The Chinese word 博鳌镇 is formed by combining the characters 博 (bó), which can imply "extensive" or serve a phonetic role, and 鳌 (áo), referring to a legendary sea turtle, to create the specific place name 博鳌; this is then followed by 镇 (zhèn), meaning "town", to designate it as a township, thus forming a complete toponym for a particular settlement.