What does my brothers Chinese character tattoo mean? ?

Question

What does each character mean? Is it a sentence or a chinese name? Are characters like those supposed to be read top to bottom or left to right? Thank you!

http://www.bashd.com/characters.jpg

Answer 1

陽 - sun/solar

å¾· - virtue; energy

考 - test

It's a Chinese name, with the surname 陽 (yang/yeng) going first and the first name coming after. Characters like that are supposed to be read from top to bottom.

Answer 2

陽德考

yang2 de2 kao3

"Consider warm virtue"

Answer 3

陽德考(Mandarin Yang2 De2 Kao3)  Read top to bottom.  Probably a person's name.

陽 -- Yang2  surname; sun; positive; masculine

å¾· -- De2  virtue; kindness; Germany

考 -- Kao3  to take a test; to inspect