Characters belonging to the Earth element often carry imagery of land, mountains and rivers, and are frequently used in naming to supplement the Earth element.

Earth-element characters are a category of characters used in the traditional Five Elements theory and name studies, referring to Chinese characters believed to have the attribute of the Earth element. The ancients used metal, wood, water, fire and earth to summarise the attributes of things, and Chinese characters were also brought into this classification system. Any character whose form or meaning relates to the earth, mountains and rivers, or fields and soil is mostly classified under the Earth element.

There are several common ways to judge whether a character belongs to the Earth element. First, look at the radical: characters with the earth radical, the mountain radical or the field radical are usually regarded as belonging to the Earth element; second, look at the meaning: characters whose meaning relates to land, mountains, solidity or bearing are also often counted as the Earth element. In addition, some schools also refer to the stroke count in the Kangxi Dictionary and determine the Five Elements attribute by the last digit of the stroke count.

Common Earth-element characters include Kun, Yao, Pei, Cheng, Ji, Jian, Tang, Jun, Jing and Zeng, as well as Shan, Yan, Feng, Lan, Lei and Song. These characters either take the earth radical or the mountain radical, and their forms themselves carry the imagery of soil and mountain stone, giving an overall impression that tends toward steadiness and weight.

In naming customs, if a person's birth horoscope is calculated to favour the Earth element or lack it, parents often choose Earth-element characters to add to the name, placing hopes for steadiness, reliability and inclusiveness; characters such as Kun, Pei, Lei and Yuan are relatively common. Some shops and brands also refer to this kind of consideration when choosing names.

It should be noted that the judgment standards of various schools are not entirely uniform, and the same character is sometimes assigned to different Five Elements in different sources. Therefore, when using Earth-element characters, the more prudent approach is to take into account the sound, form and meaning of the character, and to treat it merely as a reference within traditional folk culture, without being overly rigid about it.