童

Top indexing standing radical — depicts a person standing upright. Historically the top of 童 derived from 妾 / 辛 (a tattoo knife marking a slave or servant), reflecting the ancient meaning 'young male slave'. The standing posture later read as 'a child standing tall', which is the everyday mnemonic. Modern feeling: a small upright figure — a child.

Bottom 里 — historically a remnant of 重 (heavy/repeat), serving as the phonetic in the original 童 (whose ancient pronunciation was closer to dòng). The connection to the modern reading tóng is opaque. Common mnemonic: a child (above) standing in the village (里 below). Same village element appears in 重 and 量.