The word "苏菲" is formed by combining the character "苏", which historically derives from a pictograph of plants and conveys meanings like revival or perilla, with the character "菲", which denotes fragrant plants or herbs. In this compound, the characters are used solely for their phonetic values to transliterate the foreign name "Sophie", with "苏" approximating the sound "Su" and "菲" approximating "fei", without relying on the literal meanings of the individual characters.