科尔

The male name Cole is rendered in Chinese as 科尔. These characters are chosen for their sound, not their meaning — together they approximate how Cole is pronounced. In pinyin (the standard romanization of Mandarin) this reads Kē ěr.

Character-by-character breakdown

In Chinese, Cole is written with 2 characters, each standing for one syllable of the sound: 科 (Kē), 尔 (ěr). Each character here is a phonetic unit — picked for how it sounds, not for what it means — so read together they echo Cole rather than spelling out a literal meaning.

Origin & meaning of Cole

Cole is a name of English origin. From an Old English surname meaning "charcoal" or "dark-complexioned"; also a short form of Nicholas.