Chinese given name

Chinese given names(Chinese:Danh;pinyin:míng) are thegiven namesadopted by speakers of theChinese language,both in majority-Sinophone countries and among theChinese diaspora.

Description

Chinese given names are almost always made up of one or - usually - twocharactersand are writtenafterthe surname. Therefore, Wei (Vĩ) of theZhang(Trương) family is called "Zhang Wei" and not "Wei Zhang". In contrast to the relative paucity ofChinese surnames,given names can theoretically include any of the Chinese language's 100,000 charactersand contain almost any meaning.

It is considered disrespectful in China to name a child after an older relative, and both bad practice and disadvantageous for the child's fortune to copy the names of celebrities or famous historical figures. A common name like "Liu Xiang"might be possessed by tens of thousands of people,but generally they were not namedforthe athlete. An even strongernaming taboowas current during the time of theChinese Empire,when other bearers of the emperor's name could be gravely punished for not having changed their name upon his ascension. Similarly, it is quite rare to see Chinese children bear the same name as their fathers – the closest examples typically include small differences, such as the formerPremierLi Peng's son, who is namedLi Xiaopeng.

Since theThree Kingdomsera, some families have hadgeneration namesworked out long in advance, and all members (or all male members) of a generation have the same first character in their two-character given names. In other families there is a small number of generational names which are cycled through. Together, these generation names may be apoemabout the hope or history of the family. This tradition has largely fallen into abeyance since theCommunistvictory in theCivil War;the "Ze" ( trạch ) inMao Zedongwas the fourteenth generation of such a cycle, but he chose to ignore his family's generational poem to name his own sons.A similar practice was observed regarding thestage namesofChinese operaperformers: all the students entering a training academy in the same year would adopt the same first character in their new "given name". For example, as part of the class entering the National Drama School in 1933,Li Yuruadopted a name with the central character "jade" (Ngọc).

There are also other conventions. It is frequently the case that children are given names based ongender stereotypes,with boys acquiring 'masculine' names implying strength or courage while girls receive 'feminine' names concerning beauty or flowers. Since doubled characters are considereddiminutivesin Chinese, many girls also receive names including a doubled pair of characters or two characters with identical pronunciation. A famous exception to this generally feminine practice isYo-Yo Ma.

Apart from generational names, siblings' names are frequently related in other ways as well. For example, one son's name may include a character meaning "Sun" (DươngorNhật) while his sister would have the character for "Moon" (Nguyệt) or a character including the moonradical.It is also common to splitmodern Chinesewords – which now usually consist of two characters of similar meaning both to each other and the full word – among a pair of children, such as Jiankang (Kiện khang,"healthy" ) appearing in the children's names as -jian (Kiện,"strong" ) and -kang (Khang,"healthy" ).

Chinese personal names can also reflect periods of history. For example, many Chinese born during theCultural Revolutionhave "revolutionary names" such as Qiangguo (Cường quốc,lit."Strong Country" or "Strengthening the Country" ) or Dongfeng (ĐôngPhong,lit."Eastern Wind" ). InTaiwan,it was formerly common to incorporate one of the four characters of the name "Republic of China"(Trung hoaDân quốc,Zhōnghuá Mínguó) into masculine names. Patriotic names remain common but are becoming less popular – 960,000 Chinese are currently named Jianguo (Kiến quốc,lit."Building the Country" ) but only a few thousand more are now being added each year.

Within families, adults rarely refer to each other by personal names. Adult relatives and children referring to adults generally use a family title such as "Big Sister", "Second Sister", "Third Sister", and so on. It is considered rude for a child to refer to parents by their given name, and this taboo is extended to all adult relatives.

When speaking of non-family social acquaintances, people are generally referred to by a title – for example, "Mister Zhang", "Mother Li" or "Chu's Wife". Personal names are used when referring to adult friends or to children and are typically spoken completely; if the given name is two characters long, it is almost never truncated. Another common way to reference someone in a friendly way is to call them "Old" (Lão,Lǎo) or "Little" (Tiểu,xiǎo) along with their surname.

Many people have a non-Chinese name (typicallyEnglish) in addition to their Chinese names. For example, the Taiwanese politicianSoong Chu-yuis also known as "James Soong". In the case of Christians, their Western names are often their baptismal names. InHong Kong,it is common to list the names all together, beginning with the English given name, moving on to the Chinese surname, and then ending with the Chinese given name – for example,Alex Fong Chung-Sun.AmongAmerican-bornand otheroverseas Chineseit is common practice to be referred to primarily by one's non-Chinese name, with the Chinese one relegated to alternate ormiddle namestatus. Recent immigrants, however, often use their Chinese name as theirlegal nameand adopt a non-Chinese name for casual use only.

Proper use ofpinyin romanizationmeans treating a Chinese given name as a single word with no space between the letters of the two characters: for example, the common name vương tú anh is properly rendered either with itstone marksas Wáng Xiùyīng or without as Wang Xiuying, but should not be written as Wang Xiu Ying, Wang XiuYing, Wangxiuying, &c. The earlierWade-Gilessystem accomplished the same effect by hyphenating the given name between the characters: for example, the same name would be written as Wang²Hsiù⁴-yīng¹.However, many Chinese do not follow these rules, romanizing their names with a space between each. This can cause non–Chinese-speakers to incorrectly take the names as divisible.

In regions where fortune-telling is more popular, many parents may name their children on the advice ofliteromancers.The advice are often given based on the number of strokes of the names or the perceived elemental value of the characters in relation to the child's birth time and personal elemental value; rarely on the sound of the name as there is no system of fortune-telling based on character pronunciations. In jurisdictions where it is possible, people may also choose to change their legal given name, or their children's names, in order to improve their fortune.

Common Chinese names

As of 2007, the most common names in China were:

Rank	Surname	Given name	Pinyin romanization	Meaning	Number
1	Hoàng	Lệ	Lì	Pretty, Graceful	290607
2	Vương	Vĩ	Wěi	Big, Great	281568
3	Vương	Phương	Fāng	Fragrance, Virtue	268268
4	Lý	Vĩ	Wěi	Big, Great	260980
5	Vương	Tú anh	Xiùyīng	Outstanding Beauty, Elegant & Brave	246737
6	Lý	Tú anh	Xiùyīng	Outstanding Beauty, Elegant & Brave	244637
7	Lý	Na	Nà	[None]	244223
8	Trương	Tú anh	Xiùyīng	Outstanding Beauty, Elegant & Brave	236266
9	Lưu	Vĩ	Wěi	Big, Great	234352
10	Trương	Mẫn	Mǐn	Quick, Clever	233708
11	Lý	Tĩnh	Jìng	Peaceful, Tranquil	232686
12	Trương	Lệ	Lì	Beautiful	232533
13	Vương	Tĩnh	Jìng	Peaceful, Tranquil	231914
14	Vương	Lệ	Lì	Beautiful	226724
15	Lý	Cường	Qiáng	Strong, Better	223950
16	Trương	Tĩnh	Jìng	Peaceful, Tranquil	221483
17	Lý	Mẫn	Mǐn	Quick, Clever	213606
18	Vương	Mẫn	Mǐn	Quick, Clever	213603
19	Vương	Lỗi	Lěi	Mound of Rocks, Great	209757
20	Lý	Quân	Jūn	Army	199772
21	Lưu	Dương	Yáng	Ocean	199642
22	Vương	Dũng	Yǒng	Brave	198720
23	Trương	Dũng	Yǒng	Brave	197859
24	Vương	Diễm	Yàn	Gorgeous	194371
25	Lý	Kiệt	Jié	Outstanding, Heroic	191759
26	Trương	Lỗi	Lěi	Mound of Rocks, Great	191065
27	Vương	Cường	Qiáng	Strong, Better	190266
28	Vương	Quân	Jūn	Army	189999
29	Trương	Kiệt	Jié	Outstanding, Heroic	189117
30	Lý	Quyên	Juān	Beautiful, Bewitching	187701
31	Trương	Diễm	Yàn	Gorgeous	181752
32	Trương	Đào	Tāo	Large Wave	177993
33	Vương	Đào	Tāo	Large Wave	177978
34	Lý	Minh	Míng	Bright	177898
35	Lý	Diễm	Yàn	Gorgeous	176676
36	Vương	Siêu	Chāo	Overleap, Surpass	174891
37	Lý	Dũng	Yǒng	Brave	173615
38	Vương	Quyên	Juān	Beautiful, Bewitching	171785
39	Lưu	Kiệt	Jié	Outstanding, Heroic	166929
40	Vương	Tú lan	Xiùlán	Beautiful Orchid, Elegant & Graceful	166111
41	Lý	Hà	Xiá	Rosy Clouds, Mist	165189
42	Lưu	Mẫn	Mǐn	Quick, Clever	164133
43	Trương	Quân	Jūn	Army	162773
44	Lý	Lệ	Lì	Beautiful	162497
45	Trương	Cường	Qiáng	Strong, Better	159914
46	Vương	Bình	Píng	Peaceful, Tranquil	155617
47	Vương	Cương	Gāng	Hard, Strong	154600
48	Vương	Kiệt	Jié	Outstanding, Heroic	154113
49	Lý	Quế anh	Guìyīng	Laurel & Beautiful, Brave	153218
50	Lưu	Phương	Fāng	Fragrance, Virtue	152189

See also

• Art name
• Chinese clan name
• Chinese nickname
• Chinese surname
• Courtesy name
• Generation name
• Japanese name
• American name
• Korean name
• Milk name
• Naming taboo
• Onomastics
• Posthumous name
• Russian name
• School name
• Temple name
• Vietnamese name

External links

• Some western names written in Chinese characters
• Scholar urges resuming traditional namesat theWayback Machine(archived 2022-06-26)
• Top 20 Mostly Used Given Names in China