Chinese Names
The Chinese names of various people and dragons are presented in the books as romanized transliterations. Each syllable represents a single sinographic written word.
In general, traditional Chinese names consist of a single-syllable family name followed by a personal name. The personal name may consist of one or two syllables. Two-syllable personal names, especially for males, often begin with a generational indicator.
Contents
Humans
Outside the Imperial family, the Chinese names of humans are usually given in a separated two-syllable format. This probably represents a family name followed by a one-syllable personal name, possibly truncated from a more formal two-syllable personal name.
The Imperial family
During this period of the Qing dynasty, male members of the Imperial family had two-syllable personal names. The first syllable was a generational indicator and the second syllable had a generational radical.
In the case of the Jiaqing Emperor, "Jiaqing" (嘉慶) is his regnal title. His two-part personal name was Yongyan; in his youth, it was written as 永琰, but upon his ascension to the throne, he changed the first sinograph to the homonym 顒. "Yong" is the indicator for his generation of the family, as can be seen by comparison to the name of his brother Prince Yongxing.
The emperor's sons, Prince Miankai and Prince Mianning, are also referred to by two-syllable personal names. "Ming" is the indicator for their generation of the family. Like their uncle's name and their father's title, the two syllables are elided together in romanization instead of separated or hyphenated.
"Lao-ren-tze"
William Laurence receives the Sinicized name Lao-ren-tze. Its format-- three separate but hyphenated syllables-- is different from all other Chinese names seen in the series.
Dragons
Chinese dragons have three-part names, in which each part is a separate capitalized syllable.
In her blog, Naomi Novik provided the following information; she linked to some specific sinographs but did not include them in her original post:
All dragon names have three syllables, beginning with Lung [龍], meaning "dragon". The second syllable denotes the breed; in the case of Celestials, Tien [天], meaning "sky" or "heaven". The third is individual; Temeraire's name is Xiang [祥], meaning auspicious (I am not sure this is the actual character I worked from initially, though -- it seems the closest one I could find on zhongwen.com). Another name used is Chuan [全], meaning perfect. And Mei [美] means beautiful.
Thus, for dragons, the first syllable is a species indicator, the second is a breed indicator, and the third is the true personal name.
Breed names
The breed indicator is probably the closest analogue to a human family name, especially for Celestials which truly comprise a small and closely interrelated family.
The Qin for Imperials is probably 秦, which was the name of the first dynasty of China. Its literal meaning is "ash tree".
The Yu in the name of Lung Yu Ping, a Jade dragon, is probably 玉, which means "jade".
The Shen in the name(s) of Shen-Lung dragons is probably 神, which represents a general concept of "spirit" or "consciousness".
The name of Lung Li Po is probably based on that of the historical Chinese (human) poet Li Po. If so, then Li (李, "plum tree") may not really indicate a particular dragon breed, although it could refer to a small purple dragon (tentatively dubbed "Li-Lung") breed seen several times in China.
Usage
Chinese dragons are usually referred to with either their full three-part names or with their personal names only. This may be partially dependent on context; within the central circle of Celestials and their attendant Imperials, it is common for the personal name to be used alone. In three less exalted cases, Lung Yu Ping is referred to as both "Ping" and "Yu Ping", while Lung Shen Li and Lung Shen Gai are both referred to as "Shen Li" and "Shen Gai" rather than "Li" and "Gai".
The eldest living Celestial is respectfully referred to as "Grandfather", instead of using his personal name at all.
Transliteration/translation issues
The transliterated names cannot be unambiguously converted back into the Chinese language to discern their "true" meanings.
Chinese is a tonal language with a non-alphabetic writing system. Without tonal markings, a single alphabetically transcribed syllable may indicate any of four different tonal phonemes. In turn, each tonal phoneme may correspond to multiple homonyms that sound exactly the same, but which are written with different sinographs.
Furthermore, there are multiple systems of alphabetic romanization that represent the same sound in different ways. In a comment to Novik's post, a reader pointed out that Novik combines two inconsistent systems, using Temeraire's Chinese name as an example: "Lung Tien Hsiang is how the name would have been romanized in Wade-Giles. Long Tian Xiang is how it would be romanized in Pinyin."
According to other readers elsewhere, Novik oversimplifies the Wade-Giles system in a way that may affect the intended pronunciations.
References
Source for intended meanings: [1] "Temeraire: Feast or Famine; also, a bunch of questions answered"
Source for romanization issues: [2] [3]
Sources for translations:
