“Baby Yoda” in Chinese

You’re watching The Mandalorian right? It’s the only thing we Star Wars fans have to be happy about in 2019!

Anyway, the breakout hit of the series is no secret: it’s “Baby Yoda” (not his real name).

The Chinese market is famously unimpressed with the entire Star Wars franchise, but just like everyone else, the Chinese love a cute character. So Baby Yoda’s gotta be popular in China too, right? Wellll… kinda. But anyway, we’re talking about how to say “Baby Yoda” in Chinese.

You might be tempted to go straight for the direct translation. Remembering that generic titles (like 老师) typically come come after the “namey” part of the name, you get “Yoda Baby,” or 尤达婴儿. And this name indeed does appear online (currently 216k hits on Baidu).

The Chinese-ier (and cuter) version of the name uses the slangier 宝宝 for “baby,” though, giving us the more natural translation of: 尤达宝宝 (currently 924k hits on Baidu).

So there you have it!

A few other vocabulary tidbits related to the show:

• 星球大战 (Xīngqiú Dàzhàn) Star Wars
• 曼达洛人 (Màndáluò Rén) The Mandalorian
• 原力 (Yuánlì) the Force
• 尤达 (Yóudá) Yoda
• 尤达宝宝 (Yóudá Bǎobao) Baby Yoda
• 曼达洛人 (Màndáluò rén) Mando
• 波巴·费特 (Bōbā Fèitè) Boba Fett