Check Name
Name Health Check
Check a Chinese name for homophones, age, gender, surname and tone before you use it.
What we check
Five things every Chinese name should pass
The check reads the name as a whole: the characters, the sounds, the surname, and the way the tones sit together. It is deliberately conservative; it flags what a native speaker might notice.
Compared against unpleasant words and near-homophones, ignoring tones and checking adjacent syllables.
Flags characters that can make a name read like an older generation.
Compares the given name with common masculine and feminine character sets.
Checks the surname against the 100 most common Chinese surnames.
Checks for flat all-same tones and awkward adjacent third tones.
Why a name needs a check
A name can be grammatically correct and still sound like an unfortunate word, read as the wrong gender, or feel dated. Those problems are hard to see from the characters alone, especially if Chinese is not your first language.
The check surfaces the risks before you use the name on a business card, a passport form, or a tattoo. It also gives you the language to ask a native speaker a more useful question than “does this sound okay?”
A useful first pass, not a final verdict. The check is a rule-based screen. Names live in families, regions, and relationships; a native speaker can still catch context the rules miss. Use it as a starting point, then ask someone you trust.