Many brands operating in China choose to use two names to represent themselves to Chinese customers: one composed of Chinese characters and another that is alphabet-based, such as an English name. Brands that choose to use both face the unique visual identity challenge of having separate logos for each or incorporating the two names into one, simple logo design.

The domination of Internet domains with the English alphabet is about to change. According to a recent announcement from ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), domains in Chinese, Arabic and Korean will be available in the near future, representing a significant step towards an internationalized domain system.

At the recent 2009 Guangzhou Auto Show, Shanghai Volkswagen unveiled a modestly face-lifted Volkswagen Tiguan. The Chinese name was also officially released as “途观” (tú guān). 途 means a road, route, or journey, and is also used in 前途 (qiántú) meaning future, career, and prospects. 观 as a noun means “view”, and when used as a verb means to look at, watch, or observe. Overall, the name”途观” (tú guān) implies that by driving Tiguan you can reach destinations that others cannot achieve, and appreciate unprecedented landscapes.

Presenting a strong brand in the Chinese language can be considered a necessity for an international firm entering the Chinese market. The literary nature of Chinese language forces firms to carefully consider the character combinations of their brand names before launching their products and services in China.

Recently, Microsoft officially unveiled the Chinese name for Bing.com, their brand-new search engine, as “必应”（bì yìng）. Bing decided to have a Chinese name to show that they value the Chinese market and to help localize their brand. This is a noteworthy case of Chinese naming, as the English name sounds Chinese to begin with, and if not translated carefully could have many negative connotations.

Single character Chinese brand names are rare yet fascinating. This article aims to uncover whether they could be seen as a potential branding solution by examining the meaning of three names, “沃” (wò) , “蒲” (pú), and “雕” (diāo), and evaluating their effectiveness in appealing to their target markets. The benefits and risks of using a single character trademark as a brand name will also be discussed.

One of China’s most popular and successful social networking site Xiaonei, meaning "on campus" in Chinese, changed its name to RenRen.com, meaning "everybody", earlier this month.