Mah Jong means "the game of 100 intelligences" -- however -- that name was given to the game about 100 years ago, when somebody commercialized the game. It has historically been called Mah Cheuk (various spellings, this it the cantonese spelling), it means "sparrow". http://sloperama.com/mjfaq/mjfaq11.htm http://www.gamezparty.com/Mah_Jong_Name.htm

"mah-jongg" - Alternative spellings mah-jong mahjong mahjongg a game of Chinese origin usually played by four persons with 144 tiles that are drawn and discarded until one player secures a winning hand. http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=48125&dict=CALD a Chinese game in which players pick up and put down small painted pieces of wood or other material until they have the combination they want in order to win. http://dictionary.cambridge.org/define.asp?key=48125&dict=CALD Mahjong (Traditional Chinese: Simplified Chinese: pinyin: Májiàng; Cantonese: Màhjeung;) other common English spellings include mahjongg, hyphenated forms such as mah-jong or mah-jongg, non-hyphenated forms such as mah jongg or mah jong, and the Pinyin spelling of majiang) is a game for four players that originated in China. Also known as Chinese: pinyin: Máquè; Cantonese: Màhjeuk; Japanese: Mājan. Mahjong involves skill, strategy, and calculation, as well as a certain degree of luck. Depending on the variation which is played, luck can be anything from a minor to a dominant factor in success. In Asia, mahjong is also popular as gambling or computer games. The object of the game is to build complete suits - or melds - usually of threes, from either 13 or 16 tiles. The first person to achieve this goal wins the game. The winning tile completes the player's set of either 14 or 17 tiles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mah_Jongg

I don't know what it means....but my family loves it! Back in 1990 I purchased one SEGA game called "Shanghai". My mother and my sisters got addicted...What a nice game!

1) "Etymology: < dial. form of Chin ma-ch'iao, lit., house sparrow, a figure on one of the tiles" Source: http://www.yourdictionary.com/mah-jongg 2) "1922, from dial. Chinese (Shanghai) ma chiang, name of the game, lit. "sparrows," from ma "hemp" + chaing "little birds." The game so called from the design of the pieces." Source: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=mah-jongg 3) "Etymology: 1920s: Shanghai Chinese ma chiang, meaning 'sparrows' perhaps alluding to the chattering sound made by the tiles during play." Source: http://www.allwords.com/word-mah-jongg.html 4) "One of these rituals, the process of shuffling the tiles at the start of the game, is known as "The twittering of the sparrows", presumably because of the accompanying noise. Since Mah Jong means "the game of the sparrows" or "Sparrow tiles" in Chinese, it seems likely that this is the source of the game's title." Source: http://www.tradgames.org.uk/games/Mah-Jong.htm 5) "Also, this myth claims that Confucius was fond of birds, which would explain the name "Mahjong" (sparrow). However, there is no evidence of Mahjong's existence before the Taiping era in the 19th century that eliminates Confucius as a likely inventor. The general consensus is that the game was developed from existing Chinese card and domino games sometime around 1850.[citation needed] Many historians believe it was based on a Chinese card game called Mádiào (馬吊) (also known as Ma Tiae, lit. Hanging Horse; or Yèzí (葉子), lit. Leaf) in the early Ming dynasty." Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahjong