The Chinese word 墨尔本 (Mò'ěrběn) is a direct phonetic transliteration of the English city name "Melbourne," formed through a common process in Chinese for adapting foreign proper nouns. It uses three characters—墨 (mò), 尔 (ěr), and 本 (běn)—selected solely for their sound values in Mandarin to approximate the syllables of the original name, with no regard for the literal meanings of the individual characters (which are "ink," "you," and "root/origin," respectively). This method of creation is standard for rendering foreign place names into Chinese, ensuring auditory recognizability while fitting the language's syllabic structure.