威廉
Wēi Lián · tones 1-2
Meaning: dignity + honest/upright
Character breakdown
Each character in 威廉 on its own — radical, stroke count, and core meaning.
- 威wēi
- Radical
- 女
- Strokes
- 9
- Meaning
- might, power
- 廉lián
- Radical
- 广
- Strokes
- 13
- Meaning
- upright, cheap
How it sounds
Tone pattern 1-2 (high-level + rising).
High-level then rising. Opens bright and lifts upward — energetic and optimistic sound.
Style: transliteration-standard
A standard phonetic match for the English name (used in Chinese Bibles, news translations, official documents). Useful when you want clear English-to-Chinese identifiability.
Pairing with a surname
2-character given name
Standard structure for modern Chinese names. Pairs naturally with most common single-character surnames (王, 李, 张, 陈, 刘) for a 3-character full name. Soft sound profile complements stronger common surnames well. Always read the full name aloud with your surname before finalizing to check for accidental homophones.