How do I enter a father's older brother in the Chinese kinship calculator?

Enter the relationship as a chain using the page's Chinese relationship terms; a father's older brother normally resolves to a paternal-uncle title. This example contains 2 relationship steps, and the picker offers 3 regional modes: general, northern, and Guangdong. If several titles appear, account for age, gender, and local usage. The result reflects the bundled vocabulary and cannot resolve every family circumstance from the text alone.

Why can simplified Chinese kinship terms fail on the traditional page?

The simplified and traditional pages load different vocabularies, so input terms must match the selected page language. There are 2 vocabulary sets, with the simplified and English pages sharing 1 of them. Recheck the relationship words after changing languages rather than assuming that an empty result means no relationship exists. Regional titles and spelling differences can affect lookup independently of the underlying family connection being described.

Why does reverse kinship title lookup ask for gender?

Reverse title lookup changes whose perspective determines the relationship name, making the selected gender and direction relevant. A relationship chain with 2 steps can yield different titles under the 2 gender settings. Set the intended viewpoint before interpreting the answer. The calculator uses a bundled vocabulary rather than a full family record, so complex circumstances and local conventions may require information beyond the entered relationship chain.

Chinese kinship calculator

Write a chain of relations and get the Chinese term of address

Computed in your browser

Chain the steps with 的, for example 妈妈的妈妈的哥哥. The quick-input buttons add the 的 for you.

What to work out

The relative

Seen from (leave empty for yourself)

Quick input

Your own gender

Only matters when the answer differs by gender; leave it unspecified when in doubt.

Direction

Regional usage

Example

Input

妈妈的妈妈的哥哥

Example result

舅外公

The same chain can yield different terms under different regional modes, and an ambiguous term lists every possibility at once.

Technical details & limits

Everything runs in the browser: the script splits the input on 的 into a chain of relations and looks the chain up in a bundled word list. The simplified and English pages load the library’s default list; the traditional page loads its zh-HK list. The two are not interchangeable, so simplified input on the traditional page (or the reverse) finds nothing. Regional usage is registered through the library’s setMode and covers only the general, northern and Guangdong sets.

About this tool

Start from yourself and chain each step with 的 — for example 妈妈的妈妈的哥哥 — and the page works out the Chinese term of address. It also runs the other way: expand a term you have heard into the relation chain behind it, or work out how two relatives relate to each other. You can set your own gender, the direction of address, and pick general, northern or Guangdong usage. The kinship data and algorithm come from the open-source library relationship.js, shipped with this site; your input stays in the browser.

Use cases

Check what to call someone before a family gathering.
Expand a term you have heard into the actual relation, to see which side of the family it is.
Look up how two relatives address each other, such as the parents of a married couple.

How to use

Choose what to work out: a term of address, a relation chain, or a pair.
Write the chain from yourself in the first field, or build it with the quick-input buttons.
To see it from someone else’s position, fill in the second field; leave it empty for your own.
For a term of address you can set your gender and the direction, and switch regional usage.

Notes

Terms for relatives vary a lot by region, and the same word can point to different people in different places. The page gives common usage for the selected regional mode; it is not a guarantee that it matches your own family’s habit, and it does not cover every dialect. The traditional-Chinese page uses a separate word list (Hong Kong and Macau usage), so its results can differ from the simplified page.

FAQ

How do I enter a father's older brother in the Chinese kinship calculator?: Enter the relationship as a chain using the page's Chinese relationship terms; a father's older brother normally resolves to a paternal-uncle title. This example contains 2 relationship steps, and the picker offers 3 regional modes: general, northern, and Guangdong. If several titles appear, account for age, gender, and local usage. The result reflects the bundled vocabulary and cannot resolve every family circumstance from the text alone.
Why can simplified Chinese kinship terms fail on the traditional page?: The simplified and traditional pages load different vocabularies, so input terms must match the selected page language. There are 2 vocabulary sets, with the simplified and English pages sharing 1 of them. Recheck the relationship words after changing languages rather than assuming that an empty result means no relationship exists. Regional titles and spelling differences can affect lookup independently of the underlying family connection being described.
Why does reverse kinship title lookup ask for gender?: Reverse title lookup changes whose perspective determines the relationship name, making the selected gender and direction relevant. A relationship chain with 2 steps can yield different titles under the 2 gender settings. Set the intended viewpoint before interpreting the answer. The calculator uses a bundled vocabulary rather than a full family record, so complex circumstances and local conventions may require information beyond the entered relationship chain.

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