The word "康奈尔" is formed through phonetic transliteration, specifically to represent the sounds of the English name "Cornell". Each character is selected solely for its auditory approximation: "康" (kāng) mimics "Cor", "奈" (nài) mimics "nel", and "尔" (ěr) captures the final sound, collectively creating the Mandarin pronunciation "Kāng nài ěr" without regard to the meanings of the individual characters.