Character by character
Why it works
Smooth arrival and sharp refinement; implies decisive action and a drive to improve.
Why it reads this way
达厉 (Dá Lì) is an editorial Chinese given name. 达 means arrive at, reach; intelligent; smooth, slippery. 厉 means whetstone; grind, sharpen; whet. The feel is sharp, decisive, refined, leaning male. It's a literary two-character given name, so use it as a starting point and check the full name with a Chinese speaker.
Sound
The pinyin is Dá Lì. Say it slowly, then at normal speed. If a tone feels difficult, practice the syllable alone before putting the full name together. A Chinese speaker will usually understand an imperfect tone in context, but the closer you get, the more natural the name feels.
How to introduce it
“My Chinese name is 达厉. 达 — arrive at, reach; intelligent; smooth, slippery; 厉 — whetstone; grind, sharpen; whet.”
A common full-name pattern would be 李达厉 (Lǐ Dá Lì), using the surname 李. You can also use no surname at all.
This page is editorial. A name can be a good fit even if it is not in our corpus; use the name checker for an existing name, or the Finder for a new one.