Does 伊 have any special meaning? I know it’s often used in old script and such, but there aren’t many other uses. I was always told that my Chinese name meant light/beautiful girl, but I haven’t found anything pointing to that specific definition.
I kind of get it with the radicals especially in 姜, but I don’t know much about 伊 or even Chinese culture. For all I know it’s like “John” or “Emma” and has a forgotten meaning, or none at all.
I’ve just started learning Mandarin, so I thought getting to know my name, 姜伊, would be cool :)
伊 was used as 3rd person reference in ancient written Chinese.
In the beginning, it is equivalent to 他. But later on when Western books are translated into Chinese, sometimes &quot;he&quot; and &quot;she&quot; are confusing. The translator 郭赞生 suggested in his translation of a grammar book《文法初阶》that &quot;he&quot; should be translated as 他 and &quot;she&quot; translated as 伊. This is also guidance for original writings. The most famous literature that adopted this idea is from 鲁迅.
But later on, 刘半农（some say 钱玄同) introduced the character 她 which is used now in modern Chinese. The advantage of 她 over 伊 is that Chinese spoken language do not have a different pronunciation for different genders, so it is better to have the same pronunciation for all three 他 / 她 / 它, even though they are written down as different characters.
As a result, even though 伊 is not used now, it is still female related.
Reference: http://news.sina.com.cn/o/2005-07-26/04596526559s.shtml?from=wap