Is "Jie Yao" a male or female name?

[stevt...@rocketmail.com]

I am going to graduate school this summer and I will be working with four
other people on a research project. I received their names and one was
named Jie Yao. I would like to know if this person is a male or female
since I have no absolutely no idea ...

Thanks in advance,

Steve Taylor
stevt...@rocketmail.com

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[James A Honeychuck]

Impossible to say for sure. If your graduate school is outside China,
you can assume the order of the surname and given name has been reversed
and that the surname is Yao. (Also, there is no common surname Jie.)
Using different Chinese characters, Jie could be typically feminine
(meaning "clear, pure"), typically masculine (meaning "hero"), or about
25 other possible Jie's whose gender is unknown.

Jim
Translator, Chinese > English