To learn about Chinese writing, we first have to understand who speaks the language. History 101 class begins.

When someone says, "I am learning Chinese", chances are s/he is talking about the Mandarin language. Chinese language, according to Wikipedia: is a language family consisting of languages mutually intelligible to varying degrees.

In the Chinese language family, we have languages such as Mandarin, Cantonese and Min. There are many more. Some call these languages - dialects. But dialect is defined as a local variation of a language. However, some Cantonese speakers I know cannot understand Mandarin. And vice versa. For the sake of not debating the dialect/language definition, I will just call them Mandarin language or Cantonese language, and not Mandarin or Cantonese dialect.

The Mandarin language originated from northern China. Today, it is the official language of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC). Unknown to many, the Mandarin language was not always the official Chinese language. There are other languages spoken in the long span of Chinese history. Mandarin language was made compulsory in the PRC and ROC's educational system in the mid 19th century. Thanks to that compulsory education, we now have a common Chinese language (Mandarin). That's why nowadays most people say, "I am learning Chinese" instead of correctly as 'learning Mandarin'.

There are so much to write about on Chinese writing. Why? There are 106,230 characters recorded in The Dictionary of Chinese Variant Form (compiled by the ROC Ministry of Education in 2004)! Most of them are variants though. Anyway, that's how much there are to write about. Most good dictionary will have about 50,000 characters.

The Chinese use a writing system of Han Character or Hanzi 汉字. From a commoner to a learned person, they will be able to read about 2,000 to 5,000 of these Chinese characters. Perhaps that is why some Chinese have very good memory. And they can still remember that $10 you owed them a year ago (read this as a joke).

See Wikipedia on Chinese characters for more history lessons. Or have you had enough?

With that many characters in the Chinese writing system. Where do you begin to look for the right characters or words for your baby's name? Well, fortunately some clever Chinese had devised a system or methodology leading you to the most unique name. A name that is suitable to the individual like a hand-glove fit. The clever Chinese naming method is like a filtering or funneling process. It narrows down to the best name. One that feels so right when you get it. Trust me, I have seen that many times.