The Chinese word 苏珊 is formed through phonetic transliteration, where the sounds of the English name "Susan" are approximated using Chinese characters. The character 苏 (sū) corresponds to the "Su" sound, and 珊 (shān) corresponds to the "san" sound, with both characters selected primarily for their phonetic similarity rather than their meanings. When combined, they create a disyllabic word that replicates the pronunciation of the original name.