Mandarin Altcoin Names

With China a significant portion of the market for digital currencies, have you ever wondered what they
theyre called as in another language? So I went in, took a small sample, did a little research and here are
some results. Lets take a quick look on how the various blockchains have been called in Mandarin!
Before diving in, youll notice the character a lot, and this is the same how digital currencies are named
as ~coin; the same pattern can be found in Chinese.


Bitcoin (BTC)
- b t b

The first two characters , which corresponds to the computing bit we know in
English. Pronunciation is similar, thanks to transliteration, where one system of
writing is used for another. Well explore more of this in the following examples.

Dogecoin (DOGE)
- gu gu b

Who doesnt love a picture of a Shiba Inu on a coin? The character gu (), in this
case, simply means Dog, repeated for that cutesy effect. To the moon!

Litecoin (LTC)
- li t b

Another phonetic transliteration; li t() can also be used to mean Wright (the
last name). Notice the t is the same character as used in BTC.


Stellar (STR)
- hng xng b

Some altcoin names on the other hand, are closer to each others meanings than their
sounds. (hng xng) means fixed star stars that make up constellations as
opposed to shooting stars.

Blackcoin (BC)
- hi b

(hi)means black, and the rest is easy. Simple as that.
Mandarin Altcoin Names


Syscoin (SYS)
- x tng b

x tng () means system in general, so it does convey the meaning even
though it might not be as snappy-sounding as its English counterpart.


Quark (QRK)
- ku k

One of the few that seemed to have escaped the naming convention, this is also the
Mandarin for the scientific concept of the quark in physics.


Monero (XMR)
- mn lu b

Monero is a curious case among Mandarin altcoin nomenclature. (mn lu) is
also used for Monroe, see the Chinese wikipedia about the Monroe Doctrine. It
may very well be a case of sounds similar; pronounce Monroe and Monero
enough times and youll get where theyre coming from.


Peercoin (PPC)
- din din b

Peercoin also belongs to the stack of ever-growing altcoin naming mysteries. The
character (din) means point, but why repeat it? Certainly theyre not trying to
be cute like Dogecoin. Quick research reveals the terms peer-to-peer are written
differently as well. If someone can explain this to us, may he win a billion satoshis.


Ripple (XRP)
- ru b b

Ah, more transliteration. ru b () and Ripple sound close, hence the outcome.
Whats interesting are the choice of characters used: ru () means lucky, and b (
) means wave.


Mandarin Altcoin Names


Monacoin (MONA)
- mng ni b

The Japanese altcoin sensation seems to prefer cats as their mascot and this is where
the transliteration gets a little more difficult to understand. mng (), can mean
sprout or blossom, while ni () ranges around how can one help or to
bear. These only make sense from a phonetic standpoint; mng ni () sounds
like mona, and thats it.


Reddcoin (RDD)
- ru d b

Similar to Ripple, (check the characters!) only the middle character d () was
changed to suit the sounds. By now youre sounding out Redd and ru d to see if
they sound similar.


Namecoin (NMC)
- y mng b

Namecoin is one of the few cases where the Chinese name is more
descriptive than its English one. y mng () means domain name, which is
a major function for this altcoin.


Vertcoin (VC)
- l b

It seems that altcoins dubbed after colors are easier to name in Mandarin.
L () means green, and vert is a fancy way of saying so in English. Of
course, this might be confusing to the folks who use Greencoin


Counterparty (XCP)
- h yu b

Kind of odd they used a ending for this one, (h yu) means treaty or
something similar so the Mandarin name means contract coin to an extent.


Mandarin Altcoin Names

And with that, I hoped you learned something new and had fun! Let me know if there are any
comments, mistakes, suggestions or if you just want to talk; you can find me on Reddit as
/u/internobang. Thanks!

Sources:
http://www.sinosplice.com/life/archives/2013/07/02/the-foreign-feel-of-a-chinese-
transliteration
http://www.btc38.com/altcoin/
http://www.xiaoma.info/
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%97%A8%E7%BD%97%E4%B8%BB%E4%B9%89
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B0%8D%E7%AD%89%E7%B6%B2%E8%B7%AF