The name Mingjian originates from a Japanese transliteration of the original Taiwanese Hokkien name, Làm-á (Chinese: 湳仔; pinyin: Nǎnzǎi), with literal meaning "a very wet place".[2] In 1920, during Japanese rule, the name was changed to Nama (名間) which closely matched the Taiwanese pronunciation but with different kanji (Chinese characters) for the name. This written form was retained after the Kuomintang takeover of Taiwan in 1945; the characters are pronounced Bêng-kan and Míngjiān in Taiwanese and Mandarin Chinese, respectively.
^臺灣地區鄉鎮市區級以上行政區域名稱中英對照表 Glossary of Names for Administrative Divisions. Ministry of the Interior. 26 March Minguo 104 (2015). Retrieved 25 July 2017. (in Chinese)