The Chinese word 毕尔巴鄂 is formed exclusively through phonetic transliteration, with each character chosen for its sound to approximate the foreign pronunciation of the Spanish city "Bilbao". The characters 毕 (bì), 尔 (ěr), 巴 (bā), and 鄂 (è) are combined in sequence to mimic the syllables of the original name, without any semantic connection to the place itself.