What's in a Name?

Names are very important to the Chinese. When a baby is born, or even before birth, choosing a meaningful name becomes the most important part of the entire family's ritual. And unlike letters and words of Western names, because of their evolvement from hieroglyphics, Chinese characters give a unique visual image of the person they represent.

In China, names are normally two or three characters, and the order of the given name and the family name is a reversal of Western names. According to Chinese tradition, the name of a person starts with his/her surname, which is followed by the given name, like Gong Li. This is because in Chinese culture, emphasis is placed on revering the ancestors, and part of this process means people honor their ancestors by placing the family names ahead of the given names.

In some families, the first of the two characters in a person's name is shared by all members of a generation and these generational names are worked out long in advance. They can even incorporate characters of epic poems, shared by succeeding generations.

Some names of brothers or sisters are frequently related. For example, one child may be named bo, while his (her) brother or sister may be named [/i]tao.[/i] Combined together, the word botao mean waves or billows.

Most Chinese also have a "little name" or pet name, which their parents and close family members and friends call them by. These names are generally not used by anyone outside this close circle and have sharp regional characteristics according to traditions or conventions of different regions.

Destiny starts here

To help them decide on a baby's name, Chinese parents often make use of the dictionary, hoping to find characters or words that have both a beautiful sound and a positive meaning. Given names may also reflect the hopes or blessings from parents or family.

In Chinese culture, emphasis is placed on revering the ancestors

For example, the given names of China's former leaders Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai are very meaningful in Chinese. The character ze means granting beneficence to something or somebody. So zedong means, granting beneficence to the orient. The character en means kindness and lai means to come, so enlai means kindnesses is coming. However, translations of their names into a foreign language will lose these subtle connotations.

One of the most common characters in Chinese given names is wen, meaning culture and knowledge. This character in a name clearly reflects the ultimate value in modern Chinese society: culture and education.

Another commonly used character in the given name is zhi, meaning will, intention or emotions, showing the expectation of the parents that the child will grow up with a strong will.

In other cases, the character qian, meaning humility, is given in the hope that the child would always remain humble. The character fu, meaning rich, is used in the hope that the child would lead a prosperous life. Besides the meaning of the name, Chinese people also pay attention to whether the name is auspicious, believing a name will affect the child's destiny.

In recent years, a trend has developed where parents are buying names for their babies from experts specializing in this field. The year, month, day and hour of a baby's birth are all taken into consideration in the naming process, much like the use of astrology in the West. The experts use the five natural elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth, which Chinese philosophy believes form the core of the universe, to define a person's destiny. For example, if a baby's fate is calculated to lack water, they will find a name representing or related with water to compensate.

However, Wang Haohua, Director of the China Name Culture Research Society, warned that although most name experts choose names based on traditional Chinese culture and I Ching, or Book of Changes, an ancient Chinese divination manual and book of wisdom, their business needs regulating. He suggests that people still need to focus more on the meanings, form and sound when choosing names.

Reflecting history

Another interesting phenomenon of Chinese names is that they often relate to a period of history, especially in the past six decades. For example, if a man was born in 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, his name is very possible to be jianguo, which means, founding a country, or jiefang, which means liberation.

And if a person was born in 1950, when China sent troops to Korea to help the country fight against the Americans, his name might be yuanchao, meaning, helping Korea. The downside of this trend is that many people end up sharing the same given and family name, creating much confusion.

With its massive population and comparatively limited name pool, many Chinese share the same name

In the period of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), most names would include the characters hong, meaning red and implying revolution, or the character jun, meaning army, showing the love and respect of people to the army at that time.

After the Cultural Revolution, names are usually two characters--one is the surname and the other is the given name, such as Zhang Ping, Li Gang and Wang Li. The character ping, means peace and stability, and is one of the most popular given names during that period. According to Du Peng, professor at the Population Development Studies Center, Renmin University of China, this reflects the hope people had for a simple, stable life after the chaotic years of the Cultural Revolution.

With time, these historical references have lost popularity, with many parents now favoring names from ancient literary or poetic works, hoping their children will be as elegant and knowledgeable as their names.

One name too many

With its massive population and comparatively limited name pool, many Chinese share the same name, something that has become a social problem and caused varying degrees of inconvenience in people's life and work.

According to a survey carried out in Shenyang, capital city of Liaoning Province, there are 4,049 people called Liu Yang in the city. Among people surnamed Zhang, Wang, Li and Liu, the four most found surnames in China, 12,828 have the same character wei in their given names. In addition, females whose given name is shufen, meaning virtuous and ladylike, number 7,000. This is patently a hotbed for confusion.

In a desperate attempt to ensure their child is unique in the name department, many parents now create new characters themselves or use ancient characters rarely known to people in names of their children.

Adding to the complication is the fact that these complex name permutations cannot be typed out on a computer, which hinders the registration of newly born babies.

In an attempt to reform the current naming process, the Ministry of Public Security has worked out a draft regulation on name registration and management. According to the draft plan, a baby can use a combination of the surnames of its father and mother, as his/her surname, to allow more naming options. It is hoped that in the future this will reduce the restriction of parents being bound by the use of similar names.