元宝在家摇坏东西的搞笑日常

What does “元宝” (yuanbao) mean as a Chinese pet name?

In this clip, a mischievous dog named 元宝 (Yuánbǎo) keeps knocking things off the bed. The name isn’t random: a yuánbǎo is the boat-shaped gold or silver ingot that served as currency in imperial China and still appears everywhere at Lunar New Year — on decorations, in dumpling shapes, even as paper money burned for ancestors. Naming a pet “Yuánbǎo” is a wish for the household’s luck and wealth.

The ingot shape shows up constantly in Chinese visual culture: dumplings (饺子 jiǎozi) are pinched into that curved shape on purpose, so a table full of them “looks like” a table full of gold. Gold-foil chocolate coins and red-envelope art borrow the same silhouette. A pet or baby nicknamed 元宝 gets the same blessing as a New Year’s dumpling — wealth rolling in.