Sweet Ava's Name

We're so grateful to our friend Peter, who put us in touch with his coworker Xiao. Xiao graciously looked over the Chinese characters of Ava's given name, Yu Li Juan. We thought we would share with you!
But first, we can't let Ava's picture move lower on the page, so here is another picture some of you haven't yet seen!



Now, here's the description of the meaning behind Yu Li Juan, as transcribed by Peter. The first character is Yu, which is the surname, and is an abbreviation for Chongqing (like WI for Wisconsin) where she was born.

For Li, Juan, and most other characters, there are four ways to say it (tones or sounds), and how its written indicates which of the four, therefore what it means. I'll try to convey those four tones by the following keyboard symbols:

-- (straight tone)
/ (rising tone)
\/ (descending then rising)
\ (descending)

Li as that character appears is descending, which means very precisely "beautiful." Li is more straightforward than Juan.

The Juan character is composed of two parts, and is spoken with the straight tone. How exactly its pronounced has got be an accent/dialect thing, but Xiao was saying the J somewhere between our soft and hard J. And he pronouces Juan ever so subtly as two syllables. But the "tone" is still flat/straight.

The left part of the Juan character has evolved over time (centuries?) and its roots lie in "woman" or "feminine." So whenever you see a character with that left part of Juan in it, it indicates feminine. The right part has its roots in "delicate accessories" like a woman's scarf or shawl.

So taken together, the Juan character means graceful or beautiful.