CHINESE CHINESE
Enshrining Morality and Beauty in Chinese
Names
All rights reserved
The ancient English word of “eke” means “also”. When persons'
names became so common that they had to adopt a second
name, it was known as “an eke name” meaning “an also name”.
When one pronounces it quickly, it sounds like “a nick-name”. It
is believed that this is the origin of one's “alias” was known as a
nickname. Nowadays, it is common practice for Christians to
have two names, a first name and a second name before their
family names.
In China it has been different. People having names and
surnames had been prevalent since historical times over
3000 years ago. Since the Chinese never had a system of
pre-determined names like the Christians’ naming custom,
their names have to be given and devised by their parents or
grand-parents. In ancient times it was usual to have two sets
of names, one for use by parents and family senior members
and the other for use by people outside the family such as
school mates and friends. This practice is seldom followed
nowadays.
In devising names there are quite a number of different
themes. Some are for aspirations such as 富強, wealth and
health, 國強, national strength (who doesn’t want that after so
many years of foreign invasion into China). Chiang Kai-sek
had two sons, one is 經國, the other is 緯國, literal translation
is: “longitude country” and “latitude country”. The implied
meaning is obvious. He wanted his sons to cover the whole of
the nation in governance, both in longitudes and latitudes.
Two of Chiang’s grandsons are named 孝文, 孝武which
means “civil filial respect” and “martial filial respect”. Not
unknown to me, there are three brothers whose names were
given under three of the basic virtues of China, 禮 propriety義
righteousness and 廉, thrifty. There are many more under
other aspects of character building and self-discipline such as
仁義禮智,忠信孝悌 (literal translations are: virtuous,
righteousness, propriety, wisdom, loyalty, integrity, filial
respect, and caring). Such characters are normally used for
names given to boys.
There are names which imply beauty, most notable are those
from the famous novel 紅樓夢 “Dreams of the Red Chamber”
where there are 寶玉, 黛玉 meaning “precious jade” and
“black jade”. 黛 is a lead compound black in colour, used for
painting eyebrows for ladies in olden China. Names used for
girls, where femininity and beauty are implied are plentiful.
They are 美, 秀, 麗, 華, 雪, 花, 芳, 蓮, which in translation
means: beauty, elegant, beautiful, floral, snow, flower,
fragrant, lily etc. The tradition of using the two main categories
of characters for men and women, i.e., virtues, morality, nation
governing etc for men and beauty and elegance etc for women
was based on the ancient belief that it was a virtue for women
not to receive any education (女子無才便是德).
All in all, a name in Chinese carries a lot of meaning,
sometimes hidden in history, literature or philosophy.
As indicated above, the given names of the Chinese normally
comprises two characters. In addition to the one character
which carries the meaning of virtues, high moral values or
beauty, the other character is given to all the siblings in the
same generation. For example, in the theme of the three
virtues of 禮propriety義 righteousness and 廉, thrifty, a second
character like 國 may be added to precede the character of
one virtue to form the name for a brother so that the three
brother will thus be called 國禮 ( leading the country to adopt
propriety), 國義 (leading the country to become righteous),
and 國廉 (leading the country to become thrifty and clean).
For the next generation, another saying indicating high
morality, for example, 生財有道 (to generate wealth with
moral principles and values) is used. Each of these
characters, together with another character which is used in
the names of all the siblings in the same generation, is used
to form a name for one sibling. Assuming that the character
used for all the siblings in the next generation is 文 (civility),
four names文生, 文財, 文有, 文道 are given to the siblings in
this generation.
Names
All rights reserved
The ancient English word of “eke” means “also”. When persons'
names became so common that they had to adopt a second
name, it was known as “an eke name” meaning “an also name”.
When one pronounces it quickly, it sounds like “a nick-name”. It
is believed that this is the origin of one's “alias” was known as a
nickname. Nowadays, it is common practice for Christians to
have two names, a first name and a second name before their
family names.
In China it has been different. People having names and
surnames had been prevalent since historical times over
3000 years ago. Since the Chinese never had a system of
pre-determined names like the Christians’ naming custom,
their names have to be given and devised by their parents or
grand-parents. In ancient times it was usual to have two sets
of names, one for use by parents and family senior members
and the other for use by people outside the family such as
school mates and friends. This practice is seldom followed
nowadays.
In devising names there are quite a number of different
themes. Some are for aspirations such as 富強, wealth and
health, 國強, national strength (who doesn’t want that after so
many years of foreign invasion into China). Chiang Kai-sek
had two sons, one is 經國, the other is 緯國, literal translation
is: “longitude country” and “latitude country”. The implied
meaning is obvious. He wanted his sons to cover the whole of
the nation in governance, both in longitudes and latitudes.
Two of Chiang’s grandsons are named 孝文, 孝武which
means “civil filial respect” and “martial filial respect”. Not
unknown to me, there are three brothers whose names were
given under three of the basic virtues of China, 禮 propriety義
righteousness and 廉, thrifty. There are many more under
other aspects of character building and self-discipline such as
仁義禮智,忠信孝悌 (literal translations are: virtuous,
righteousness, propriety, wisdom, loyalty, integrity, filial
respect, and caring). Such characters are normally used for
names given to boys.
There are names which imply beauty, most notable are those
from the famous novel 紅樓夢 “Dreams of the Red Chamber”
where there are 寶玉, 黛玉 meaning “precious jade” and
“black jade”. 黛 is a lead compound black in colour, used for
painting eyebrows for ladies in olden China. Names used for
girls, where femininity and beauty are implied are plentiful.
They are 美, 秀, 麗, 華, 雪, 花, 芳, 蓮, which in translation
means: beauty, elegant, beautiful, floral, snow, flower,
fragrant, lily etc. The tradition of using the two main categories
of characters for men and women, i.e., virtues, morality, nation
governing etc for men and beauty and elegance etc for women
was based on the ancient belief that it was a virtue for women
not to receive any education (女子無才便是德).
All in all, a name in Chinese carries a lot of meaning,
sometimes hidden in history, literature or philosophy.
As indicated above, the given names of the Chinese normally
comprises two characters. In addition to the one character
which carries the meaning of virtues, high moral values or
beauty, the other character is given to all the siblings in the
same generation. For example, in the theme of the three
virtues of 禮propriety義 righteousness and 廉, thrifty, a second
character like 國 may be added to precede the character of
one virtue to form the name for a brother so that the three
brother will thus be called 國禮 ( leading the country to adopt
propriety), 國義 (leading the country to become righteous),
and 國廉 (leading the country to become thrifty and clean).
For the next generation, another saying indicating high
morality, for example, 生財有道 (to generate wealth with
moral principles and values) is used. Each of these
characters, together with another character which is used in
the names of all the siblings in the same generation, is used
to form a name for one sibling. Assuming that the character
used for all the siblings in the next generation is 文 (civility),
four names文生, 文財, 文有, 文道 are given to the siblings in
this generation.
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Home cooking recipes
Legends
Female emperor
Threatening myths
A remarkable woman
A lustful woman
"Thunderstorm"
Chinese music
Panda in motion
Fairylands in China
Chinese opera
Powerful sisters
Yang Yu-huan
China
A HK girl's blog
Love poems
Most romantic poet
Chinese culinary art
Link to orientalwomentalk.net