plattinator | 1 points | May 07 2021 00:48:06

Generating Chinese names for a video game

Hello, I apologize if this sub is Chinese only, I was told to ask this question here and that you are friendly Chinese and willing to help foreigners.

I am working on a game, and when a character dies, I generate a name for that character. In English, it looks like this

https://imgur.com/a/iF0luMv

The names are all kind of nonsense, but they're readable as names. I am having the game translated into Simplified Chinese, but I'm not sure how to handle the names. This page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_given_name

says that "given names can theoretically include any of the Chinese language's 100,000 characters and contain almost any meaning."

Can I just pick 1 or 2 characters and use that as a name? Are there offensive or taboo names that I should avoid? Is a name always combined with a surname, or can I use the given name alone? Would it be best to find a list of real Chinese names and only use names from the list?

The names don't have to be real names, they just need to be pronounceable and understood to be a name when used in a sentence like "x has died." I also list all the names on a memorial that looks like this

https://imgur.com/a/DvRtXbG

Thank you