<p>Some says that "乔治" is very close to George in Shanghainese (上海話) since Shanghai was the big harbor allows international trades in 17th century. Lots of phrases are created/translated at that time. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Pidgin_English">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Pidgin_English</a> </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-05T05:09:06.907Z
Very plausible explanation!
user3992
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-05T02:50:43.670Z
2014-03-05T02:50:43.670Z
Yafufu
<p>No, it is not the only one.</p>

<p>Unless you think John sounds similar to 约翰.</p>

<p>Chinese translations for foreign names and words (such as names of other stuff) are weird if you compare them to each other. People from the cities, Guangzhou, Hong Kong (Speaking Cantonese), and Shanghai (Speaking Wu), which were first open to the world, created these translations based on their dialect.</p>

<p>Examples (Some of them have been used for such a long time that native speaker as me would not notice that they are not original Chinese words):</p>

<pre><code>Sandwich 三明治
Toast 吐司
Cookie 曲奇
Humor 幽默 (I thought it is originally Chinese)
Taxi 的士
Pancake 班戟
Chocolate 巧克力/朱古力
</code></pre>

<p>Note that one word may have more than one translations. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-12T12:52:44.020Z
I can sort of accept John cause John = Johann and when pronouncing it sounds like 约翰.
user3992
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-12T14:04:27.593Z
Did you mean to say "wired" or was it supposed to be "weird"?
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-19T03:47:30.467Z
John is translated to 约翰 for it is not from English. The **J** here pronounced like **Y** in English, and **h** is also pronounced. It is said that **John** comes from Hebrew word **Yohanan**. The history of 约翰 is much more longer than **John**.
xenophōn
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-11T08:03:16.800Z
2014-03-12T23:53:45.280Z
2014-03-12T23:53:45.280Z
Kevin Y.
<p>When I did an immersion at UC-Berkeley a long time ago I was told my name, George, had the equivalent 乔治 Qiáozhì because that name was already established in school books for George Washington. It always sounded to me closer to the French Georges. My family name is Lang and I was given the choice between forest 林 Lín or blue 蓝 Lán. I chose the former, for obvious reasons of stroke number.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-10-18T16:56:09.650Z
2017-10-18T16:56:09.650Z
George Lang
<p>About the "乔" part of "George[dʒɔ:dʒ]", you can find some material in the <strong><a href="http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8B%B1%E8%AF%AD%E5%A7%93%E5%90%8D%E8%AF%91%E5%90%8D%E6%89%8B%E5%86%8C#.E8.AF.91.E9.9F.B3.E8.A1.A8" rel="noreferrer">译音表(the Form of Ttransliteration)</a></strong>. Besides, "奇" should be instead of "治" following the form. 
<img src="https://i.sstatic.net/MLUPc.jpg" alt="enter image description here"></p>

<p>However, <strong><a href="http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8B%B1%E8%AF%AD%E5%A7%93%E5%90%8D%E8%AF%91%E5%90%8D%E6%89%8B%E5%86%8C#.E7.BA.A6.E5.AE.9A.E4.BF.97.E6.88.90" rel="noreferrer">"约定俗成(the convention)"</a></strong> is one of the important rules of 《英文人名翻译准则》. Everybody often use "乔治" refer to "George", so that "乔治" is agreed upon gradually. Anyway, I don't know why did the first person call "George" "乔治".</p>

<p><a href="http://pan.baidu.com/s/1sjlld73" rel="noreferrer">Download 英语姓名译名手册(商务印书馆 第四版).pdf</a> </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-05T04:59:21.577Z
Interesting. So this is one of the cases where there is an exception? I'm always puzzled cause sometimes when I read the news in Chinese, the way they translated the names in Mandarin does not click with the way we pronounce it in English. I need to Google up the name and Google will give me the corresponding English name for it. Really, I think we should translate names directly like the Japanese do.
user3992
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-05T12:10:24.157Z
@user3992 However, I have no idea about whether "乔治" is an exception. Maybe, as Yafufu said, "乔治" is a Shanghainese pronunciation.
zz22
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-04T14:55:14.043Z
2014-03-04T15:00:20.847Z
2014-03-04T15:00:20.847Z
zz22
<p>I've always been puzzled at the origin of the translation of "George" into Chinese. It's probably the only (pardon me if there are more) name that does not sound like its English counterpart. </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-04T07:14:22.987Z
If not 乔治, then do you have a better suggestion?
杨以轩
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-04T08:47:08.087Z
In Cantonese (Hong Kong) they usually say "佐治" instead.
Earth Engine
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-04T09:48:21.310Z
佐治 is one that comes to mind, 左治 also sounds close, or else佐智. But I am more interested in the 乔 part.
user3992
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-04T10:45:40.163Z
Cantonese has total different pronunciation to Mandarin. 佐 in Cantonese is similar to 乔 in Mandarin.
mikespook
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-04T13:40:45.020Z
What? 佐 is zuǒ in Mandarin, jo3 in Cantonese,  乔 is qiáo in Mandarin, kiu4 in Cantonese. How are they the same?
user3992
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-05T01:00:56.337Z
I mean jo3佐 is same as qiao2乔.
mikespook
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-05T04:11:56.030Z
possible duplicate of [How do we choose the correct characters for a westerner name?](http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/242/how-do-we-choose-the-correct-characters-for-a-westerner-name)
congusbongus
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-05T04:27:33.593Z
Sounds pretty similar to me. Also Chinese transliterations often sound quite different to their counterparts in the original language.
MHG
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-05T06:29:49.280Z
I'm voting this up because ultimately it's about how these two syllables came to be used for "George" and not the usual ones if following the current transliteration rules. I'm going to add the etymology tag too.
hippietrail
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-07-28T02:16:57.737Z
@user3992 The problem you and most are having seems to be with the aspiration of 乔. George's contact with China pre-dated the current Mandarin pronunciation, but when 乔 was unaspirated and still voiced, exactly as it should be.
Nimrod
<etymology><names><transliteration>
Why is George 乔治 in Chinese?
# Why is George 乔治 in Chinese?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-03-04)

I've always been puzzled at the origin of the translation of "George" into Chinese. It's probably the only (pardon me if there are more) name that does not sound like its English counterpart.

**Tags:** etymology, names, transliteration
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: If not 乔治, then do you have a better suggestion?  
> **username_2**: In Cantonese (Hong Kong) they usually say "佐治" instead.  
> **username_0**: 佐治 is one that comes to mind, 左治 also sounds close, or else佐智. But I am more interested in the 乔 part.  
> **username_3**: Cantonese has total different pronunciation to Mandarin. 佐 in Cantonese is similar to 乔 in Mandarin.  
> **username_0**: What? 佐 is zuǒ in Mandarin, jo3 in Cantonese,  乔 is qiáo in Mandarin, kiu4 in Cantonese. How are they the same?  
> **username_3**: I mean jo3佐 is same as qiao2乔.  
> **username_4**: possible duplicate of [How do we choose the correct characters for a westerner name?](http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/242/how-do-we-choose-the-correct-characters-for-a-westerner-name)  
> **username_5**: Sounds pretty similar to me. Also Chinese transliterations often sound quite different to their counterparts in the original language.  
> **username_6**: I'm voting this up because ultimately it's about how these two syllables came to be used for "George" and not the usual ones if following the current transliteration rules. I'm going to add the etymology tag too.  
> **username_7**: @user3992 The problem you and most are having seems to be with the aspiration of 乔. George's contact with China pre-dated the current Mandarin pronunciation, but when 乔 was unaspirated and still voiced, exactly as it should be.  

---

## 4 answers

### Answer by username_12 on 2014-03-04. Score: 8 | Accepted answer

About the "乔" part of "George[dʒɔ:dʒ]", you can find some material in the **[译音表(the Form of Ttransliteration)](http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8B%B1%E8%AF%AD%E5%A7%93%E5%90%8D%E8%AF%91%E5%90%8D%E6%89%8B%E5%86%8C#.E8.AF.91.E9.9F.B3.E8.A1.A8)**. Besides, "奇" should be instead of "治" following the form.
![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/MLUPc.jpg)

However, **["约定俗成(the convention)"](http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%8B%B1%E8%AF%AD%E5%A7%93%E5%90%8D%E8%AF%91%E5%90%8D%E6%89%8B%E5%86%8C#.E7.BA.A6.E5.AE.9A.E4.BF.97.E6.88.90)** is one of the important rules of 《英文人名翻译准则》. Everybody often use "乔治" refer to "George", so that "乔治" is agreed upon gradually. Anyway, I don't know why did the first person call "George" "乔治".

[Download 英语姓名译名手册(商务印书馆 第四版).pdf](http://pan.baidu.com/s/1sjlld73)

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Interesting. So this is one of the cases where there is an exception? I'm always puzzled cause sometimes when I read the news in Chinese, the way they translated the names in Mandarin does not click with the way we pronounce it in English. I need to Google up the name and Google will give me the corresponding English name for it. Really, I think we should translate names directly like the Japanese do.  
> **username_12**: @user3992 However, I have no idea about whether "乔治" is an exception. Maybe, as Yafufu said, "乔治" is a Shanghainese pronunciation.  

---

### Answer by username_8 on 2014-03-05. Score: 6

Some says that "乔治" is very close to George in Shanghainese (上海話) since Shanghai was the big harbor allows international trades in 17th century. Lots of phrases are created/translated at that time. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_Pidgin_English>

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: Very plausible explanation!  

---

### Answer by username_9 on 2014-03-11. Score: 3

No, it is not the only one.
Unless you think John sounds similar to 约翰.
Chinese translations for foreign names and words (such as names of other stuff) are weird if you compare them to each other. People from the cities, Guangzhou, Hong Kong (Speaking Cantonese), and Shanghai (Speaking Wu), which were first open to the world, created these translations based on their dialect.
Examples (Some of them have been used for such a long time that native speaker as me would not notice that they are not original Chinese words):
Sandwich 三明治
Toast 吐司
Cookie 曲奇
Humor 幽默 (I thought it is originally Chinese)
Taxi 的士
Pancake 班戟
Chocolate 巧克力/朱古力

Note that one word may have more than one translations.

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: I can sort of accept John cause John = Johann and when pronouncing it sounds like 约翰.  
> **username_6**: Did you mean to say "wired" or was it supposed to be "weird"?  
> **username_10**: John is translated to 约翰 for it is not from English. The **J** here pronounced like **Y** in English, and **h** is also pronounced. It is said that **John** comes from Hebrew word **Yohanan**. The history of 约翰 is much more longer than **John**.  

---

### Answer by username_11 on 2017-10-18. Score: 0

When I did an immersion at UC-Berkeley a long time ago I was told my name, George, had the equivalent 乔治 Qiáozhì because that name was already established in school books for George Washington. It always sounded to me closer to the French Georges. My family name is Lang and I was given the choice between forest 林 Lín or blue 蓝 Lán. I chose the former, for obvious reasons of stroke number.


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