girl’s name
Maria in Chinese
玛丽亚
mǎ lì yà · traditional 瑪麗亞
Maria is usually written 玛丽亚 in Chinese, pronounced mǎ lì yà. It is a transliteration: the characters are chosen to sound like Maria, not for their meaning.
Character by character
| Character | Pinyin | Tone | Meaning | Traditional |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 玛 | mǎ | third (dipping) tone | agate; cornelian | 瑪 |
| 丽 | lì | fourth (falling) tone | beautiful, magnificent, elegant | 麗 |
| 亚 | yà | fourth (falling) tone | Asia; second | 亞 |
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 Maria in Chinese
How do you write Maria in Chinese?
Maria is usually written 玛丽亚 in Chinese, pronounced mǎ lì yà. It is a transliteration: the characters are chosen to sound like Maria, not for their meaning.
How do you pronounce 玛丽亚?
玛丽亚 is pronounced mǎ lì yà: mǎ in the third (dipping) tone, lì in the fourth (falling) tone and yà in the fourth (falling) tone.
How do you write Maria in traditional Chinese?
In traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, it is written 瑪麗亞.
Is 玛丽亚 a real Chinese name?
It is the usual way Chinese newspapers and books write the foreign name Maria, 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.