Chinese female and male names and surnames - history of origin. Chinese Personal Names Common Names in China

Naming a person in Chinese and related cultures differs from the naming system adopted in the West. The most noticeable sign of this difference is that in a Chinese full name, the surname is written first, and only after it the personal name.

Surname

The Chinese naming system is the basis for all traditional ways naming people in East Asia. Almost all East Asian countries follow a tradition similar to China. There are more than 700 different Chinese surnames, but only twenty of them are used by the vast majority Chinese people. Variety of names on Chinese V to a large extent depends on the personal name, not the surname. The vast majority of Chinese surnames are written with one hieroglyph, only a few with two (in the PRC, official lists contain about 20 such “non-standard” surnames, while the rest were reduced to a standard monosyllabic form, including surnames of national minorities, often consisting of more than 2 syllables, such as Mongolian ). Most common Chinese surnames: Li (Chinese: 李, pinyin: Lǐ), Wang (Chinese: 王, pinyin: Wang), Zhang (Chinese trad. 張, exercise 张, pinyin: Zhāng).

Chinese women tend to keep their maiden names and do not take the husband's surname (almost universally in the People's Republic of China), but children tend to inherit their father's surname.

In Russian, a space is usually placed between the Chinese surname and given name: Surname Name, while the name is written together. In old sources, Chinese names were written with a hyphen (Feng Yu-hsiang), but later a continuous spelling became accepted (correctly - Feng Yu-hsiang).

Typically, Chinese people have names consisting of one or two syllables, which are written after the surname. There is a rule that a Chinese name must be translatable into Mandarin. Associated with this rule famous case, when a father, an avid Internet user, was denied registration of his son under the name “@”.

Previously, the Chinese had several names throughout their lives: in childhood - “milk”, or baby name(Xiao-ming, Chinese translation: 小名, pinyin: xiǎo míng), adults received official name(min, Chinese translation 名, pinyin: ming), those serving among their relatives had a middle name (zi, Chinese translation 字, pinyin: zì), some also took a pseudonym (hao, Chinese translation 号, pinyin: hào). However, by the mid-1980s, it became common for adults to have only one official name, min, although "milk" names in childhood were still common.

Baby name

For example, Li Zhenfan (Bruce Lee) had a childhood name of Li Xiaolong (Li Little Dragon), which later became his nickname.

Second name

Second name (字, zì) is a name given upon reaching adulthood (字, zì), which are used throughout life. After 20 years, the middle name is given as a symbol of growing up and respect. Initially, such names were used after male names; a person could receive a second name from his parents, from his first teacher on the first day of visiting family school, or he could choose a second name for himself. The tradition of using middle names gradually began to disappear since the May Fourth Movement (1919). There are two generally accepted forms of the middle name: Tzu 字 (zì) And Hao 號 (hào).

Tzu, sometimes also biaozi(表字) is a name traditionally given to Chinese men at the age of 20, marking their coming of age. Sometimes a woman was given a middle name after marriage. As noted above, in modern Chinese society this tradition is no longer generally accepted. According to Book of rituals(禮記), after a man reached maturity, it was disrespectful for other people of the same age to address him by his first name 名 min. Thus, the name given at birth was used only by the person himself or his older relatives; whereas the second name, Tzu, used by adult peers to address each other when communicating or writing.

Tzu, for the most part, a two-syllable name, that is, it consists of two hieroglyphs, and is usually based on min or the name given at birth. Yan Zhitui (顏之推), who lived during the Northern Qi Dynasty, believed that if the purpose of a name given at birth was to distinguish one person from another, then the purpose of a ‘middle name’ was to indicate the moral worth of the person endowed with that name.

The connection that often exists between a person's middle name and his birth name can be seen in the case of Mao Zedong (毛澤東), whose 'courteous name' was Rongzhi (潤之). These two characters have the same root - 氵, meaning "water". Both hieroglyphs can be translated as ‘to benefit’ or ‘to nourish’.

Another way to form a middle name is to use the homophonic character 子 (pinyin zǐ) - polite address to a man - like the first hieroglyph of a two-syllable zì. Thus, for example, Gongsun Qiao's middle name was Zichang (子產), and the poet Du Fu's middle name was Zǐméi (子美).

It is also common for a middle name to be created using the first character, indicating the boy's birth order in his family. Thus, Confucius, whose real name was Kǒng Qiū (孔丘), was given the middle name Zhòngní 仲尼, where the first character 仲 (zhòng) indicates that he was the middle (second) son in his family . The hieroglyphs that are most often used in such cases: Bo (bó 伯) - for first child, Zhong (zhòng 仲) - for the second, Shu (shū 叔) - for the third, Ji (jì 季) - usually for all the younger ones, if there are more than three sons in the family.

The use of the middle name began around the time of the Shang Dynasty and gradually developed into a system that became very common already at the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty. At that time, women were also given a middle name. Such a name given to a woman usually consists of a hieroglyph showing the order of birth among the sisters and her surname. For example, Meng Jiāng 孟姜 was eldest daughter in the Jiang clan.

Until the 20th century, Koreans, Japanese and Vietnamese were also addressed by their middle names.

Courtesy names of some famous people:

	Surname	Name given at birth	Tzu
Laozi 老子	Li (李)	Er (耳)	Bo Yang (伯陽)
Confucius 孔子	Kun (孔)	Qiu 丘	Zhongni (仲尼)
Cao Cao	Cao (曹)	Cao (操)	Mengde (孟德)
Liu Bei 劉備	Liu (劉)	Bay (備)	Xuande (玄德)
Sima Yi 司馬懿	Sima (司馬)	I (懿)	Zhongda (仲達)
Zhuge Liang 諸葛亮	Zhuge (諸葛)	Liang (亮)	Kunming (孔明)
Li Bo 李白	Li (李)	Bai (Bo) (白)	Taibai (太白)
Sun Yat-sen 孫逸仙	Sun (孫)	Deming (德明)	Zaizhi (載之)
Mao Zedong 毛澤東	Mao (毛)	Zedong (澤東)	Zhunzhi (潤之)
Yue Fei 岳飛	Yue (岳)	Fei (飛)	Pengju (鵬舉)

Hao (pseudonym)

Hao (Chinese: 號; Chinese: 号; Pinyin: hào) is an alternative middle name that is usually used as a nickname. Most often, it consists of three or four characters and may have initially become popular because many people often had the same middle names. People most often chose Hao themselves and could have more than one nickname. Hao was in no way connected with the name given to the person at birth and his middle name; rather, the nickname was something personal, sometimes eccentric. The choice of pseudonym could embody an allusion, or contain a rare hieroglyph, just as it could be suitable for a highly educated writer. Another possibility is to use the name of the person's place of residence as a pseudonym; thus, the pseudonym of the poet Su Shi is Dongpo Jiushi (that is, “Dongpo Residence” (“On the eastern slope”)) - the residence that he built while in exile. Authors often used their pseudonyms in the titles of collections of their works.

English-Chinese and Russian-Chinese names of overseas Chinese

The names of Chinese people who emigrated from China to other countries may undergo various transformations. One of the most common is adding a new English name to the Chinese first and last name. In this case, when translating into Russian, you should first go English name, then a Chinese surname, then a Chinese given name, despite the fact that the sequence is often written in English<английское имя><китайское имя><китайская фамилия>. Sometimes the sequence is written in English<английское имя><инициалы китайского имени><китайская фамилия>, then it is translated into Russian in the same sequence. A further transformation may be the disappearance of the Chinese name, and then both it is written in English and translated into Russian in the sequence<английское имя><китайская фамилия>. Chinese living in Russia often add the Russian first and patronymic to the Chinese surname or to the Chinese surname and Chinese name, then they are written accordingly<китайская фамилия><китайское имя><русское имя><русское отчество>or<китайская фамилия><русское имя><русское отчество>.

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B0%D0%B9%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%B5_%D0 %B8%D0%BC%D1%8F

The Chinese naming system is the basis for many traditional ways of naming people in East Asia and South-East Asia. Almost all East Asian countries and some Southeast Asian countries follow a tradition similar to Chinese or directly borrowed from Chinese culture.

The variety of names in Chinese largely depends on the personal name rather than the surname. The vast majority of Chinese surnames are written with one hieroglyph, only a few - with two (in the PRC, official lists contain about 20 such “non-standard” surnames, while the rest were reduced to a standard monosyllabic form, including surnames of national minorities, often consisting of more than 2 syllables. The most common Chinese surnames: Li (Chinese: 李, pinyin: Lǐ), Wang (Chinese trad. 王, pinyin: Wang), Zhang (Chinese trad. 張, ex. 张, pinyin: Zhāng) :164 .

Chinese women tend to keep their maiden names when they get married and do not take their husband's last name (almost universally in the People's Republic of China). Children usually inherit their father's surname.

In Russian, a space is usually placed between the Chinese surname and given name: Surname Name, while the name is written together. In old sources, Chinese names were written with a hyphen (Feng Yu-xiang), but later the continuous spelling became accepted: 167 (correctly Feng Yu-xiang).

Name

Typically, Chinese people have names consisting of one or two syllables, which are written after the surname. There is a rule that a Chinese name must be translatable into Mandarin. A well-known case is associated with this rule when a father, an avid Internet user, was denied registration of his son under the name “” (“this” or “dog”).

In connection with hieroglyphic writing, when choosing a personal name, not only such aspects as meaning and euphony are taken into account, but also the writing of the hieroglyphs that make up the syllables of the name. Not only the simplicity/complexity/beauty of writing can be taken into account, but also the elements that make up these hieroglyphs, which have their own interpretation (favorable/unfavorable, male/female, associated with a certain element, etc.).

In China, for thousands of years, there was a tradition of ritually changing names in connection with reaching a certain age or changing occupation. At birth, the baby received an official name ( min, 名) and “milk”, or children’s name (xiao-ming, Chinese translation 小名, pinyin: xiǎo míng). When entering school, the child was given a student name - Xueming(Chinese: 学名) or Xunming(Chinese: 訓名). Upon reaching adulthood, the parents gave the boy or girl the so-called “middle name” - it was by this name that strangers should henceforth be addressed. Upon successful passing of the exams, the person received Damin(Chinese 大名, "big name") or guanming("official name"), which was retained throughout life and used on formal occasions after the surname. For special merits, a representative of the nobility received a nickname (hao, Chinese translation 号, pinyin: hào).

With the formation of the People's Republic of China a complex system The naming has undergone changes. The component composition of Chinese names has been seriously simplified. Along with imperial ranks and titles, the second individual name has become a thing of the past - zi, nicknames behao, school names Xueming. Children's names are still used today, but the principles for choosing them have changed. After the introduction of the birth control policy in the PRC, the system lost its significance paikhan .

Baby name

For example, Li Zhenfan (Bruce Lee) had a childhood name of Li Xiaolong (Li Little Dragon), which later became his nickname.

Second name

Second name (字, zì) is a name given upon reaching adulthood (字, zì), which are used throughout life. After 20 years, the middle name is given as a symbol of growing up and respect. Initially, such names were used after male names; a person could receive a middle name from his parents, from his first teacher on the first day of attending family school, or he could choose a middle name for himself. The tradition of using middle names gradually began to disappear since the May Fourth Movement (1919). There are two generally accepted forms of the middle name: Tzu 字 (zì) And Hao 號 (hào).

Nickname

Hao is an alternative middle name that is commonly used as a nickname. It most often consists of three or four characters and may have initially become popular because many people often had the same middle names. People most often chose Hao themselves and could have more than one nickname. Hao was in no way connected with the name given to the person at birth and his middle name; rather, the nickname was something personal, sometimes eccentric. The choice of pseudonym could embody an allusion or contain a rare hieroglyph, just as it could be suitable for a highly educated writer. Another possibility is to use the name of the person's place of residence as a pseudonym; thus, the pseudonym of the poet Su Shi is Dongpo Jiushi (that is, “Dongpo Residence” (“On the eastern slope”)) - the residence he built while in exile. Authors often used pseudonyms in the titles of collections of their works.

English-Chinese and Russian-Chinese names of overseas Chinese

The names of Chinese people who emigrated from China to other countries may undergo various transformations. One of the most common is adding a new English name to the Chinese first and last name. In this case, when translating into Russian, the English name should come first, then the Chinese surname, then the Chinese name, despite the fact that the sequence is often written in English<английское имя><китайское имя><китайская фамилия>. Sometimes the sequence is written in English<английское имя><инициалы китайского имени><китайская фамилия>, while it is translated into Russian in the same sequence. A further transformation may be the disappearance of the Chinese name, and then both it is written in English and translated into Russian in the sequence<английское имя><китайская фамилия>. Chinese living in Russia often add the Russian first and patronymic to the Chinese surname or to the Chinese surname and Chinese name, then they are written accordingly<китайская фамилия><китайское имя><русское имя><русское отчество>or<китайская фамилия><русское имя><русское отчество>.

The choice of name in China is determined only by the imagination of the parents. It is customary among the people that first they indicate the last name, and then the first name. This suggests that the Chinese value the race above the individual. Usually surnames are one-syllable, and first names are two-syllable. Two-syllable surnames and given names are written together, although previously they were written with a hyphen. It is not customary for the Chinese to shorten names to initials.

The most common Chinese surnames:

• Lee (8% of the population);
• Wang (7.4%);
• Zhang (7%);
• Liu (5.3%);
• Chen (4.5%);
• Yang (3%);
• Zhao (2.2%);
• Huang (2.2%);
• Zhou (2.1%);
• U (2%);
• Xu (1.7%);
• Sun (1.5%).

The stock of Chinese surnames is very small (counting in the hundreds), but there are many Chinese names. This is due to ancient customs, according to which a person was given different names. They changed depending on age, character, status, work. Until the end of the twentieth century, so-called milk names for children were in use. Only after twenty years did a person receive an official name.

Fun fact: in the old days, Chinese children had quite strange names. This was explained by the fact that deeply religious people tried to deceive evil spirits in this way. It was believed that bad name to the child, the parents indicate by this that they do not love him. Chinese evil spirits As a rule, they paid attention only to their favorites. If we take into account that sons were valued more than daughters, then girls got beautiful names, and for boys, female and designations for all sorts of objects.

Meaning of female Chinese names

Parents have the right to choose any hieroglyph for the child's name. The sound fades into the background, giving way to the meaning carried by the image of the sign. In China, there is no classification by which hieroglyphs are chosen for names, but the system is very confusing and complex.

The Chinese do not differentiate between male and female names based on spelling and grammar, but base the distinction on meaning. Most names sound like wishes for a child. Parents can put into the name everything they want for their child. Traditionally, girls are given names associated with beauty, grace and virtue. Also popular are names denoting precious stones and beautiful flowers associated with Chinese history. In this way, a woman connected with everything that brings aesthetic pleasure. Boys were often given names of strength, intelligence and courage. They were identified with everything sacred and moral.

Foreign names began to be used in China relatively recently, which creates problems during registration and paperwork. More than 50 million Chinese have names that contain rare characters. You can meet Chinese women with the names Evie, Mary.

Origin of Chinese names

Many Chinese female names have been borrowed from other peoples of the world. So there are names derived from the French Alison and Olivia, the Greek Angels and Selena, the Italian Donna and Mia, the Latin Cordiline, Diana and Victoria, the Scandinavian Brenda and Erica, the Persian Esther, Jasmine and Roxana, the Slavic Nadia and Vera, the Spanish Dolores and Linda, the Aramaic Martha, Celtic Tara.

Chinese names and their meanings

By character traits

Ai – love.

G is pure.

Gia is beautiful.

Zenzen is a jewel.

Zhaohui – wisdom.

Juan is merciful.

Shu – fair.

Rowe is gentle.

Huiliang is good.

Suiin – simple.

Shuang is outspoken.

Jewelry

Biyu - jasper.

Lin – jade.

Mingzhu - pearl.

Flowers

Ju - chrysanthemum.

Lan is an orchid.

Xiaoli - jasmine.

Kiang - rose.

Xiolian - lotus.

Miscellaneous

Xiaofan - dawn.

Xiaozhi - rainbow.

Chuntao - peach.

Kiu - autumn.

Yui is the moon.

Yang is a swallow.

Xu - snow.

Yu - rain.

Yun is a cloud.

Find out the meaning of other names

U Slavic peoples The word darling is often used in conversation. It can be a noun, an adjective, or even an adverb, but in all of them the interpretation...

Proper names in Chinese.

1. National traditions anthroponymy.

Modern system Chinese personal names, anthroponyms, go back to ancient national culture.

About the fact that the name was given in Ancient China great importance evidenced by the surviving custom of using several names for one person:

- baby name(given by parents);

- new name(the name is given during the school period);

- adult, legal name(a person takes a name for himself upon reaching adulthood). Adult name could be changed by its carrier during life.

- posthumous name(the name is imprinted on wooden ancestral tablets displayed on home altars or in Chinese temples. The name sums it up life path and contains an assessment of a person’s actions by his relatives or contemporaries).

2. Etymological significance of the name.

One of the features of naming in China is related to the etymology of the name. The name reflected wishes for longevity, wealth, successful career, family happiness, affirmation of moral values.

Allegories could be the names of animals, plants, natural phenomena, signs of the traditional calendar cycle.

The etymological significance of the name reflects the ethnic, social culture China, being at the same time a means of artistic expression.

In the meanings of ancient and modern names, traces of disappeared religious and national customs, rituals, ethnic ideas, details of everyday life.

Personal anthroponyms, perceived aurally as a single whole, consist of a surname, most often formed from:

Individual name of the ancestor,

From the name of the craft, occupation, position,

From his place of residence.

Example traditional name:

artist Qi Baishi.

Child name - Erzhi (longevity fungus),

The school name given by the teacher is Huang (half-disc-shaped jade decoration),

Another name, also given by the teacher, is Baishi (White Stone - that was the name of the postal station located nearby).

The artist chose the name “Baishi” (White Stone) as an adult name. He carved it on seals that replaced signatures on the artist’s paintings.

3. Use of identical hieroglyphic characters.

One of the customs that has survived in China to this day is to give the names of brothers and sisters of the same generation the same hieroglyphic sign or graphic element, which acts as a defining sign of kinship (the custom of "paihan").

Name example:

the names of several brothers with the surname Liu:

Chunguang (spring light)

Chunshu ( spring tree),

Chunlin (spring forest)

Chunxi (spring joy).

4. Hao (pseudonym).

Hao (Chinese tr.: 號 ; ex. whale.: 号 ; pinyin: hào).

Most frequency structure:

Three hieroglyphs;

Four hieroglyphs.

One of the reasons for the appearance of "hao" is that many people have the same middle names.

There was no connection between "Hao" and the name.

Nickname selection:

Embodies a hint;

Contains a rare hieroglyph,

Names of writers and other representatives creative professions characteristic:

Sophistication of images;

Nicknames.

The Chinese writer Lu Xun had approximately 100 pen names in his set.

In some cases, pseudonyms were contained in a succinct figurative form:

Proper names of the writer’s native places;

Name of place of stay given time;

The name of the writer's studio, office, "abode", expressed in poetic form;

Example alias:

poet Su Shi - Dongpo Jiushi ("Dongpo Residence" - On the eastern slope) - the residence he built while in exile. Authors often used their pseudonyms in the titles of collections of their works.

Pseudonyms were in most cases used on personal seals imprinted on Chinese books and paintings. Personal seals with pseudonyms carved on them replaced the signature of the author, being at the same time integral part artistic composition paintings or artistic detail book design.

One of the purposes of using a creative pseudonym was to compose works of the so-called “low genres” (novels, dramas, etc.), which was previously considered an activity unworthy of a “pundit.”

5. Ambiguity Chinese characters.

The ambiguity of Chinese characters against the backdrop of minimal context provides a wide range of interpretation of the meaning of the name.

Reflection ancient tradition is obsolete lexical meaning hieroglyph.

6. Names of Chinese emperors.

The personal names of the deified emperors were subject to taboo during their reign or the reign of the entire dynasty.

Their use orally or in writing was punishable by law, including the death penalty.

Instead of the emperor's name, the motto of his reign was usually used, and after death, the posthumous name.

The motto of the reign could change during the life of the emperor.

The custom of tabooing the personal names of emperors created an anthroponymic feature:

If in the title or text of the book there were hieroglyphs that coincided with the hieroglyph with which the emperor’s personal name was written, then they were replaced with other characters that were similar in meaning, or the outline of these hieroglyphs was deliberately distorted (for example, the hieroglyphic character was written without the last line).

For example, a treatise on the game of weiqi (raid checkers) called "Xuan xuan qingjing" ("Secret treatise on the game of weiqi") during the reign of Emperor Kangxi was published under the title "Yuan yuan qijing" ("Original treatise on the game of weiqi" ), since the first two hieroglyphs of the name (“Xuan xuan”) coincided with the hieroglyph that was part of the personal name of the Kangxi Emperor - Xuanye, and therefore were subject to taboo.

7. Transcription of personal Chinese names.

Chinese personal names are transmitted by means:

Russian transcription,

The Chinese phonetic alphabet (Pinyin), created on a Latin basis.

In Russian, a space is usually placed between the Chinese surname and given name:

Last name First name. The name is written together.

In old sources, Chinese names were written with a hyphen (Feng Yu-hsiang), but later a continuous spelling became accepted. (correct - Feng Yuxiang).

Currently, a continuous spelling of Chinese two-syllable names is accepted when transmitting them using Russian or Latin transcription.

Examples of transcription of two-syllable names:

Guo Moruo instead of Guo Mo-ruo;

Deng Xiaoping instead of Deng Xiao-ping.

8. Surname in Chinese linguistic mentality.

In a Chinese full name, the surname takes first place, followed by the personal name.

The Chinese system of name formation is the basis of all traditional methods of name creation in East Asia. Most of East Asian countries should Chinese tradition name.

The surname in the linguistic mentality of Chinese residents occupies a stable first place not only in the official use of the name, but also in title page books and in everyday life.

The surname, as a rule, is written in one single-syllable hieroglyph when written in Russian or Latin transcription.

Previously, to specify the surname, the name of the county - the author’s homeland - was put on books. Two-syllable surnames, written in two hieroglyphic characters and transcribed in two words, are rare. For example, the historian Sima Qian bore the two-syllable surname Sima.

Number of Chinese surnames: more than 700 different surnames.

Number of most frequent surnames: There are approximately 20 surnames used by the majority of the Chinese population.

The variety of names in Chinese is provided by the range of personal names rather than surnames. Most Chinese surnames are written with one character, a smaller part - with two.

The most common Chinese surnames are:

Li (Chinese trad. 李 , pinyin: Lǐ),

Wang (Chinese trad. 王 , pinyin: Wáng),

Zhang (Chinese trad. 張 , ex. 张 , pinyin: Zhāng)

Most common Chinese surname in the world: Zhang.

According to statistics collected in China in the early 2000s, the number of people with the surname Zhang numbered more than 100 million.

Common Chinese surnames (statistics from the late 1990s):

Approximately 40% of the population: Zhang, Wang, Li, Zhao, Chen, Yang, Wu, Liu, Huang and Zhou.

About 10% of the population: Xu, Zhu, Lin, Sun, Ma, Gao, Hu, Zheng, Guo and Xiao.

Less than 10% of the population: Xie, He, Xu, Shen, Luo, Han, Deng, Liang and Ye.

Less than 30% of the population : Mao, Jiang, Bai, Wen, Guan, Liao, Miao, Chi.

Approximately 70% of Chinese residents have one of the listed surnames.

8.1. History of the concept of "Last Name" in China.

The concept of a surname in China acquired its form in the era of the Three Emperors and Five Kings - a period when the history of the family was calculated exclusively along the maternal line. Before the three dynasties of Xia, Shang and Zhou (2140-256 BC), people in China already had surnames (Xing) and "Clan Name" (Shi). If surnames came from the name of the native village or family, then the “Clan Name” was formed from the name of the territory or title received as a gift from the emperor, sometimes even posthumously.

The presence of the "Clan Name" spoke of a certain social status its owner.

The tradition continued for 800 years until 627 AD, when a government official, Gao Silian, carried out some kind of census and calculated that the inhabitants of the Middle Kingdom made do with only 593 surnames. After the census, Gao Silian published the book "Annals of Surnames", which became an essential bureaucratic tool for selecting qualified personnel for government positions and for drawing up marriage contracts.

The book “Surnames of Hundred Families,” created in 960, was very popular in Ancient China. The book contained records of 438 surnames, of which 408 were one-word surnames; 30 names - out of two.

9. Name in Chinese linguistic mentality.

The most common name structure for Chinese residents is:

One syllable;

Two syllables.

The first name is written after the last name.

IN modern China There is a rule that a person's name in China must have a Mandarin translation.

In previous years, Chinese residents had several names throughout their lives:

- in childhood- “milk” or children’s name (Xiao-ming, Chinese example. 小名 , pinyin: xiǎo míng),

- in adulthood- official name (min, Chinese. 名 , pinyin: míng), those serving among relatives bore a middle name (tzu, Chinese ex. 字 , pinyin: zì), some also took a pseudonym (hao, Chinese ex. 号 , pinyin: hào).

By the mid-1980s, it became common for adults to have only one formal name, "min." "Dairy" names were still common in childhood.

Name example: Li Zhenfan (Bruce Lee) had the childhood name Li Xiaolong (Li Little Dragon), the name by which he was known during his brief adult years.

The range of Chinese names is theoretically unlimited due to the lack of a strictly defined list of names. Any word or phrase can be chosen as an individual name. The only thing that limits the creative range in creating a name is family traditions, which are given great importance when creating a name.

Name requirements:

Connection with family traditions;

Euphony;

Examples of names:

Mao Dun. (Dun - “warrior’s shield”). Profession: Writer.

Shen Hong. (Hun - "rainbow"). Profession: Doctor.

The etymology of most individual names is associated with a wish for good or with a traditional artistic image.

9.1. Women's names.

Women's personal names in the Chinese tradition do not contain formal signs of difference from men's names. To distinguish the gender of the owners of names, after the female name a designation is usually used indicating that they belong to the female gender.

Lexical features of the difference between a female name and a male name:

In the personal names of men, words are traditionally used that indicate qualities: courage, valor, fidelity to duty;

Women's personal names traditionally express the names of flowers, precious stones, butterflies, epithets of female virtues, exquisite poetic images.

IN modern names the figurative boundary of a clear distinction between the sexes has been erased.

Name example:

Li Qingzhao - “pure light” (profession: poetess);

Ma Zhenghong - (Zhenghong) "red policy". Female name, indistinguishable from male.

In ancient China, after marriage, women added their surname to their husband's surname.

In modern China, after marriage, women, in most cases, keep their maiden names and do not take their husband’s surname (an almost universal practice in China). Children, in most cases, inherit their father's surname.

9.2. Second name.

Second name ( 字 , zì) - a name given upon reaching adulthood ( 字 , zì) and used throughout life. Issued after 20 years as a symbol of growing up and respect.

Initially, the middle name was used after male names. The young man could receive a middle name from his parents, from his first teacher on the first day of attending school, or he could choose a middle name for himself.

The tradition of using middle names gradually began to disappear since the Movement

There are two common forms of the middle name: Zi 字 (zì) and Hao 號 (hao).

- Tzu, sometimes also biaozi ( 表字 )

a name traditionally given to Chinese males at the age of 20, symbolizing their coming of age. Sometimes a woman was given a middle name after marriage.

According to the Book of Rituals ( 禮記 ), after a man reached maturity, it was disrespectful for other people of the same age to address him by his first name 名 "min".

Thus, the name given at birth was used only by the person himself or his older relatives. The middle name "Zi" was used by adult peers to address each other when communicating or writing.

Tzu is a predominantly two-syllable name in structure, consisting of two hieroglyphs. The basis of a name in the Zi tradition is “ming” or the name given at birth.

Yan Zhitui ( 顏之推 ), who lived during the Northern Qi Dynasty, believed that if the purpose of the name given at birth was to distinguish one person from another, then the purpose of the “second name” was to indicate the moral worth of the person endowed with this name.

- Hao(Chinese tr.: 號 ; ex. whale.: 号 ; pinyin: hào).

An alternative middle name, usually used as a nickname.

Residents of China chose "hao" for themselves and could have more than one "creative name".

"Hao" was a creative name, an individual's sense of himself.

Use of a homophonic hieroglyph.

One of the ways to form a second name. Polite address to a man is like the first hieroglyph of a two-syllable zì. For example, Gongsun Qiao's middle name was Zichang ( 子產 ), and the poet Du Fu - Zǐméi ( 子美 ).

Using the first hieroglyph.

It is a common practice to create a second name based on the first hieroglyph, indicating the birth order of the child in his family.

According to historical evidence, Confucius's real name was Kǒng Qiū, 孔丘 ), and the middle name is Zhòngní 仲尼 ), where the first hieroglyph 仲 (zhòng) shows that he was the middle (second) son in his family.

Common hieroglyphs for birth order:

Bo (bó 伯 ) - for the first child,

Zhong 仲 ) - for the second,

Shu (shū) 叔 ) - for the third,

Ji (jì 季 ) - usually for all the younger ones, if there are more than three sons in the family.

The tradition of using a middle name began around the time of the Shang Dynasty. By the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, this tradition gained popularity.

At that time, women were also given a middle name, consisting in most cases of a hieroglyph showing the order of birth among the sisters and her surname:

Meng Jiang 孟姜 ) was the eldest daughter in the Jiang clan.

Until the 20th century, Koreans, Japanese and Vietnamese were also addressed by their middle names.

Moscow

Zemlyanoy Val 50A

Saint Petersburg