The word "拙政园" is formed by combining three characters: 拙 (zhuō), meaning "clumsy" or "humble", 政 (zhèng), meaning "governance" or "administration", and 园 (yuán), meaning "garden". It directly references the phrase "拙者之为政也" from classical literature, where "拙政" conveys the idea of humble or simple governance, and "园" specifies it as a garden, thus creating a name that literally translates to "Garden of the Humble Administrator".