Skip to content

Chinese name character

Chinese name character 美

měi

The character 美 (Mandarin měi) appears in 15 names and 3 syllables in this reference and is spelled Mei, Mee and Bee in Malaysia. Recorded meanings include “beautiful; pretty; good”.

Names and syllables
18
Malaysian spellings
3
Strokes
9
Attested in records
11

18 names and syllables in this reference have 美 as one of their character options. For 11 of them, 美 is attested in records of real names; the rest are possible characters for that spelling.

Meanings of 美: the recorded options

  • beautiful; pretty; good

    in 37 character options · attested

Unihan definition: beautiful, pretty; pleasing

What a name means depends on the characters the family chose and how they combine; these are options, not one definite meaning.

Malaysian spellings of 美

美 Mei Cantonese · Mandarin Mee Cantonese · Hakka · Teochew Bee Hokkien
美 yields 3 spellings in our records. The label under each spelling is the romanization it follows, not the bearer’s dialect.
SpellingRomanization
MeiCantonese · Mandarin
MeeCantonese · Hakka · Teochew
BeeHokkien

Readings of 美 by dialect

DialectReadingMalaysian spelling
HokkienPe̍h-ōe-jī bí Bee
CantoneseJyutping mei5 Mei, Mee
HakkaPha̍k-fa-sṳ mî Mee
TeochewPeng’im mi2 Mee
MandarinHanyu Pinyin měi Mei

Readings from the character options in our name records; Unihan gives Mandarin měi and Cantonese mei5.

15 names that can be written with 美

3 syllables that can stand for 美

Sources

  1. Wiktionary: 美 · en.wiktionary.org · meaning
  2. MDBG: 美 · mdbg.net · meaning
  3. Unicode Unihan Database: U+7F8E · unicode.org · meaning

Readings, meanings and stroke count: the character options in our name records and the Unicode Unihan Database (Unicode License). A spelling describes how a name is written, not anyone’s dialect or background.

More

Frequently asked questions

What does 美 mean in a name?

Our records give several meanings for 美, including “beautiful; pretty; good”. What a name actually means depends on the characters the family chose and how they combine.

How is 美 spelled in Malaysia?

In our records 美 is spelled Mei (Cantonese, Mandarin), Mee (Cantonese, Hakka, Teochew) and Bee (Hokkien). A spelling follows a dialect’s romanization; it does not show which dialect anyone speaks.

Is every Mei written 美?

Not necessarily. The spelling Mei can also stand for 湄, 镁, 梅, 玫. Only the family knows which character was chosen.