How do you choose a Chinese brand name?

Most advice on Chinese brand names stops at clever examples like Coca-Cola. That’s the easy half. The hard half is finding a good name that nobody else has registered.

This guide treats both as one job, in the order you should do them. It’s part of our work on translating and localizing a website for China. We aren’t lawyers, so the legal steps end with a local trademark agent.

Do you need a Chinese brand name?

If you sell to Chinese speakers, you should almost certainly have one. It’s a practical need rather than a website rule: no rule we read requires a foreign company’s site to show a Chinese name.

The EU’s China IP SME Helpdesk calls a Chinese version “highly advisable”.¹ The reason is simple. Without an official name, the market may give you one.

A 2014 article says Quaker became 老人牌, the “old man brand”, because it hadn’t created a Chinese mark.⁴

Your situation	What the sources suggest
You sell to Chinese consumers	Choose and register an official name.2
You only manufacture in China for export	Less reason to file every version, unless a Chinese name is used commercially.2
You form a Chinese company	The company needs a Chinese name, with a trade name of at least two characters.26
You sell goods in China	Product and labeling rules are a separate question.28 Ask a local adviser.
You sell B2B services from abroad	We found no data either way. See below.

Some brands keep Latin letters. Lei Ray Zhao cites IBM, BBC and 3M, and says this generally suits simple marks.¹¹ Those names were also well known already, so don’t assume a little-known firm gets the same result.

For B2B, evidence runs out. We found no study showing what a Chinese name does for a foreign professional firm. If Chinese buyers will discuss you with colleagues, a name they can say is a sensible, low-regret step.

Should your name follow the sound, the meaning or both?

Sound and meaning together is the usual target, but the evidence is mixed. If you can’t get both, the better choice depends on what you sell and how well known you are. Here are the methods the guides we read describe.

Method	Example	Works when	Main risk
Sound	麦当劳 McDonald’s, 奥迪 Audi 4	Buyers already know your name	Characters can carry an unwanted meaning
Meaning	苹果 Apple 4, 微软 Microsoft 11	Your name means something clear	The Chinese no longer sounds like you
Sound and meaning	可口可乐 Coca-Cola 4	A rare match exists	Hard to find, and needs vetting 29
Half and half	星巴克 Starbucks 11	Your name splits into parts	The two halves can read oddly together
Creative	雪碧 Sprite, 汇丰 HSBC 11	Your name won’t convert well	The link to your global name may need explaining

The research disagrees. A 2011 study of 178 people in Taiwan rated sound-and-meaning names best. Meaning beat sound for functional brands, and sound beat meaning for symbolic ones.⁵

A 2018 lecture abstract on China’s car market points the other way. Models with meaning-based names sold 7.64% more than alphanumeric ones, while sound-and-meaning names sold 4.92% less.³⁸

Neither is about your category. Zhang and Schmitt (2001) add a useful point, which we read only in summary: what works depends on the weight given to the original name, and on the method used for earlier brand names in the same category.⁶

So look at your competitors’ Chinese names before you start. If they all use sound, a meaning-based name may look odd, or it may stand out. That’s a question for your testers.

The same goes for Best Buy. HI-COM reads 百思买 as too hesitant, and EC Innovations tells the story next to its store closures.⁸⁹ Neither shows that the name did the damage.

How do you build a shortlist?

Set your limits first, then write three to five candidates. One filing agency suggests that range.²⁹ Each limit below removes names you’d otherwise lose time on.

• Keep it short. A 2014 article says Chinese brands often have two or three characters at most, and that consumers say LV or YSL rather than the long phonetic names.⁷
• Use standard characters. If the name may become your company’s trade name, Chinese rules require standard characters.²⁶ China’s general list holds 8,105.³³
• Avoid plain descriptions. A mark that only names the goods or directly describes their quality, materials or function can’t be registered, unless it gains distinctiveness through use. The 2019 and revised texts agree.¹⁴³²
• Avoid place names. Mainland administrative regions at county level or above, and well-known foreign places, are barred with narrow exceptions, in both texts.¹⁴³²
• Avoid claims you can’t back. Marks that mislead on quality or origin are barred.¹⁴ Keep banned advertising words out of your name too.

Descriptive names deserve extra care, because a meaning-based name can drift into plain description.

How do you test each candidate?

Run every name through the same six tests, and drop it at the first clear failure. These are a working method built from the sources below, not a research standard.

Test	How to run it	A name fails if
Meaning	Ask native speakers what the name suggests before you explain it	It evokes something negative or unrelated 4
Dialects	Check Cantonese, Shanghainese and other major dialects 4	It sounds wrong or rude in a market you care about
Dictation	Say it aloud, and ask someone to write it down	People choose other characters
Search	Search the name on Baidu, and review what comes up 8	Scandals, slang or a rival dominate
Interest	Look up the name and likely nicknames in Baidu Index 25	A rival already owns the term
Display	Try it in logos, packaging and digital interfaces 8, including small mobile sizes	It’s hard to read or looks unbalanced

The dictation test matters because a right-sounding name isn’t enough. Hermès is 爱马仕, and Dafeng’s registered mark 爱玛仕 differs by a single character.¹⁹

Baidu Index shows relative search interest, by region and for up to five terms, according to a 2015 guide.²⁵ Its scores aren’t forecasts, and we didn’t confirm how a foreign user can access it today.

Our guide to Baidu keyword research covers it in more depth.

Pick testers who match your buyers. Ten people in your own office aren’t a market. For a firm that sells to Chinese people abroad, test with that group, since usage differs by region.

How do you clear and file the name?

Clear it, file it, then publish it. Harris Sliwoski’s advice is to run the legal check during selection, ahead of packaging or any launch news.³

1. 1Shortlist 3 to 5 names
2. 2Six tests
3. 3Agent clearance search
4. 4File in your company's name
5. 5Publish on your site
6. 6Watch the register

China is principally a first-to-file country, so the first valid application usually wins.¹² Five points matter for a foreign company.

1. Your Latin mark doesn’t cover it. An English registration won’t automatically extend to a separate Chinese version.²
2. Filing means a local agent. A foreign applicant with no residence or business site in China must file through one.¹¹⁴³² Madrid is the other route, though one 2026 comparison calls direct filing generally cheaper and quicker to reach examination.³⁴
3. Register the right mix. The Helpdesk suggests three versions: the Latin name, the Chinese name and the logo.¹
4. Use subclasses. China divides classes further, so a class number alone doesn’t show what’s covered.²
5. Own it yourself. The owner should be your company or a group entity, not an agent, factory or distributor.³

Searches also need more than your exact name. Marks with the same meaning can count as similar across languages, as with 红&黑 and ROUGE ET NOIR.¹²

Sources differ on sound. Harris Sliwoski says sound alone doesn’t create similarity, citing 福达 and FUDA.¹² Kaizen lists same-pinyin marks as similar where confusion is likely.¹³

So ask your agent to search by characters, pinyin and meaning.

Timing estimates vary and aren’t promises. A 2014 article says up to 18 months, and two 2026 vendor guides say about 11 to 14 and about 9 to 12.⁴³⁰³⁷

What changes in 2027

China’s revised Trademark Law was adopted on June 26, 2026, and takes effect on January 1, 2027.¹⁵³² The change affects a common piece of advice: file many names, just in case.

Point	Under the revised law	Source
Hoarding	Refused with no intent to use and clearly beyond normal business needs	Art. 19 32
Those two conditions	Both must be met, in one firm’s reading	Pei Lyu 16
Bad-faith filing	Warning, and a fine of up to RMB 100,000, where it causes adverse effects	Art. 54 32
Opposition period	Two months from publication, down from three	Art. 36 32, 2019 law 14
Non-use	Three-year cancellation route stays. Pei Lyu adds that the office can now cancel idle marks itself	Art. 57 32, Pei Lyu 16
Existing marks	Registrations made before 2027 stay valid. We found no clause on pending applications	Art. 87 32

File the names you’ll really use, and keep evidence of use. A few defensive variants may still make sense, but that’s a call for your agent.

The revised text also says trademark use includes use through the internet and other information networks.³² Ask your agent what that means for your Chinese pages. We read this text on the CNIPA site, and we aren’t lawyers.

Free check

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What if someone already registered your name?

You have four options, and none is guaranteed: buy it, challenge it, work around it or choose another name. Past disputes show how much depends on evidence and on who holds the mark.

Case	What happened	Lesson
Castel, 卡斯特	The mark was registered by others. Infringement was upheld in 2016, and damages fell from RMB 33.73 million to RMB 500,000 17	Using a name that someone else holds can cost you, even in good faith
Hermès, 爱马仕	English name registered in 1977, Chinese name not at the time. It lost its challenge to 爱玛仕 in a ruling reported in 2012 19. By 2023 it held Chinese-name registrations for bags and leather goods 36	A famous Latin mark doesn’t settle it
Penfolds, 奔富	A court recognized it as a well-known unregistered mark in 2020, and awarded RMB 1.2 million. A private filer’s mark was only recovered after years of action 18	Winning is possible, but slow
Michael Jordan, 乔丹	In 2016, the top court protected his name in characters, but the pinyin “Qiaodan” stayed usable 20	Characters and pinyin can get different results

The Penfolds win doesn’t make registration optional. A 2014 article says China generally doesn’t recognize unregistered marks.⁴

The 2020 ruling shows that limited exceptions exist, based on long use and strong recognition.¹⁸ Registering stays the safe route.

The 2019 law, which applies until the end of 2026, bars rushing to register, by illegitimate means, a mark someone else already uses with some influence.¹⁴

Holders of prior rights and interested parties generally have five years from registration to seek invalidation. Owners of well-known marks are exempt where the filing was in bad faith. Both texts say so.¹⁴³²

Examiners don’t catch everything, so the owner has to watch the register and oppose in time.³¹ Set up a watch service once you’ve filed. Ask your agent which options fit your case.

Does Hong Kong or Taiwan need its own name?

Not always, but check each market and file there separately. Mercedes-Benz shows a split: 奔驰 on the mainland, 平治 in Hong Kong and Macau, and 宾士 in Taiwan, according to one Chinese car blog.²⁷

We’d treat that as a warning, not a template. In our view, one name across regions is cleaner, as long as it passes the Cantonese test and reads well in Traditional characters.

Filing is the trap. WIPO says Madrid protection in China doesn’t include Hong Kong or Macao.²¹ One vendor’s trademark guides describe separate registers for Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.²²²³ Lawyers at Lee and Li write that Taiwan isn’t part of the Madrid System and can’t be designated in a Madrid application.³⁹

Our guides to Chinese for Hong Kong and Taiwan and Simplified or Traditional Chinese cover the language side.

How should you use the name on your site?

Use one form everywhere, next to your Latin name. Lei Ray Zhao lists consistency as a core principle, because the same name in every context builds recognition.¹¹

Do this only once the filing plan is settled.

1. Write one reference. Record the exact characters, the Latin form and any approved short form.
2. Use it in key places. Add it to your Chinese page titles, headings, About page, footer and contact details.
3. Pair it with the Latin name. It connects your Chinese pages to the brand buyers may already know.
4. Brief your translators. Add the name to your glossary, so your Chinese translation never varies.
5. Match your other profiles. Partners, directories and social accounts should use the same characters.

Baidu’s guide says that if your site has Chinese and English names, you should use the one users know best in the title.²⁴ That advice dates from 2014, so treat it as a principle, not a current rule.

Consistency also supports credibility, which our guide to earning the trust of Chinese buyers covers. If you’re forming a local entity, read whether you need a WFOE before you fix the name.

The bottom line

If you remember one thing, make it the order: test the name, clear it, file it in your company’s name, then publish it.

A clever name you don’t own is a liability. Sound and meaning together is a good target, but your buyers’ reactions and the register decide.

How Index in China can help

We translate your site into Simplified Chinese with a human reviewer, work on getting it indexed on Chinese search engines and send a monthly report on Chinese traffic.

Once your name is settled, we use that exact form across the Chinese pages we translate.

Trademark clearance and filing belong with a local agent. See what we do, or book a 30-minute call.

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