boy’s name
Derek in Chinese
德里克
dé lǐ kè
Derek is usually written 德里克 in Chinese, pronounced dé lǐ kè. It is a transliteration: the characters are chosen to sound like Derek, not for their meaning.
Character by character
| Character | Pinyin | Tone | Meaning | Traditional |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 德 | dé | second (rising) tone | ethics, morality, virtue | 德 |
| 里 | lǐ | third (dipping) tone | unit of distance; village | 里 |
| 克 | kè | fourth (falling) tone | gram; overcome | 克 |
Readings and meanings come from the Unicode Han Database (Unihan). In a transliterated name, the meanings of the characters are not read as a sentence.
Questions about Derek in Chinese
How do you write Derek in Chinese?
Derek is usually written 德里克 in Chinese, pronounced dé lǐ kè. It is a transliteration: the characters are chosen to sound like Derek, not for their meaning.
How do you pronounce 德里克?
德里克 is pronounced dé lǐ kè: dé in the second (rising) tone, lǐ in the third (dipping) tone and kè in the fourth (falling) tone.
How do you write Derek in traditional Chinese?
The same way: 德里克 uses no simplified characters, so it is also written 德里克 in Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Is 德里克 a real Chinese name?
It is the usual way Chinese newspapers and books write the foreign name Derek, so Chinese readers will recognise it as a foreign name. If you would like a name that looks Chinese, our free generator also suggests names chosen for their meaning.
How do Chinese transliterations work? Read how we choose your Chinese name.