The word "麦克" is formed through phonetic borrowing, where the two characters are chosen solely for their sound to mimic the English name "Mike". The character "麦" (mài) approximates the "Ma" or "Mi" sound, while "克" (kè) approximates the "ke" sound, together creating a close auditory imitation of the foreign word without the individual characters carrying their original meanings (wheat and gram/overcome, respectively). This is a standard method in Chinese for transliterating foreign personal names, brand names, or terms that lack a direct conceptual equivalent.