this post was submitted on 13 Jan 2026
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Do those "local" names sound in a similar way as originals or there was some other logic behind these renames?
They sound somewhat similar to the originals (say 'Hua Shengdun' quickly, and then 'Washington'), while also making it clear that it's a name and not just a collection of gibberish from a typo or the like. It may also have been easier to write with Chinese characters.
In the modern day, we're more understanding of the fact that language families can sound radically different from one another.
I want to add that even today, it's the convention to refer to foreign names using the closest sounding Chinese characters. 華盛頓 is simply how George Washington would be referred to in Chinese today. Which character is used can also vary depending on the dialect/language used because it is pronunciation based, and the different dialect/language are pronounced differently (duh).
Trump, for example, is 特朗普 dak6 long5 pou2 in Cantonese and 川普 Chuān pǔ in Mandarin. Biden is the same for both, 拜登 baai3 dang1 in Cantonese and Bài dēng in Mandarin.
(goodbye darn)