Good Characters, Inc. Blog

Microsoft is translated to Chinese by meaning as 微软 (wei ruan), simplified, or 微軟, traditional characters.

微 (wei) is minute, tiny, or slight.
软 (ruan) is soft. It can be seen as short for 軟體 (ruan ti) meaning software.

The character 微 (wei) means not only small, but also has connotations of profound and delicate, as in 微妙 (wei miao), subtle, delicate, and 精微 (jing wei), small and refined, subtle. 微 (wei) also sounds the same as 唯 (wei), meaning only or alone. Therefore, by sound 微軟 could also bring out the association of 唯軟, suggesting “the supremacy of software (v.s. hardware or anything else)” or “the best software company.”