Shampoo style names
Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2008 12:22 pm
I noticed that fanfics often use phonetically impossible names for Chinese characters like Hairspray or Conditioner. I think one reason for that is that people don't quite understand how the names that double as English puns work. All of them are at least somewhat plausible Chinese names, and the trick is that the katakana spelling of those Chinese names just happens to be identical to the katakana spelling of an English word.
The second character of Cologne's name looks different in Chinese (崙) and Japanese (崘) and the manga uses the Japanese variant. Plum, Saffron, Masala and Korma appear to be surname + given name (which would mean that the Guide is Mr Pu) the other names seem to be just the given name.
Here are a couple similar more or less plausible pun names:
Several of the character combinations I chose are pretty silly (I doubt anyone is going to use the actual Chinese characters so I had some fun. Well, feel free to use them if you want...), but for each of those puns there are hundreds of possible character combinations so there should exist a couple of superficially dignified names for each of those.
The rules of thumb are that the English word should not include any consonant clusters (if absolutely necessary add a syllable, see Saffron and Korma), a syllable should not end with a consonant other than n or ng (otherwise add a syllable, see Mint, Herb, Plum) and the resulting name should have either two or three syllables, with the first syllable being a possible Chinese surname if it's three syllables.
Please feel free to repost this elsewhere.
- Code: Select all
Chinese pinyin katakana (transc.) pun
珊璞 Shānpú シャンプー (shanpuu) shampoo
沐絲 Mùsī ムース (muusu) mousse
可崙/崘 Kělún コロン (koron) cologne
来睦 Láimù ライム (raimu) lime
敏杜 Mǐndù ミント (minto) mint
哈峬 Hābū ハーブ (haabu) herb
落珠 Luòzhū ルージュ (ruuju) rouge
蒲 蘭慕 Pú Lánmù プラム (puramu) plum
紀瑪 Jìmǎ キーマ (kiima) kheema (kind of curry)
馬颯拉 Mǎ Sàlā マサラ (masara) masala (Indian spice mix)
柯爾瑪 Kē Érmǎ コルマ (koruma) korma (curry dish)
薩夫郎 Sà Fūláng サフラン (safuran) saffron
The second character of Cologne's name looks different in Chinese (崙) and Japanese (崘) and the manga uses the Japanese variant. Plum, Saffron, Masala and Korma appear to be surname + given name (which would mean that the Guide is Mr Pu) the other names seem to be just the given name.
Here are a couple similar more or less plausible pun names:
- Code: Select all
Chinese pinyin katakana (transc.) pun
鎪璞 Sōupú ソープ (soopu) soap
摟匈 Lǒuxiōng ローション (looshon) lotion
耙畝 Pàmǔ ボーム (baamu) balm
纖德 Xiāndé セント (sento) scent
臺目 Táimù タイム (taimu) thyme
塏園 Kǎiyuán カイエン (kaien) cayenne
窟黽 Kūmǐn クミン (kumin) cumin
赤璃 Chìlí チリー (chirii) chili
玭玡 Píyà ペアー (peaa) pear
愜莉 Qièlì チェリー (Cherii) cherry
Several of the character combinations I chose are pretty silly (I doubt anyone is going to use the actual Chinese characters so I had some fun. Well, feel free to use them if you want...), but for each of those puns there are hundreds of possible character combinations so there should exist a couple of superficially dignified names for each of those.
The rules of thumb are that the English word should not include any consonant clusters (if absolutely necessary add a syllable, see Saffron and Korma), a syllable should not end with a consonant other than n or ng (otherwise add a syllable, see Mint, Herb, Plum) and the resulting name should have either two or three syllables, with the first syllable being a possible Chinese surname if it's three syllables.
Please feel free to repost this elsewhere.