Type your name below and find out how to write and say it in Mandarin Chinese. This free tool covers 39,000 English names, each with the standard Chinese character translation, pinyin with tone marks, and a real human audio recording — the same transliterations used in Chinese newspapers, TV and official documents.
Chinese has no alphabet, so foreign names are rendered with characters chosen for their sound — for example Aaron becomes 亚伦 (Yàlún) and Emily becomes 艾米丽 (Àimǐlì). Whenever possible the characters also carry a pleasant meaning, which is why certain characters appear again and again in girls' names (丽 beautiful, 娜 graceful) or boys' names (伦 logical, 德 virtue).
Learning the system behind these transliterations is a great first step into Mandarin. Start with the Chinese Pinyin Initials and Finals, then browse the full Pinyin Syllabary — every sound you just heard in your name is one of only about 400 syllables in the entire language.