Characters for foreign names / places Non-Chinese names and places are usually transliterated by using similar sounding characters.
Assuming that no established Chinese transliteration exists for a certain family or place name, and assuming that the transliteration should be purely phonetic, not drawing on the meaning of the word:

How should I choose from the many characters of the same pronunciation?
Is there a predefined (maybe even official) list of characters to choose from?

I'm asking because certain characters will definitely look odd in a place or family name.
It is a transcription table in China.