How to write 名 (míng, “name”)

名 (míng), an HSK 1 character, means “name”, “noun” and “place”. It is also a measure word: CC-CEDICT pairs it with 22 nouns, 代表, 候选人 and 参赛者 among them. As a top-left cover character it splits into 夕 (“sunset”), strokes 1–3; 口 (“mouth”, the radical), strokes 4–6, written the cover first. On its own it is an HSK 2 word; it also forms 名字 (“name”), 名人 (“personage”) and 有名 (“famous”). Japanese reads it mei, “name”, as a JLPT N5 kanji.

Pinyin: míng
Strokes: 6
HSK: 1
Radical: 口 (“mouth”)

Stroke by stroke

Left-falling stroke ㇒topdown and left
Horizontal then left-falling ㇇toprightwards → down and left
Dot ㇔top leftdown and right
Vertical ㇑leftdownwards
Horizontal-turn ㇕centerrightwards → down and left
Horizontal ㇐bottomrightwards

Names of the strokes

Japanese and Chinese

Japanese and Chinese draw all 6 strokes in the same order and direction, by our stroke-by-stroke comparison.

Japanese · KanjiVG · 6 strokes

Chinese · Make Me a Hanzi · 6 strokes

名 as a measure word

代表 — representative
候选人 — candidate
参赛者 — competitor
大使 — ambassador
宫女 — palace maid
小学生 — primary school student

Trace it

Follow the numbers. Tracing help

Pinyin and meaning

Pinyin	Meanings	Traditional	In words
míng second tone	name; noun (part of speech); place (e.g. among winners); famous; classifier for people	—	名字名人有名名单

HSK 2025 syllabus: level 1
2021 standard: level 1
HSK 2.0: in a level 1 word
Words with it: 350 in CC-CEDICT

Words with 名

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
名	míng	name; noun (part of speech) HSK 2
名字	míngzi	name HSK 1
名人	míngrén	personage; celebrity HSK 3
有名	yǒumíng	famous; well-known HSK 3
名单名單	míngdān	list of names HSK 3
点名點名	diǎnmíng	roll call; to mention sb by name HSK 4
报名報名	bàomíng	to sign up; to enter one's name HSK 4
著名	zhùmíng	famous; noted HSK 4
知名	zhīmíng	well-known; famous HSK 5
名片	míngpiàn	(business) card HSK 5

HSK words first (CC-CEDICT).

Practice sheet

Print at 100%. Several characters: worksheet maker.

Keep going

HSK 1, in list order: