Four principles of naming in Chinese:

1.  Characters denoting good meaning: fú (福) ‘luck auspicious’, cái (財) ‘wealth’, shòu (壽) ‘longvity’

Avoid characters with bad meaning :破 to destroy, 死 to die, 貧 poor


2. Elegant characters: bín (彬) ‘gentle and elegant’, kâi (凱) ‘joyful’, hùi 輝 ‘bright/wise’

Avoid chôu (醜) ‘ugly, disgraceful’, wai (歪) ‘aslant, crooked’

3. Characters with easy pronunciation and high volume in production
   
   
4. Characters with few strokes

 Different priority on different criteria may cause conflict: in Korean:

• Manpok (萬福), Poknam (福男), Samnyong (三龍), Yongphal (龍八), chilsôk (七石), chunsôk (春石): good meaning but not elegant
  
  
• Sun(h)i, Sunca, kyôngja: easy pronunciation but not elegant
  
  
• Malca (last-Child), Chongca (Following-Child), kkûn-nyôni (Last girl), Chunca (Spring one): not elegant but significant