The Chinese word 麦迪逊 (Mài dí xùn) is a phonetically-based transliteration formed to approximate the sounds of the English name "Madison". It is created by selecting Chinese characters whose pronunciations, in sequence, closely match the syllables of the source word ("Mai" for "Ma", "di" for "di", and "xun" for "son"), with no regard for the literal meanings of the individual characters (which are "wheat", "enlighten", and "rapid" respectively). This process of using characters purely for their sound is a standard method in Chinese for adapting foreign proper nouns, such as place and personal names, into the writing system.