Discussion Chinese names

I've been noticing it a lot lately, but what's with the names is some CN?

I'm referencing stuff like Release that Witch and Warlock of the Magus World where they have names like Paper, Snaketooth, and other names that sound like the author used the first thing they could think of. (I wish I could add more examples, but I really only remember RtW ones.)

So, is this what those fancy Chinese names actully mean transliterated, or is the author just being lazy naming side characters?

EDIT: For fun, add names you've seen and thought were weird. (That still follow the same format)

 

that's just how they believe western names work, I guess

 

Too much Star Wars like Skywalker, Solo etc.

 

I read one in the past i forgot. I think it was coiling dragon or stellar transformations but i'm not sure but there was these chapters where the chinese names were translated and the names were along the lines of "turn to stone and transform to stone". God that was horrible hahaha

 

Mufarasu sounds good? belongs in an old fantasy world of witches and dragons

 

Both Transliteration and laziness.

You can't tell exactly which is the case really

Hanyu pinyin names might be off in a western themed novel so translators might just choose to transliterate.

 

The setting is medieval period....the names of the witches are nicknames not their real names...

 

It's no weirder than some people's nicknames.

 

They sound a whole lot better in Chinese, although these sounds more like codenames than actual names. But again considering you're in a pugilist or Xian Xia world, it makes sense.

But if you're in a Xian Xia story, 75% of the time the author is being lazy and just name the characters according to their traits.

 

Are you seriously asking this question? First of all, I will remind you that many asian names in general are like that. Example: Yuki = Courage. Then many tribe names people were based on items or concepts. Even many last names we have like "Smith" were given based on someone's ancestor being a blacksmith.

Even modern english names, many of them have meanings in latin.

For example take John (Which if you look back is pretty much same as being named "Gracious" today)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_(given_name)

Names in themselves are just words. They just look different because over time they went through language changes.

Also in the case of Rats those are street names. It is not uncommon for poor people to throw away their old names either because they don't know their original name (were too young when abandoned), or because they decided to change lifestyles. (In same way why super heroes have strange names)