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ArchivesMy guess is it is Wen Na
in reply to a message by BSchoer10
Wen means culture, and is used in Chinese names (like Meiwen) for instance.
I've also read that Na means "graceful", but I'm not sure of that.
Of course, Cantonese and Mandarin are different but some words may be the same.
"You sought a flower and found a fruit. You sought a spring and found a sea. You sought a woman and found a soul. You are disappointed."
"It does not become me to make myself smaller than I am." (Edith Södergran 1891-1923)
I've also read that Na means "graceful", but I'm not sure of that.
Of course, Cantonese and Mandarin are different but some words may be the same.
"You sought a flower and found a fruit. You sought a spring and found a sea. You sought a woman and found a soul. You are disappointed."
"It does not become me to make myself smaller than I am." (Edith Södergran 1891-1923)
1
Replies
I invite you to play around a little with a Chinese dictionary, e.g. the one at:
http://www.mandarintools.com/chardict_u8.html
If you enter "wen" in the box for "Pinyin lookup" and then click the button "Search by Pinyin" the large number of results will quickly tell you that a statement like "wen means culture" is not wrong, but certainly misleading as "wen" can mean culture and about two dozen other things. (Maybe, as a speaker of English and seeing this, one immediately asks oneself how such a language can work at all!)
What is interesting: The Cantonese lookup for "wen" does not give any results. Of course this could have all kinds of reasons, among them: incomplete dictionary, wrong Romanization of the name in question, or the mother of the poster being Cantonese but carrying a Mandarin middle name after all.
As a already said in my first posting: This exercise, given only the information "Wenna, Chinese", is quite futile.
Rene www.AboutNames.ch
http://www.mandarintools.com/chardict_u8.html
If you enter "wen" in the box for "Pinyin lookup" and then click the button "Search by Pinyin" the large number of results will quickly tell you that a statement like "wen means culture" is not wrong, but certainly misleading as "wen" can mean culture and about two dozen other things. (Maybe, as a speaker of English and seeing this, one immediately asks oneself how such a language can work at all!)
What is interesting: The Cantonese lookup for "wen" does not give any results. Of course this could have all kinds of reasons, among them: incomplete dictionary, wrong Romanization of the name in question, or the mother of the poster being Cantonese but carrying a Mandarin middle name after all.
As a already said in my first posting: This exercise, given only the information "Wenna, Chinese", is quite futile.
Rene www.AboutNames.ch
This message was edited 10/27/2005, 4:34 AM
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Yes, but not all words are good names
For a word to be part of a name, it must have a good meaning. And "wen" is such a word. I doubt that "question", "behead" or "plague" would be a good word in a name.
Of course, without knowing the Chinese characters, one can not really know. It is just a speculation built on Chinese names I know of.
But seeing this page, I think I would guess "stable, firm" since the Cantonese word is the somewhat similar "wan". I also see that the pinyin "na", which means "graceful, elegant", is "no" in Cantonese.
"You sought a flower and found a fruit. You sought a spring and found a sea. You sought a woman and found a soul. You are disappointed."
"It does not become me to make myself smaller than I am." (Edith Södergran 1891-1923)
For a word to be part of a name, it must have a good meaning. And "wen" is such a word. I doubt that "question", "behead" or "plague" would be a good word in a name.
Of course, without knowing the Chinese characters, one can not really know. It is just a speculation built on Chinese names I know of.
But seeing this page, I think I would guess "stable, firm" since the Cantonese word is the somewhat similar "wan". I also see that the pinyin "na", which means "graceful, elegant", is "no" in Cantonese.
"You sought a flower and found a fruit. You sought a spring and found a sea. You sought a woman and found a soul. You are disappointed."
"It does not become me to make myself smaller than I am." (Edith Södergran 1891-1923)
1