Naming Chinese characters...Great Strength, No Strength, etc

[Guest]

In a wuxia story I'm working on, I'd like to have a character's name change from Great [Strength] to No [Strength].

("Strength" could be anything. The idea is that his name changes from one exemplifying a characteristic to one totally lacking in that same characteristic. I don't just want it to change from "Brave" to "Coward" or "Smart" to "Stupid", but from Great Courage to No Courage or Great Intelligence to No Intelligence. Is that even possible, or do I need a pun that isn't a real name?)

In chapter 16 of Journey to the West, two monks are introduced as Big Plan and Great Wisdom. They conspire to steal the scriptures and get caught. Then on page 344 there's a line of poetry that reads: "Big Plan, Great Wisdom, of what use are they?"

There are other examples in Louis Cha novels and many Hong Kong movies. I love those naming conventions and would like to emulate them, but I'm looking at only English language translations. I don't know any of the characters' Chinese names.

I could just give the English "translation" of the name without mentioning the character's actual name, but that seems kind of cheap. There's a real potential of it degrading into, like, Indian names. "Fearsome Coyote" and "Sitting Bull"...it could become like a bad joke about Chinese names.

I've found websites that claim to give the meanings of Chinese first names, but I don't know if they're reliable.

For example:
http://www.20000-names.com/male_chinese_names.htm

Is that website nonsense?

Or this one:
http://www.behindthename.com/nmc/chi.php

WEI m Chinese
Means "great" or "strength" in Chinese.

Is that right?

And what about surnames? Where do I find surnames that are equivalent to various concepts? (Assuming surnames convey meaning.)

Also, what about the structure of names?

Would my character name be "[Strength] Wei" and change to "[Strength] [No]", with the "middle" name left out?

Or should the character have two given names (like "Chiu-Wei" or "Yun-Fat") that combine to form the intended meaning, and then the surname is just "extra" or left out?

Or should all three names combined form the intended meaning?

I need a complete guide to naming Chinese characters for writers.

If there's nothing like that out there, though, or if nobody's aware of anything like it, I could use help with a few specific name words.

Given Names:
Great
No (or "lacking in [surname]")
Feminine
Masculine

Surnames:
Strength
Memory
Femininity
Master (or expert)

Thanks for reading all this. I look forward to your response.[/quote]

[verve]

Hi,I am chinese.My name is Zhang Yong.

Zhang is the surname,it means open. And Yong is given name,it means brave.Cool? ar-ha

So,you can see,I only have two names.

Infact, all chinese people don't have the middle name.

Some people have 3 or more characters in there names.

1) 2 characters in there given name.It's ordinary. Just like 润发 Yun-fat(Chow),子怡 Zi-yi(Zhang).Every character have its own meaning.
Use 2 or 3 characters,that just basic on fancy of our parents.Even then,you can use 4 characters if you like, but it's not common.

2)Re-surname. Usually,chinese people only have one character in there surname.
But some chinese people's surnames are uncommon.There are 2 characters in their surnames.(Only 81 re-surnames are still using now)
e.g. 诸葛 Zhu-ge 欧阳 Ou-yang

[verve]

There is no special meaning in chinese's surname.Or, we don't care about it.

we care about the meaning of given name.And every chinese characters could be use in a given names,because every chinese characters have its own meaning. You can ues one or two characters.

e.g. 1) Bruce Lee, his chinese name is 李小龙(Li Xiao-long).Here, Li is his surname,xiao-long is the given name.And xiao means small,long means dragon.
2) Yao Ming.Yao is surnames.Ming is given name, and it means (1). next (2). clear (3). bright (4). to understand.One chinese characters maybe have many meanings.
Li and Yao also have its own meanings. But we dont't care about it.Because that's the thing we can't change.

I hope all i've said are uesful.

Any other question,you can write to me
verve1219@yahoo.com