60 Chinese female names with meanings: girl names in pinyin, with the feel of each

Chinese girls' names are chosen character by character, not from a list, so a list can only show the kinds of names parents reach for. The sixty below are given names of one or two characters, all built from common characters that a Chinese parent could have chosen today. Put a surname in front (李安然, 王悦心) and each one is a complete name. Pinyin tone marks show the pronunciation; the surname is always said first.

A name for a woman usually leans on characters for grace, nature, light, jade and literature: 雅 (elegant), 涵 (to hold within), 萱 (daylily), 瑶 (jade), 诗 (poetry). The strong, sweeping characters that go into boys' names (浩, 伟, 杰) are rarer, though not forbidden.

Classical names

These come from, or sound as if they come from, the Shijing (Book of Songs), the Chu poems and the Song lyricists. They feel literary and a little old, in a good way.

Gentle and calm

Bright and joyful

Nature and jade

Jade (瑶, 琪, 瑾), trees (楠, 桐, 梓) and flowers (萱, 薇, 兰) are the oldest sources of girls' names; the daylily 萱 is "the flower that forgets sorrow" and stands for a mother.

Names that echo an English name

These are real given names that also carry the sound of a common English name, which is what most English speakers want when they take a Chinese name.

With a surname that echoes your family name, 王艾美 or 李露娜 is a full Chinese name that still sounds like you.

How to choose

Say the whole name aloud with the surname. The tones should vary (Wáng Àiměi rises, falls, dips) and no two syllables should rhyme awkwardly. Check that the two given-name characters do not form an everyday word. Then ask a Chinese speaker to read it cold; if they smile, you are done. Our generator applies these checks and proposes three names for yours, with the option to choose "for a woman".

Questions

Are these full names?

No, they are given names. A Chinese name is a surname plus a given name, so 安然 becomes 李安然 or 王安然. The surname is usually chosen to echo yours.

Which Chinese girl names are most popular now?

Names with 涵, 梓, 萱, 诗, 雨 and 欣 dominated birth registrations in the 2010s; 梓涵 and 诗涵 were among the most common given names of that decade according to the Ministry of Public Security's annual name reports. Classical names from the Book of Songs have come back into fashion in the 2020s.

Can a girl have a one-character given name?

Yes: 王菲, 李颖, 张敏. One-character names were commoner a generation ago and feel crisp and a little retro now.

Do these names work for a woman, not a girl?

Yes. Chinese given names are not age-marked; a woman of sixty may be 安然. "Girl names" is simply how English speakers search for them.

Names and characters in this guide follow the rules we use when proposing names: common simplified characters, a surname from the Hundred Family Surnames, no awkward homophones. Where a guide says a native speaker reviewed it, the review date is above.