The Chinese word for Cuba, "古巴" (Gǔbā), is formed through a process of phonetic transliteration from the foreign name, where the two characters were chosen primarily for how closely their combined pronunciation approximates the sound of the English "Cuba". The character "古" (gǔ) provides the "Cu" sound, and "巴" (bā) provides the "ba" sound. While the characters individually carry meanings like "ancient" and "to long for/hope", these meanings are generally incidental and not the basis for the term's creation, which was fundamentally an effort to replicate the name's sound within the constraints of the Chinese syllable system.