I think her Chinese name should be Wén Míng. Wén means "coloring on the clouds" or "colored clouds." Míng means "[1] bright; light; brilliant [2] day; daybreak; dawn; [3] intelligent; clever." So put together, it approximates a meaning of light or color on the clouds at sunrise. (Or intelligent/brilliant). She could use the English translation "Dawn" if she wanted. Dawn is a good name, isn't it?! :)
Having read that "it is very easy to make a bad Chinese name," I polled my resources. I sent the characters and my attempts at combining them and translating them to my friend Jen, who has been teaching English in China, asking her to ask her Chinese friends if this would be an OK name. I got an e-mail from a kind Chinese woman saying that the name is OK and that I am correct about the meanings. She wanted me to be aware that there is a homophone* for Wén Míng that means "cultivated." Also to keep it written in two parts (not Wenming or Wen-ming).
Then again, Michael could veto the whole idea. We'll see.
*homophone: the words are pronounced the same but written differently and have different meanings. In English -- bare vs. bear. In Chinese, same pronunciation, different characters.
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