Chinese Character Stroke Count
Type a Chinese name or any characters to see each character’s stroke count and the total. Everything runs in your browser.
Type a name above to see its stroke count.
What stroke count means
Chinese characters are built from strokes, and the number of strokes is one of the first things people look at when choosing or explaining a name. This tool counts them for you: type a name and you get each character’s stroke count and the total.
It uses the modern standard stroke count, the same one you will find in a Chinese dictionary. If you are doing traditional name analysis, read the next section first — the numbers there can differ.
Modern strokes vs. Kangxi strokes
There are two common ways to count strokes. The modern standard follows how a character is actually written today. The Kangxi standard, used in traditional name analysis, counts certain radicals by their original form: 氵 counts as 4 (water), 艹 as 6 (grass), 扌 as 4 (hand), and 忄 as 4 (heart).
This tool reports modern strokes. That is why 江 shows 6 here but 7 in a Kangxi-based analysis. Neither is wrong — they answer different questions. If another site gives a different number, check which standard it uses before assuming it is a mistake.
Common differences
- 江Modern: 6Kangxi: 7
- 花Modern: 7Kangxi: 10
- 你Modern: 7Kangxi: 7
- 明Modern: 8Kangxi: 8
How strokes are counted
A character is split into strokes by the order it is written, not by how it looks:
- 01Top to bottom, left to right.
- 02Horizontal before vertical: 十 is one horizontal, then one vertical.
- 03Outside before inside, then close the frame: 国 starts with the outer box.
- 04Middle before the sides: 小 is written middle, then left, then right.
- 05A dot or small stroke at the top right usually comes last.
Using stroke counts when choosing a name
Stroke count is one input among many. It tells you how a character is written, not whether a name sounds good or suits the person.
If you are checking a name for traditional five-element analysis, use the Kangxi count from a dedicated tool. If you just want to know how many strokes a name has, or compare two names, this page is enough.