The Chinese 5 elements sounds are listed in many books as below:

words beginning with (pinyin sound) g or k

d, j, l, n, t or z

a, w, y, e or o

c, q, r, s, x or z

b, f, h, m or p

I have researched into Chinese sounds according to the 5 elements. The first place I looked into was the Chinese ancient text. The oldest classic mentioning Chinese 5 elements sounds is The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine.

Everything in the universe is divided into 5 elements. Even sounds. Naturally, we have to refer to what is mentioned in the classic text.

Yellow Emperor's classic categorized sounds differently from today's modern books. If that's the case, the categorization of sounds in today's books may be wrong. The 5 elements concept is a very complete system. It was developed in the ancient times categorizing everything in the universe according to these 5 elements. And of course the fundamental yin and yang concept.

What is written in the Yellow Emperor's classic of medicine? How do we categorized the Chinese 5 elements sounds?

The Yellow Emperor's classic text categorized sounds by how they are pronounced.

The sounds according to the 5 elements are:

Wood 木 sound is（角）jiao.

Fire 火 sound is（徵）zheng.

Earth 土 sound is（宫）gong.

Metal 金 sound is（商）shang.

Water 水 sound is（羽）yu.

By analyzing further, we can notice -

Wood sound is uttered with the tongue behind the front teeth: j, q and x.

Fire sound is uttered with moving the tongue: d, t, n and l.

Earth sound is produced by the throat: g, k and h.

Metal sound is through biting the upper and lower teeth: z, c, s, zh, ch, sh and r.

Water sound is uttered through the lips: b, p, m and f. Also y, e, o and a.

You can see the ancient categorization of sounds are closer to Chinese Zhuyin alphabets:

As I said. The sounds categorization according to Yellow Emperor classic is different from the ones listed above. The Yellow Emperor's classic is the most important canon for Chinese medicine knowledge. It is the book that you must read to understand Chinese medicine before any other book.

Sound is one part of Chinese name selection. There are other parts such as meaning, the written characters and the number of strokes. A well chosen name will have all the synergies of sound, meaning, characters and number of strokes. Name selection is not an easy task. Selecting the wrong name will have a lifelong effect on the person. Choose well.

See selecting great Chinese name.