What to actually put on the metal: characters or letters, tones or none, surname first or last — and where the name necklace came from in the first place.
Seals go back to the Shang dynasty — first as instruments of authority, later as an art form. China’s seal engraving was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List in September 2009. But a seal carries characters, and it stamps paper rather than sitting on a body. The Chinese way of wearing a name is the engraving on the back of a child’s longevity lock.
The nameplate necklace took shape in Black and Latino communities in the US through the 1980s and 90s — Fulton Street in Brooklyn was an early stronghold — and spread through hip hop before reaching a mass audience when Carrie Bradshaw wore one in 1998. Many people assume the show invented it. It did not, and it is worth knowing that the same piece was read very differently before and after it was seen on a mainstream screen.
所以「把中文名刻成字母戴」是一件很新的事。它是两套习惯叠出来的：中国的刻字传统 + 西方的名字牌。这页不假装它自古如此 —— 它是这个世纪才常见起来的。Putting a Chinese name into Latin letters and wearing it is recent — the overlap of two habits, not an inherited practice. This page does not pretend otherwise.
你的名字写成字母是什么样 · Your name, in letters
只在本页浏览器里算，不上传、不保存。 · Calculated in your browser only — nothing is sent or stored.
落刀之前要问清的几件事 · Before you order
汉字还是字母？多数海外卖家只能刻拉丁字母 —— 他们没有汉字字库，也未必有会写汉字刀法的师傅。要刻汉字，得先问清楚：是机雕、是激光、还是手工？手工刻汉字的价格通常是刻字母的两三倍。Most overseas sellers cut Latin letters only — no Chinese typeface, and not necessarily anyone who can carve characters. If you want characters, ask first whether it is machine-cut, lasered or done by hand; hand-cut characters usually cost two to three times letters.
声调一般不要拼音的声调符号在金属上又挤又难刻，绝大多数成品都不带。想要准确读音，用带声调的那一版跟卖家沟通型号即可，不必刻上去。Tone marks crowd the metal and are awkward to cut, so almost no finished piece carries them. Use the toned version to communicate pronunciation with the seller; leave it off the piece.
姓在前还是名在后按护照：姓在前、全大写、分开写（如 LI XIAOMING）。按西方习惯：名在前（Xiaoming Li）。做首饰通常用后者更顺眼，但送礼给海外朋友时，护照式更不容易被念错。Passport order is surname first, in capitals, separated (LI XIAOMING). Western order puts the given name first (Xiaoming Li). For jewellery the western order usually looks better; for a gift, passport order is less likely to be misread.
多少个字母合适十到十二个字母以内最好看，再长就细长一条，链子和字重也会失衡。名字长就用首字母，或者只刻名字不刻姓。Ten to twelve letters is the sweet spot. Beyond that the plate gets long and thin and the weight looks off against the chain. Use an initial, or drop the surname.
An honest note: this category is thin. Ready-made pieces engraved with Chinese names essentially do not exist — the supply side has not built it. What works is buying something that offers engraving and putting your pinyin on it. Below are the ones we could actually verify.
18K 金首字母心形吊坠 · 天然紫水晶
18K gold initial heart pendant with natural amethyst
Using one initial instead of the whole name is the most forgiving option in this category: a single letter is the easiest to cut and the hardest to get wrong. Good if the name is long, or if you want the piece to read as yours without spelling it out. This is 18K (750‰) — pure gold would not hold the stone.
Silver is the usual choice for engraving: softer than gold, easier to cut, and cheap enough to experiment on. At around $22 with engraving included, this is a reasonable place to start. Silver tarnishes and wipes back with a cloth — that is not a defect.
Tungsten and titanium alloys are too hard to carve with a graver: the lettering is lasered on. The mark is shallow but essentially permanent, and the trade-off is that it can only carry a regular typeface, not handwriting. Suited to something worn every day.
The name generator works out a name from your birth date and time — with the characters, their meanings, and how they read. What it produces is exactly the kind of thing people have engraved.
本页商品链接为推广链接，通过链接购买我们可能获得佣金，不影响你支付的价格。 标注的美元价是发文时的参考价，实际以商品页为准。Some links here are affiliate links — we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you. Prices in USD are indicative at the time of writing.
本页关于命名转写与首饰工艺的内容供教育与选购参考，不构成对任何商品价值的判断， 也不构成对任何物件功效的承诺。The transliteration and craft notes here are for educational and buying reference only — not a judgement of any product’s value, and not a claim about what any object does.