The most common male name in China. Chinese male names. Beautiful Chinese names for girls

Chinese names. Chinese surnames. The meaning of Chinese names and surnames. The most common first and last names in China. Chinese have European names. A beautiful Chinese baby name or nickname.

01/08/2018 / 05:42 | Varvara Pokrovskaya

The Chinese are the largest nation on earth with an ancient culture. However, their names - Li Qian, Mao Dun, Huang Bojing - sound exotic to a Russian person. It is also interesting that in China it is customary to change one's name during one's life, in connection with various important events or life stages. Let's figure out what's special about Chinese names and how they are translated into Russian.

Chinese surnames, what's special about them

The Chinese began using surnames before our era. At first they were available only to members of the royal family and aristocracy. A little later, ordinary people began to use a surname along with their given name, which passed from generation to generation.

In the beginning, surnames had two meanings: “sin” and “shi.” The first concept was used among close blood relatives. It was only for the highest Chinese nobility and the imperial family. The second concept, shi, was used by ordinary Chinese to designate the entire clan, and even later - for people with the same occupation.

In modern China, the list of surnames is very limited. It does not go beyond the “Baiqiaxing” table, which translated means “One Hundred Surnames” (although there are actually more than one hundred, but still not that many).

Chinese surnames usually have one syllable. In writing they look like one hieroglyph. Their origins are different. So, some came from the type of activity (for example, Tao is a potter), others - from the names of states that formed the basis of modern China (for example, Yuan). But all foreigners were called Hu.

After marriage, a woman often does not take her husband’s surname, but leaves her maiden name, or takes her own and her husband’s double surname. In written form it looks like this: maiden name + husband's last name + proper name.

For example, 李王梅丽. The first character, 李, is Li's maiden name, the second, 王, is her husband's surname, Wang, and the last characters are the proper name, which sounds like Meili in Russian (literally "beautiful plum").

Children generally inherit their husband's surname, but not necessarily. They can also be recorded in the mother's surname.

The most common Chinese surnames

Interestingly, the first two surnames on the list (Li and Wang) are borne by more than 350 million Chinese.

Chinese names - Chinese names

The surname and first name in China are written together, and in exactly this order - first the surname, then the first name. This is all because the Chinese are very sensitive to their ancestors and their own roots. In old chronicles, the surname and first name were written down with a hyphen, but never separately.

Just a few decades ago, a child could be called a dissonant, even nasty, name, including for the Chinese. This was done in order to scare away evil spirits. They will think that the family does not like the baby and will not bother him. We're talking about names like:

• Tedan - iron egg;
• Goushen - leftover dog food;
• Goudan - the missing dog egg.

Parents called their children such scary names that the Chinese government had to issue a separate order, according to which the baby should not be given a name with the hieroglyph:

• death;
• dead body;
• excrement;
• debauchery (mistress, seduction, kept woman);
• a curse;
• anger.

Nowadays everything has changed. But in some places (mainly in villages) this tradition is preserved in the form of household nicknames or children's names.

The name of the citizens of the Celestial Empire rarely means an object, it is mainly an epithet. Popular Chinese names are most often two-syllable, i.e. consist of two hieroglyphs.

There are no grammatical, spelling or other differences between male and female Chinese names. There is a division by gender, but it is based on meaning.

For a boy, parents choose a name that symbolizes:

• wealth;
• physical superiority: strength, tall height, quick reaction;
• character traits: honest, smart, diligent, honoring ancestors;
• high goals: discoverer, scientist, patriot, recipient of greatness;
• nature: one who worships the river, the top of the mountain, the wind, the sea;
• ancestors and cult objects: Yangtze River, rain (sea) of the elder brother, golden mirror.

Often the name reflects kind parental advice. It is known that when Yue Fei, who later became a general and national hero of China, was born, swans landed on the roof of his house. There was a whole flock of them. The boy's mother wished that her son would fly just as far and high. It was decided to name the newborn Fairy, which translated means “flight.”

• The parents call the girl a beautiful euphonious name, meaning something beautiful:
• Precious stones: pearl, jasper, refined jade;
• Flowers: morning jasmine, rainbow orchid, small lotus;
• Weather conditions; a little dawn, an autumn moon, the morning color of a cloud;
• Intellectual abilities: intelligent, clear wisdom, indigo;
• Attractive appearance: beautiful and prosperous, charming, graceful;
• Natural objects: Beijing forest, swallow, spring flower, cloud.

Popular male Chinese names

Beautiful Chinese names for girls

Change of names

In the Celestial Empire, for many years there was a tradition of changing one's name upon reaching a certain age.

At birth, the baby was given an official name (“ming”) and a child’s name (“xiao-ming”). When he went to school, the child's name was replaced by the student's name - “xueming”. After passing the exams, a person received another name - “guanming”, by which he was addressed at celebrations or important holidays. The representative of the nobility also has a “hao” nickname.

Most of the names are not currently used in China. Gone are the student “xueming” and the official “guanming”. Children's names and nicknames are still used.

Features of children's and school names in China

A child's (milk) name is used only by close relatives within the family circle. If desired, parents give the newborn, in addition to the official first name, one more name. But this is optional. Dairy's name is very similar to our pet nickname.

Previously, immediately after the birth of a baby, the father or other relative went to the seer in order to find out the fate of the child. This was especially common in rural areas. If she predicted that the baby would be threatened by something in the future, such as fire, then she had to give a baby name associated with water. Conversely, if fate was destined to fear water, the child received a milky name associated with matches, fire or flame.

Sometimes parents named the child with a child's name, which is often found among monks. It served as a talisman for him.

Nowadays, a milk name, as a rule, emphasizes some individual traits, the child’s appearance, contains parental parting words, or is simply a beautiful poetic word.

The most beautiful Chinese baby names

• Hun - rainbow;
• Lee is a small dragon;
• Chunlin - spring forest;
• Chunguang - spring light;
• Dun is a warrior's shield.

When a child went to school, the teacher (less often parents) gave him his school name. It was used in all documents throughout his school life. The name most often reflected the intellectual or physical abilities (disadvantages) of the student. Now in the PRC the school name is not used.

Chinese second name

When a Chinese man reaches marriageable age (20 years for boys and 15-17 years for girls), he receives a middle name (“zi”), by which friends, relatives, and neighbors address him.

Changing your name is a whole ritual. The guy puts on a hat, stands in front of his father and he names him. Daughters put a hairpin in their hair, and then the procedure for changing their name is the same. Interestingly, a girl changes her name most often during an engagement.

Tzu includes two hieroglyphs, and is based on the name given at birth and complements it. For example, the middle name of the great statesman Mao Zedong is Zhunzhi. Both names translate as “beneficial.”

Sometimes the middle name signifies the birth order of the child in the family. To do this, use hieroglyphs:

• Bo - first;
• Zhong is the second;
• Shu - third;
• Ji is for all other children.

Beautiful Chinese names (middle name)

• Bo Yan;
• Mende;
• Taibai;
• Pengju;
• Kunming;
• Zhongni;
• Zhongda;
• Zhunzhi;
• Xuande.

Nickname in China

Well-educated people, representatives of the nobility in China still had the nickname hao. They could choose it themselves. This name was used as a pseudonym, and consisted of three, four or more hieroglyphs. Most often they chose rare hieroglyphs or the name of the entire city (village, region) where the person was born. For example, the nickname of the poet Su Shi was Dongpo Jiushi - the name of the mansion in which he lived while in exile.

Hao did not reflect the first or second name in any way. This is something deeply personal. The nickname is very popular among scientists and writers.

Borrowing names from other languages

Modern parents in the PRC, as indeed in any other country, often call their children a beautiful, but unusual name for the cultural tradition of the country. The basis for this is the shortened form of the foreign name. The most commonly borrowed names are:

• Eastern: Amber, Alibey, Mohammed;
• Celtic: Bryn, Dylan, Tara;
• French: Olivia, Bruce;
• Slavic: Nadin, Vera, Ivan;
• Indian: Believed, Opal, Uma;
• Italian: Donna, Mia, Bianca;
• Greek: Angel, George, Selena;
• German: Charles, Richard, William.

So, if you happen to meet Lee Gabriella or Go Uma, don't be especially surprised.

Fact one. The surname is written first.

The Chinese have their surname written and pronounced first, that is, the head of China, Xi Jinping, has his surname Xi and his first name Jinping. The surname is not declined. For the Chinese, all the most important things are “moved forward” - from important to less significant, both in dates (year-month-day) and names (last name-first name). The surname, belonging to the clan, is very important for the Chinese, who draw up family trees up to the “50th generation.” Residents of Hong Kong (South China) sometimes put their name forward or use an English name instead of a Chinese name - for example, David Mak. By the way, about 60 years ago in Chinese studies the use of a hyphen was actively practiced to indicate the boundary of Chinese syllables in names: Mao Tse-tung, Sun Yat-sen. Yat-sen here is a Cantonese recording of the name of a southern Chinese revolutionary, which often confuses Sinologists who are unaware of the existence of such a dialect.

Fact two. 50 percent of Chinese people have 5 main surnames.

Wang, Li, Zhang, Zhou, Chen - these are the five main Chinese surnames, the last Chen is the main surname in Guangdong (South China), almost every third one is Chen. Wang 王 - means "prince" or "king" (head of the region), Li 李 - pear tree, the dynasty that ruled China in the Tang Dynasty, Zhang 张 - archer, Zhou 周 - "cycle, circle", ancient imperial family, Chen 陈 - “old, aged” (about wine, soy sauce, etc.). Unlike Westerners, Chinese surnames are homogeneous, but the Chinese give free rein to their imagination when it comes to names.

Fact three. Most Chinese surnames are monosyllabic.

Two-syllable surnames include the rare surnames Sima, Ouyang and a number of others. However, a few years ago, the Chinese government allowed double surnames, where the child was given the surname of both the father and mother - which led to the emergence of such interesting surnames as Wang-Ma and others. Most Chinese surnames are monosyllabic, and 99% of them can be found in the ancient text "Baijia Xing" - "100 surnames", but the real number of surnames is much larger, almost any noun can be found among the surnames of the 1.3 billion Chinese population.

Fact four. The choice of a Chinese name is limited only by the parents' imagination.

Chinese names are mainly selected according to their meaning, or according to the advice of a fortuneteller. It’s unlikely that you would guess that each hieroglyph belongs to one or another element, and all of them together should bring good luck. In China there is a whole science of choosing a name, so if the name of the interlocutor is very strange, then most likely it was chosen by a fortuneteller. It is interesting that previously in Chinese villages a child could be called by a dissonant name in order to deceive evil spirits. It was assumed that evil spirits would think that such a child was not valued in the family, and therefore would not covet him. Most often, the choice of name preserves the old Chinese tradition of playing with meanings, for example, the founder of Alibaba is named Ma Yun, (Ma - horse, Yun - cloud), however, "yun" in a different tone means "luck", most likely his parents invested His name has this exact meaning, but sticking out anything or speaking openly in China is a sign of bad taste.

Fact five. Chinese names can be divided into masculine and feminine.

As a rule, for men's names they use hieroglyphs with the meaning of "study", "mind", "strength", "forest", "dragon", and for women's names they use hieroglyphs for flowers and jewelry, or simply the hieroglyph "beautiful".

Fact one. The surname is written first.

The Chinese have their surname written and pronounced first, that is, the head of China, Xi Jinping, has his surname Xi and his first name Jinping. The surname is not declined. For the Chinese, all the most important things are “moved forward” - from important to less significant, both in dates (year-month-day) and names (last name-first name). The surname, belonging to the clan, is very important for the Chinese, who draw up family trees up to the “50th generation.” Residents of Hong Kong (South China) sometimes put their name forward or use an English name instead of a Chinese name - for example, David Mak. By the way, about 60 years ago in Chinese studies the use of a hyphen was actively practiced to indicate the boundary of Chinese syllables in names: Mao Tse-tung, Sun Yat-sen. Yat-sen here is a Cantonese recording of the name of a southern Chinese revolutionary, which often confuses Sinologists who are unaware of the existence of such a dialect.

Fact two. 50 percent of Chinese people have 5 main surnames.

Wang, Li, Zhang, Zhou, Chen - these are the five main Chinese surnames, the last Chen is the main surname in Guangdong (South China), almost every third one is Chen. Wang 王 - means "prince" or "king" (head of the region), Li 李 - pear tree, the dynasty that ruled China in the Tang Dynasty, Zhang 张 - archer, Zhou 周 - "cycle, circle", ancient imperial family, Chen 陈 - “old, aged” (about wine, soy sauce, etc.). Unlike Westerners, Chinese surnames are homogeneous, but the Chinese give free rein to their imagination when it comes to names.

Fact three. Most Chinese surnames are monosyllabic.

Two-syllable surnames include the rare surnames Sima, Ouyang and a number of others. However, a few years ago, the Chinese government allowed double surnames, where the child was given the surname of both the father and mother - which led to the emergence of such interesting surnames as Wang-Ma and others. Most Chinese surnames are monosyllabic, and 99% of them can be found in the ancient text "Baijia Xing" - "100 surnames", but the real number of surnames is much larger, almost any noun can be found among the surnames of the 1.3 billion Chinese population.

Fact four. The choice of a Chinese name is limited only by the parents' imagination.

Chinese names are mainly selected according to their meaning, or according to the advice of a fortuneteller. It’s unlikely that you would guess that each hieroglyph belongs to one or another element, and all of them together should bring good luck. In China there is a whole science of choosing a name, so if the name of the interlocutor is very strange, then most likely it was chosen by a fortuneteller. It is interesting that previously in Chinese villages a child could be called by a dissonant name in order to deceive evil spirits. It was assumed that evil spirits would think that such a child was not valued in the family, and therefore would not covet him. Most often, the choice of name preserves the old Chinese tradition of playing with meanings, for example, the founder of Alibaba is named Ma Yun, (Ma - horse, Yun - cloud), however, "yun" in a different tone means "luck", most likely his parents invested His name has this exact meaning, but sticking out anything or speaking openly in China is a sign of bad taste.

Fact five. Chinese names can be divided into masculine and feminine.

As a rule, for men's names they use hieroglyphs with the meaning of "study", "mind", "strength", "forest", "dragon", and for women's names they use hieroglyphs for flowers and jewelry, or simply the hieroglyph "beautiful".

The full naming of the Chinese always includes the surname (姓 - xìng) and given name (名字 - míngzì). And it is important to remember - the last name is always indicated before the first name.

Chinese surnames

Usually they consist of one character (hieroglyph). For example, the most famous are 李 - Lǐ (literally meaning "plum"), 王 - Wáng (literally "prince", "ruler"). But sometimes there are surnames made of two hieroglyphs. For example, 司马 - Sīmǎ (literally, "voivode" - "to rule" + "horse"), 欧阳 - Ouyáng.

Chinese names

They differ from European ones in that they are rarely repeated. In China there is no list of names at all. Parents themselves come up with names for their children. The choice of name can be influenced by certain traditions, family signs, and superstitions.

And yet, due to the large number of bearers of first and last names, a certain shortage of surnames arises. In addition, fewer and fewer last names are used. So, if earlier there were about 12,000 surnames, now there are about 3000. About 350 million people get by with just five surnames: Li, Wang, Zhang, Liu and Chen. Moreover, many people with the same last names also have the same first names. For example, in 1996, there were more than 2,300 people in Tianjin whose name was Zhangli, and who spelled this name the same way. And even more people who wrote this name in different ways. This represents a serious inconvenience, since they can even arrest an innocent person, or close someone else’s account, or even perform an operation on someone who did not need it!

Some Chinese names can tell you whether they are masculine or feminine. But often you can’t guess from the name itself whether it belongs to a man or a woman.

Chinese names also consist of one or two. In transcription, it is customary to write the surname and first name separately. For example, Sīmǎ Qiān - Sima Qian.

If you learned something interesting from the article, share it with your friends and write comments :)