Chinese Names
A complete Chinese name can consist of two or three characters. The first character is the family or clan name known as the surname name in English while the personal name may contain a middle and last character. Notice that the surname location is the reverse order to English practice, e.g. Mao Zedong (毛澤東), where Mao (毛) was his surname and Zedong (澤東) was his given name. Sometimes, a complete name can consist of only two characters, e.g. Chen Yu (陳 豫) where the surname is Chen (陳) and the given name is Yu (豫). Even a double or compound surname can have one single given name, e.g. Sima Qian (司馬遷) where Sima (司馬) is a double surname and Qian (遷) the given name.
Surnames
According to Dr. K. C. Wu (“The Chinese Heritage" ) from the past the Chinese have always venerated their ancestors, and they believed that the well being of the ancestors and the descendants were directly linked to each other. Their interest was also mutually inseparable, and it gradually became the foundation for the creation of the family system. This phenomenon led to the early appearance of family names in China because they were needed to separate and distinguish people from one another in accordance with their parentage. Without surnames it would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for men to trace back their lineal descent. The Chinese have used surnames even before recorded history. In Chinese, the Western term surname also means a family name or a clan name.
Early China was a matriarchal society as evidenced by the early surnames that invariably contained the root or radical for "woman" (女) which is depicted on the left hand side of a complex surname character, e.g. Ji (姬), Gui (媯). A surname is called Xing (姓), and note this word in essence means "born of woman" also contains the "woman" radical.
In the beginning, two separate words were used for a family or clan name. One was called Shi (氏) which was given by decree to a man upon enfeoffment on the basis of his fief. It was only applicable to men. The other was Xing (姓) as mentioned above which was inherited upon birth from the mother's side of the family, and was applicable to both men and women (i.e. sons and daughters). However, over time as China became a patriarchal society these terms were somehow switched. Today, Xing (姓) is generally applied to a surname, whereas Shi (氏) is reserved for women, and is used to mean "Madam" as well as the English equivalent of "nee". Shi (氏) is also currently used in general practice to mean “family”, e.g. Wang Shi (王氏) to mean "The Wang Family".
Surnames can contain a single character or two or more characters. Single character surnames are the most common, like Kong (孔), Yang (楊), Zhou (周), et al. There are also a small number of two character surnames, like Ouyang (區楊), Sima (司馬), Situ (司徒), etc. Some ethnic minorities have three character surnames but these are very small in number.
Surnames were derived in several ways. For example:
- Country names__ like Qin (秦), Song (宋), Zheng (鄭), Wu (吳), Zhao (趙), Cao (曹), Zhou (周). These are all the names of past feudal states (countries).
- Fiefdoms__ an emperor bestows a fief upon a minister whose later descendants retained the name, like Su (蘇), Peng (彭), Xiao (蕭), Chen (陳).
- Ancestor’s name__like Hu (胡) from ancestor Hu Gongman (胡公滿).
- Titles and official positions__like the compound surname Sima (司馬) which was the name of an official in charge of horses, or Situ (司 徒) an official in charge of prisons.
Generation Names
After the family or clan name known as surname in English comes the middle name or family hierarchy name, also called the generation name.
Men belonging to the same generation within a clan will share a common name, which can be positioned either in the middle or at the end. This name serves as a classifier to the hierarchical order for the generations in that particular clan, and is referred to as the generation name. This should not be confused with a common name adopted by a family for its male children which is not a true clan generation name because it only pertains to that particular family. The generation name is called by a number of terms in Chinese, like Beizi (輩字), Paihangzi (排行字), Paimingzi (排名字), Banpaizi (班派字), Ziyun (字勻). A clan will normally have a record of its generation names, commonly called in English a Generation Poem and known variously in Chinese as Zibeipu (字輩譜), Banpai (班派), Paihang (排行), Chuanshizilian (傳世字聯). Does this mean that for those having only two character names will not have a generation name? Not at all. Normally the generation name can form a part of the complex character personal name, e.g. a character like Bo (波) may inclusively depict a generation name for Shui (水)(water) as represented by the three dots in the radical for water. The presence and use of generation names can therefore help unravel the hierarchy of the generations within a family clan.
One tragic consequence of China’s one child policy was the disappearance of the generation name resulting in names with only a family name and a personal name.
Miscellaneous Names
Besides the standard characteristics of a proper name as shown above there are also several other types of names an individual may adopt but not necessarily all of them. These are:
Nickname: called Ruming (乳明) or “milk name” can also be called Infant Name or Xiaoming (小 名). These are names given to an infant akin to what Westerners call Pet Names, i.e. name that are only used within the family.
Style name: Zi (字) is a special name that is conferred on an individual at age 20 years during a coming of age ceremony or capping ceremony in ancient China. During this ceremony the individual’s hair is plaited together and coiled into a chignon (a knot at the back of the head above the nape) so he can wear a hat. At the same time he is given a style name.
Assumed name: Hao (號) is a name that can be created by the individual himself or may be given to him by others. There are various methods of developing a hao. Some people used the name of a place of residence, e.g. Sun Yat-sen used his birth county name of Zhongshan (中山) as his hao and this is the name he is known by to the Chinese never Sun Yat-sen. Other methods include expressions of the individual’s life desires and ambitions.
Pen name: Biming (筆名) is used mainly by writers or artists akin to the Western practice of a literary or pseudo name. This can sometimes get out of hand as an individual may adopt a plethora of pen names as was the case with a famous writer whose original name was Zhou Shuren (周樹人) who had about 40 pen names and his most well known one was Lu Xun (鲁迅). There are two methods of developing a pen name, one is to use the divide rule. In this method the person’s original name is split into two components as in the case of another writer whose real name was Zha Liangyong (查良鏞). He took his personal name, divided them up and came up with Jin (金) and Yong (庸) and his pen name became Jin Yong (金庸). The second method was to use a name of similar sound as was the case with the late Zhou Enlai (周恩來) whose code name (alias) was Wuhao (五號) which he crafted into Wuhao (五豪).
Stage name: Yiming (藝名) are used by people in entertainment and is still practiced to this day. Here are two example of modern day usage, actor Jackie Chan’s stage name is Chenglong (成龍) to mean “became a dragon” while the late Bruce Lee’s stage name was Xiaolong (小龍) to mean “little dragon”.