Chinese Culture in Naming

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What is the name? The name is a word used for identification. Through two words—a family name and a given name, a personal name identifies a specific, unique and identifiable individual person. Countries name people using their own customs, which are determined by history, society and culture. Some people believe that naming is simply choosing some words to make a good meaning. But Cindy Chang’s article “Chinese names blend traditions, drama” ,which was published in the Los Angeles Times, reveals her family’s experience of naming her brother’s child and states that naming is a challenge for her family because of the blended culture with Chinese, American and Korean backgrounds. Indeed, naming is a challenge for parents because of Chinese traditional naming customs and local naming customs.
The family name has a special meaning for the Chinese. A Chinese name is composed of a family name and a given name. The Chinese always put the family name first, followed by a given name, which is exactly the opposite of the Americans and some other western countries. The family name has a long history in China; moreover, it is regarded as the most important symbol of blood relationship and continuity of family bloodline. In traditional Chinese family culture, descendants of several generations from the same ancestor lived together and formed a big family system by the same family name. They constructed the ancestral hall and family temple. This kind of autonomous family system was the basic unit of traditional Chinese society. However, from earliest time, the British only had the given name and no a family name. From the 10th century some aristocracy named the family name by their fiefdoms. Until the Renaissance period in Europe, the family...

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...e traditional lunar calendar. My family is superstitious. In their opinions, naming is the biggest issue in one’s life and name should conform to the eight characters. My father found the famous fortune-tell and he chose the best one of these three words. Thus I got my name Yi-ru.
Nowadays, most Chinese parents still follow the custom of the family name behind the given name and rely on the Chinese poem to name their children. In some area, people need to naming by consider the pronounce difference dialect and Mandarin, and asking fortune-teller.
Naming is challenge for parents to naming basic on the traditional naming customs and local naming customs and use one or two words to expressing the family’s hopes for their kids. Although Chinese naming culture is simplifying that some family do not naming relied on family poem, Chinese naming customs is still inheriting.

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