Free tool for foreign personal name transliteration into Chinese (670k+ entries, RU/KO/JA/DE/FR/AR)

Na Yang — Thu, 25 Jun 2026 08:52:00 +0000

Forum: Translator resources
Topic: Free tool for foreign personal name transliteration into Chinese (670k+ entries, RU/KO/JA/DE/FR/AR)
Poster: Na Yang

Hi all,

I work between English and Chinese and frequently run into the challenge of finding the correct Chinese rendering of foreign personal names — especially for Russian, Korean, Japanese, Arabic, and European names where transliteration standards differ and resources are scattered.

I've built a free reference tool at nametochinese.com that might be useful to others here:

- 670,000+ personal name entries following Xinhua transliteration standards
- Separate databases for Russian, Korean, Japanese, German, French, Vietnamese, Arabic names
- Taiwan standard renderings (國教院 / NAER — 8,767 entries across 9 language families)
- 177,000+ place name entries
- Transliteration engine for 70+ languages based on official tables
- Naming convention guides for 30+ countries

No signup required, no ads, free to use. Built specifically for translators rather than general audiences.

Would be glad to hear what resources others rely on for name transliteration — always looking to improve coverage.

Na Yang
nametochinese.com

ProZ.com Translation Forums

Free tool for foreign personal name transliteration into Chinese (670k+ entries, RU/KO/JA/DE/FR/AR)