Chinese Genelaogy

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Only Hanyu Pinyin have been used for Chinese names and these are shown in Italic

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Generation Names (輩字)

After the family or clan name known as surname in English comes the middle name or family hierarchy name, also called the Generation Name (Beizi [輩字]).

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:

A clan will normally have a record of its Generation Names, commonly called in English a Generation Poem and known variously in Chinese as:

Here is an example of a Generation Poem showing names for 16 generations:

貽謀燕翼，崇德象賢
健順中正，光華濟美

What about the case of those people with only two character names, do they not have a Generation Name? No 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.