About My Chinese Name

• Ma, the first character, is the surname. It means "horse." Ma is a very common surname.
• The last two characters together form the given name - Wenhui.
• Wen means "writing," "language," or "culture."
• Hui derives its meaning from its parts. The top part is a pictograph of a broom and means "well kept." The bottom part is the character Xin which means "heart" or "mind." The character in its entirety means "intelligent."
• The marks above Ma Wenhui show the tone with which the characters should be pronounced. Tone is a very important part of meaning. For example, the character Ma in my name should be pronounced with a tone that starts low and falls lower before rising again. If it is pronounced with a tone that just rises without falling first you will be saying "hemp" instead of "horse".
• Writing the characters is not simple. Each stroke must be done from the correct direction and in a specific order.

Chinese writing is fascinating. For more information about Chinese characters, visit this topic on Wikipedia.
For more about me and China, visit Jeanne's China Adventures.