How it works
These Chinese team names are words and four-character sayings of Mandarin Chinese, not the names of Chinese clubs or national sides. Five come at a press, each in pinyin with simplified characters in brackets and its meaning in English.
Read the full guide
Team names in Chinese by set
Animals has Měnghǔ (猛虎), fierce tiger; Xióngmāo (熊猫), panda; and Hēimǎ (黑马), dark horse, an unexpected winner. Strength, speed and weather has Xuànfēng (旋风), whirlwind and Diānfēng (巅峰), summit, pinnacle. Chinese class or club has Huǒbàn (伙伴), companion, partner; Duìyǒu (队友), teammate; and Shūchóng (书虫), bookworm.
Four-character sayings
Short sayings holds set phrases of four characters, printed with a space between syllables: Yī mǎ dāng xiān (一马当先), to take the lead; Qí xīn xié lì (齐心协力), to pull together with a common purpose; Bǎi fā bǎi zhòng (百发百中), a hundred shots, a hundred hits; and Fēng yǔ wú zǔ (风雨无阻), rain or shine.
Questions and answers
How are the names written?
In pinyin with tone marks, converted from the numbered pinyin of the CC-CEDICT dictionary, then the simplified characters in brackets. A name can be copied in either form.
Are the names Mandarin or Cantonese?
The readings are Mandarin, in pinyin. The characters are the simplified forms CC-CEDICT gives; the dictionary also gives a traditional form for each word, which this page does not print.
Are these the names of real Chinese teams?
None was copied from a club or a national side; all are dictionary words and sayings. A word whose Wikipedia page is a company, a film, a book, a team or a person was removed, and so was one word that is a brand name.
Where do the meanings come from?
From the word's entry in CC-CEDICT, the free Chinese-English dictionary published at mdbg.net, in the copy downloaded on 2026-10-04. The line under each name is that definition, shortened and reworded. A word with no entry was left out.