structures

This is the top 10 out of 14 (the bottom 4 were very rare).

List format: Structure of given name 1st syllable, structure of given name 2nd syllable — example / count

Open, open — ex: Jiayi / 821

Open, closed-n — ex: Yijin / 701

Open, closed-ng — ex: Yijing / 468

Closed-n, open — ex: Jinyi / 450

Closed-ng, open — ex: Jingyi / 308

Closed-n, closed-n — ex: Jinyan / 206

Closed-ng, closed-n — ex: Jingyan / 157

Closed-n, closed-ng — ex: Jinyang / 141

Closed-ng, closed-ng — ex: Jingyang / 139

Open, closed-er — ex: Xue'er / 14

Full Name Syllable Structures for Two-Character Given Names

This is the top 29 out of 36 (the bottom 7 were very rare).

List format: Structure of surname syllable, structure of given name 1st syllable, structure of given name 2nd syllable — example / count

Open, open, open— ex: Li Jiayi / 370

Open, open, closed-n— ex: Li Yijin / 336

Closed-ng, open, open— ex: Wang Jiayi / 273

Open, open, closed-ng— ex: Li Yijing / 228

Open, closed-n, open— ex: Li Jinyi / 225

Closed-ng, open, closed-n— ex: Wang Yijin / 223

Closed-n, open, open— ex: Chen Jiayi / 178

Closed-ng, closed-n, open— ex: Wang Jinyi / 165

Open, closed-ng, open— ex: Li Jingyi / 151

Closed-ng, open, closed-ng— ex: Wang Yijing / 146

Closed-n, open, closed-n— ex: Chen Yijin / 142

Open, closed-n, closed-n— ex: Li Jinyan / 104

Closed-ng, closed-ng, open— ex: Wang Jingyi / 97

Closed-n, open, closed-ng— ex: Chen Yijing / 94

Open, closed-ng, closed-n— ex: Li Jingyan / 86

Open, closed-ng, closed-ng— ex: Li Jingyang / 75

Open, closed-n, closed-ng— ex: Li Jinyang / 66

Closed-ng, closed-n, closed-n— ex: Wang Jinyan / 62

Closed-n, closed-n, open— ex: Chen Jinyi / 60

Closed-n, closed-ng, open— ex: Chen Jingyi / 60

Closed-ng, closed-n, closed-ng— ex: Wang Jinyang / 45

Closed-ng, closed-ng, closed-ng— ex: Wang Jingyang / 45

Closed-ng, closed-ng, closed-n— ex: Wang Jingyan / 43

Closed-n, closed-n, closed-n— ex: Chen Jinyan / 40

Closed-n, closed-n, closed-ng— ex: Chen Jinyang / 30

Closed-n, closed-ng, closed-n— ex: Chen Jingyan / 28

Closed-n, closed-ng, closed-ng— ex: Chen Jingyang / 19

Open, open, closed-er— ex: Li Xue'er / 8

Closed-ng, open, closed-er— ex: Wang Xue'er / 4

Extended List(s)

Full Name Tone Patterns for Two-Character Given Names

2nd, 4th, 2nd / 273

2nd, 1st, 2nd / 179

2nd, 3rd, 2nd / 179

2nd, 4th, 1st / 138

1st, 4th, 2nd / 135

2nd, 2nd, 2nd / 129

1st, 3rd, 2nd / 98

2nd, 3rd, 1st / 95

2nd, 1st, 4th / 92

1st, 1st, 2nd / 89

2nd, 1st, 1st / 88

2nd, 2nd, 1st / 84

3rd, 1st, 2nd / 83

3rd, 4th, 2nd / 81

1st, 2nd, 2nd / 73

4th, 4th, 2nd / 71

4th, 1st, 2nd / 70

1st, 4th, 1st / 69

2nd, 3rd, 4th / 68

2nd, 2nd, 3rd / 64

2nd, 1st, 3rd / 59

3rd, 2nd, 2nd / 59

2nd, 2nd, 4th / 56

4th, 3rd, 2nd / 56

2nd, 4th, 4th / 54

2nd, 4th, 3rd / 47

1st, 2nd, 4th / 43

4th, 2nd, 2nd / 43

1st, 1st, 3rd / 42

4th, 4th, 1st / 42

1st, 3rd, 1st / 41

3rd, 3rd, 2nd / 40

1st, 1st, 1st / 35

1st, 2nd, 1st / 35

1st, 2nd, 3rd / 35

1st, 1st, 4th / 34

4th, 1st, 1st / 34

3rd, 4th, 1st / 33

1st, 4th, 4th / 31

3rd, 2nd, 1st / 30

1st, 3rd, 4th / 29

4th, 2nd, 1st / 28

4th, 3rd, 1st / 28

3rd, 2nd, 4th / 27

3rd, 3rd, 1st / 27

3rd, 1st, 1st / 26

4th, 2nd, 4th / 26

1st, 4th, 3rd / 23

3rd, 1st, 4th / 23

3rd, 2nd, 3rd / 21

3rd, 4th, 4th / 20

4th, 1st, 4th / 20

4th, 1st, 3rd / 19

3rd, 4th, 3rd / 18

4th, 4th, 4th / 16

3rd, 1st, 3rd / 14

3rd, 3rd, 4th / 14

4th, 2nd, 3rd / 10

4th, 3rd, 4th / 9

4th, 4th, 3rd / 8

If you made it to the end, I am seriously impressed by your dedication. Thanks for checking out my nerdy ramblings about Chinese names! Don’t forget to check out my past posts on this topic for more. I hope they will help demystify Chinese names and make learning about Chinese names less intimidating.

A Closer Look at Chinese Names

Reading Chinese Names: Female Names

Reading Chinese Names: Male Names

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