The word "克林顿" (Kèlín dùn) is a phonetic transliteration formed to approximate the sounds of the English surname "Clinton," where "克" (kè) represents the "Cli-" or "Cle-" sound, "林" (lín) represents the "-lin-" sound, and "顿" (dùn) represents the "-ton" ending, with the characters chosen primarily for their sound rather than their literal meanings (which are "overcome," "forest," and "pause," respectively), following the standard Chinese practice for rendering foreign names.