3 ms·

that would be very interesting, especially if you can factor in non-alphabet based names, such as ones from Asia, and find that there is a universal pattern. P

by pcurve 13y ago

that would be very interesting, especially if you can factor in non-alphabet based names, such as ones from Asia, and find that there is a universal pattern. Popular Chinese names: http://www.chinawhisper.com/top-50-most-common-chinese-names/ http://www.chinawhisper.com/top-50-most-common-chinese-names... Popular Japanese names: http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa050601a.htm http://japanese.about.com/library/weekly/aa050601a.htm

thaumasiotes 13y ago
Your chinese names link is inexplicably ranking entire names (look at #s 5, 6, and 8, the girl's name is 秀英 xiuying in every case; 王, 李, and 张 just happen to all be incredibly common family names. 丽 li also occurs in the list with each of those, although it does seem to be much less common for girls with the surname 李 [also pronounced li]. Or notice how the top four male names are all 伟.). But I'm pretty sure no one is interested in which names occur how often with which surnames -- would you be interested in studying the breakdown of "Lisa" among people variously surnamed Black, Smith, Jones, etc? The chinese names link does accurately indicate that a chinese girl's name is usually distinguishable by the meaning; things like "beautiful", "graceful", "quiet", "compliant", and so on are popular. I would guess phonetic considerations are a distant second (though, as illustrated by the anomalous unpopularity of 李丽, they clearly do come into it).
- pcurve 13y ago
  Thanks for the clarification. Reading through the list of just first names, the only phonetic pattern that sticks out is that there aren't any female names that start with K. But otherwise I would agree, I doubt most non-Chinese would be able to differentiate Chinese names by gender. www.ourbabynames.co.uk/chineseboys.php www.ourbabynames.co.uk/chinesegirls.php

by pcurve 13y ago

thaumasiotes 13y ago

Your chinese names link is inexplicably ranking entire names (look at #s 5, 6, and 8, the girl's name is 秀英 xiuying in every case; 王, 李, and 张 just happen to all be incredibly common family names. 丽 li also occurs in the list with each of those, although it does seem to be much less common for girls with the surname 李 [also pronounced li]. Or notice how the top four male names are all 伟.). But I'm pretty sure no one is interested in which names occur how often with which surnames -- would you be interested in studying the breakdown of "Lisa" among people variously surnamed Black, Smith, Jones, etc? The chinese names link does accurately indicate that a chinese girl's name is usually distinguishable by the meaning; things like "beautiful", "graceful", "quiet", "compliant", and so on are popular. I would guess phonetic considerations are a distant second (though, as illustrated by the anomalous unpopularity of 李丽, they clearly do come into it).

pcurve 13y ago
Thanks for the clarification. Reading through the list of just first names, the only phonetic pattern that sticks out is that there aren't any female names that start with K. But otherwise I would agree, I doubt most non-Chinese would be able to differentiate Chinese names by gender. www.ourbabynames.co.uk/chineseboys.php www.ourbabynames.co.uk/chinesegirls.php