Character by character
Why it works
Sharpening talent, upright, strict, and pursuing perfection.
Why it reads this way
厉贤 (Lì Xián) is an editorial Chinese given name. 厉 means whetstone; grind, sharpen; whet. 贤 means virtuous, worthy, good; able. The feel is strict, upright, capable, 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 Lì Xián. 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 厉贤. 厉 — whetstone; grind, sharpen; whet; 贤 — virtuous, worthy, good; able.”
A common full-name pattern would be 李厉贤 (Lǐ Lì Xián), 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.