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constellationnights · 2 years

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A guide to Chinese names, as understood by a Chinese person

Ever struggle with coming up with names for your Chinese OCs in fanfics? Ever been confused which part is the first name and which is the surname? Ever not realized two names actually correlate to the same character? Well struggle no more as I try my very hardest to non-verbosely break down Chinese naming, all while maybe sprinkling in some meta about danmei novels because I can.

Is this a very solidly researched, evidence backed post? Nope, this is mostly a summary of my own personal knowledge plus Wikipedia plus me scouring Chinese forums to point my way to historical records. I don’t pretend to understand everything related to this subject, because there’s just sooooo much to know, but I’ll try my best! Feel free to point out any errors and missing things.

This will mention a lot of details regarding the different considerations when choosing names, some of which is outdated, so if you’re only interested in like the basic details you can skip like the second half of this post. Also also, this applies to Han Chinese only!!!! Other ethnic groups have different names and cultures surrounding them.

Basic Naming and Language Stuff

Since the written Chinese language uses logograms (individual characters to represent different things/ideas, combining them to represent other things), there is no such thing as a designated ‘name word’ (like Anna, Mark, Jason), which is why online name generators for Chinese names suck. Think of names like Rain, Lily, Hope etc. if they weren’t capitalized, we wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between them and normal words, except that in Chinese there is literally no way to tell just by looking at the characters in isolation (it’s very obvious in context though). The character for Xie Lian from tgcf has a first name 怜 (lián), which could be a variety of things but I’ll put the definition as to sympathize. This is the exact character one would use in a sentence like I sympathize with him. Of course, there are certain characters that are basically only used in names, but they are not strictly for names only, people just tend to use more special characters.

First names can be any length of characters technically, but the most common ones are one character or two characters. However, when addressing a person, usually a minimum of two characters is used, so if someone has a one character first name then they are usually addressed by their full name, or by a two-character nickname (can be done by doubling a character, or adding a certain character. This also works for two character names). Generally, people can be addressed using different titles attached to their surname, typically related to their profession (if there was lawyer with last name Zhang, you would address them as ‘Lawyer Zhang’) or their relationship to you (a woman a few years older than you can be addressed as ‘Jie’, although this can be a bit casual).

Now, for Xie Lian, Lian is his first name, Xie is his surname. Notice that the surname comes first. Like first names, they can be everyday characters or ‘commonly for names’ characters, however there are only certain characters used for family names (at least “naturally”, since you could technically pick a random last name but it’s not really a thing). Surnames are most commonly one character (e.g., Zhang, Wang, Lin, Li) but they can be two characters (e.g., Duanmu, Ouyang, Zhangsun, Shangguan). Longer surnames are likely not Han.

It’s entirely possible for two people to have the same romanized name but have their names be entirely different (due to different tones and homophones). For example, one person’s surname could be Wang (王) and the other’s could be Wang (汪). Just by romanization, you can’t tell that these are actually pronounced very differently since no one uses accents in English writing lmao. Or, the surnames Wei 魏 vs Wei 卫 or Jiang 江 vs Jiang 姜 which are pronounced the exact same and only differ by character.

Naming Traditions and Conventions

The Chinese term for ‘name’ is 名字 (míng zì), however, historically 名 and 字 were two different things, although in modern day there is no distinction and everyone just has one name.

名 is the name given at birth. It was typically only used by elders or people close to the person, like parents, or people more powerful than the person, like an Emperor. Shen Xu states in Zuo Zhuan (a commentary on a historical record, I’m doing a very very rough translation) five ways to name someone: using circumstances/events surrounding or near birth, lucky/auspicious characters, the features of the child, the names of things in the world, or characters related to the father. As well, children should not be named using names of states (this was a period when China was broken into many vassals), titles of public officials, names of mountains and rivers (or large geographical bodies in general I think), names of diseases, and names of ritualistic objects and sacrificial goods. According to Yili, an etiquette and rites book, this name is given three months after birth.

字 is the ‘courtesy’ or ‘style’ name, and it is used by people who aren’t supposed to use the 名. According to Liji, another etiquette and rites book, this is given to men when they turn 20 and women when they turn 15 (and for women specifically only after they’re engaged). Coming up with this name is very important, and there are many ways to do it: it can incorporate and expand upon the birth name, like the poet Li Bai (李白) and his courtesy name Li Taibai (李太白); it can have a relation to the birth name, for example the ‘Yun’ (昀) character in spl Gu Yun’s (顾昀) name means sunlight, while the ‘Xi’ (熹) character in his courtesy name Zixi (子熙) refers to the light of dawn; it can mention the birth order of the child; it can connect with the birth name to form a phrase; it can show a cause and effect relationship; it can be opposite of the birth name. The courtesy name has mostly gone out of fashion, but it was a thing until like early 20th century.

Since last and first name are typically presented together, it is not unusual for characters to have their surnames ‘connected’ to their first names, whether intentionally or not. Qiu Haitang (秋海棠) is a good one: 秋, her last name, means autumn, and 海棠 is the name for the begonia flower, so put together it would make her name mean something like “a begonia in autumn.” Jiang Cheng’s (江澄) name also works here: 江 means river, and 澄 can mean the process of water turning clear and all the particles settling and stuff.

Another interesting way to name characters is by referencing classical poetry. For example, Jiang Fengmian (江枫眠) likely comes from a line in a famous poem by Zhang Ji: 江枫渔火对愁眠. Some other characters I can think of (likely) named this way would be Xu Qichen, Jiang Ting (and his alias Lu Chengjiang, which both come from the same poem lmao what a nerd), Lan Wangji. References to other pieces of literature, such as Buddhist, Taoist, and Confucian and Neo-Confucian texts.

Distinguishing between generations was and still is very important in Chinese culture, and a way that they used to do it was through their names. For one character names, the characters themselves could have a connection. Let’s look at the Lan siblings from mdzs: Lan Huan (蓝涣) and Lan Zhan (蓝湛). Notice how the characters of their names (涣 and 湛) share a common left part, from which we can note that both of the characters connect to water somehow (just a bit I did dictionary it). A more common way of doing things is having a two character name, with one shared character for the children of the generation: Jin Zixuan (金子轩) and Jin Zixun (金子勋), Jin Rulan (金如兰) and Jin Rusong (金如松) (take what you want from the fact that Meng Yao’s name was changed to Jin Guangyao instead of Jin Ziyao). I believe it’s more common for this ‘generation character’ to be the first character of the name, although it can be the second character: Yuanchun (元春), Yingchun (迎春), Xichun (惜春), and Tanchun (探春) of the Jia family from Hong Lou Meng, for example. The differentiated characters can form a phrase or message (as is the case with the Jia girls above), or the characters used for the generation can connect with characters from other generations.

Characters that sound like the names of Imperial family members, like the Emperor or the Empress, are basically, and if a character in your name coincides with someone important then you gotta change it. When writing names of these ‘higher people’ (most commonly, parents), one could remove a few strokes from the characters in order to avoid them, as a means of respect.

Now, if you really want to get detailed, we can talk a bit about 生辰八字 (shēngchén bāzì), which is really just a birthday (year, month, day, time). In folk religion and culture, it is used to predict how the rest of one’s life will go, and ways to avoid misfortune and such. I don’t fully understand it, but basically based on this you can calculate like which elements you have an abundance of/affinity for and which ones you lack (the five elements are metal, wood, water, fire, and earth). You can then find out what types of characters are suitable for your name: for example, based on my birthday, I lack water, so to remedy for that my parents could’ve named me using characters related to water.

Some miscellaneous info and thoughts:

In folk culture, the number of brush strokes in the characters of a name could mean bad/good luck

A nickname used by parents and elders to address a child when they are young is called a ‘milk name’

You can have more than one courtesy name

You typically don’t name after people

People can be named after numbers, or ‘numbering sets’ (like first, second, third). This might be used by writers for background characters.

Girls are commonly named with characters that have the 女 radical (女 is the character for female). Uncommon characters with this radical are usually very specific adjectives used to describe women

The amount of puns that can be conjured is incredible omg

The Chinese characters for the elements on the periodic table nearly all have the 金 radical, indicating metal. According to the very reliable source of my dad, these characters came from the Ming dynasty, where all the members of the royal family had to be named with characters that contained that radical, so they just started slapping it next to random characters once they ran out

Doubling a character is sometimes a proper name for a girl (e.g., Weiwei, Yingying, Lili), but I haven’t see it for boys

I probably missed quite some stuff while making this post but yeah those are some of the things about Chinese naming that I know of. Any thoughts?

#chinese #chinese culture #chinese language #chinese novel #names #naming #danmei #mxtx #meta #a bit #just a bit yk #also some #mdzs #asdf i just love the mdzs names a lot

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promisinininining · 8 months

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hello :3c all questions with the number 3 ( :3c ) in them, my good friend mis! :3c

Admittedlty, I started this. I shall accept my punishment with grace (💖).

Disclaimer here that there will be references to nsfw under the cut because I peddle smut. There's also a brief mention of vomit in a snippet I share.

3. Describe the creative process of writing a chapter/fic I write on my phone mainly, and I like to be curled up in a nest of some kind and comfy when I open up my Big Doc of Ideas and start typing. if it gets long enough (~1k words) I move it into its own doc. I reread constantly when I write, and often times I just sit and stare at a sentence until my brain clicks on. It also helps to bounce ideas off friends as I'm working, if I feel my steam running low. Otherwise I get into Da Zone and everything else disappear.

13. What’s a common writing tip that you almost always follow? Ah. Hm. I don't actually know many "common" tips. I find a lot of them not very useful, like "write every day" just leads to burnout. I suppose there's this: sometimes, when you write yourself into a corner and don't know how to continue, go back a little bit further and try a new direction. Still Stuck? When I don't want to write a scene I simply don't and move on. Sometimes you never have to go back. It's fine. It wasn't that important anyway.

23. Best writing advice for other writers? ARE THE TIPS NOT GOOD ENOUGH? Okay Fine. Write what you want. Write weird shit, write horny shit, write stuff that disgusts and uncomfortablises people. Write the stuff that interests you rather than what you think other people would like. I made a promise to myself when I stepped back into fandom, and that was that I wouldn't be ashamed of anything that I liked anymore, and it's been an absolute blast. (Coming back up here after a few questions) WAIT- When you don't know what to do, ask yourself, what would be sexiest? and go with that. Never fails.

30. Do you share rough drafts or do you wait until it’s all polished? I'm happy sharing rough drafts. I tend to edit as I go so the top of my docs always end up pretty polished as opposed to the endings... shhh. I don't tend to share much of rough drafts in public, though, some friends get basically the entire thing through screenshots, lol. I can't resist okay! I'm excited about what I'm writing! I can't keep it all inside!

31. Do you start with the characters or the plot when writing? Characters, definitely. Most of my stories are character-driven, and plot tends to happen around them, even aus are usually 'well what if they were brought up in THIS environment?' and whatever happens to them grows around what the consequences of their actions. I'm not very good at longfic and a lot of my fics are oneshot character studies so :Va Not that I'm saying I'm bad at what I do, plot is just not my priority! I Find characters, their relationships, and their personalities more fun to explore! (<- was raised on the Tales Of games)

32. Name three of your favorite fanfic writers. Fuck, okay. Well it probably doesn't surprise you that I make friends thru fanfic so I have a lot of writer friends and I don't LIKE to pick favs, simply because I don't think of them that way. That would be weird. Additionally, I only really read stuff my friends write nowadays ;w; I'll name the people who I've reached out to over completely losing my shit over their fics instead, in order of meeting them: Elcie/BurningLio, Bee/println0/slothencholy, Mango/MalevolentMango (and here, an honourary mention of Ailem for appearing alongside Mango though I hadn't read any of its fics until after we had become friends).

33. Five years from now, where do you see yourself as a writer? Sure. I don't see myself stopping any time soon.

34. Do you want to be published some day? (yes I swapped 33 and 34 by accident so sue me) Eeehhhh, as someone who writes mostly erotica I don't reaaaally see any of my stuff being published by any mainstream publishing houses. I certainly WANTED to when I was younger, and it would certainly be cool, but it's not something I am persuing or even have an interest in persuing.

35. What is one essential thing to remember when writing a villain? They gotta be as hot as possible.

36. How do you write kissing scenes? Okay so disclaimer, I've been writing fanfic for a VERY long time. I was on the internet before I should have been. My parents didn't speak english very well, and stuff like google translate didn't even exist (rather, it did, but it wasn't very good). I was ten, and I asked Google sensei how to write kisses, and the first result took me to a yahoo questions page where the answer was something like, describe how they feel instead of the kiss itself. I then deleted my history because I was not a stupid child. I remember that advice to this day.

37. How do you choose where to end a chapter? I uh. Write oneshots. I end it where the story ends. Hope this helps :)

38. Would you ever write commissions? Yes but nothing too long. I've been meaning to open up writing commissions for literal years but I KEEP getting too sick to be able to dedicate the time it deserves to run commissions.

39. Share a snippet from a WIP Huff okay. This should be shiny and new for even you, Mango.

"Akechi-" "I'm fine," Akechi grits, spitting more acid onto the ground before he finally straightens and wipes a sleeve over his face. Akira doesn't even try to hide his expression when Akechi deigns to face them again. He states the fact plainly. "You're not fine." "Don't try to tell me what I am or not," Akechi sneers in return. He's clutching at his stomach despite his nonchalance, and a grimace clings to the edges of his pissed off expression. Akira rolls his eyes. There's no point arguing with Akechi on a good day, never mind when he's defensive and scared of being benched. They don't exactly have a choice to keep Akechi in combat as there are only three of them, and Kasumi is completely new to this kind of palace exploration. He may not be Futaba, but he has the most experience in the Metaverse by far; he's observant, meticulous, and his ability to memorise the attributes of new shadows is impressive. Akechi really had been holding back on them in Sae's Casino, and Akira isn't stupid enough to let that kind of usefulness go to waste.

43. Do you take a sadistic joy in whumping your characters, or are you more the "If you hurt them I would kill everyone and then myself" kind of person? lmao. do i even need to answer this?

53. How do you spend your time when it comes to fanfiction? Are you primarily a fic reader, writer, or a perfect 50/50 split of both? I'm primarily a writer. I used to read a lot but I have a hard time reading anything nowadays. I need to be doing something or else I'll EXPLODE. KABOOM. No more mis. splat like watermelon.

63. Something you hate to see in smut. I hate it when the author takes their time to write 'btw this is pure good non fetishistic sex' through the characters. It's ridiculous. I'm here for a good time not to get lectured on what safe sex is. If the reader needs to be told what consent is, I'd argue that they aren't old enough to be reading it.

73. What do you think makes your writing stand out from other works? Brother I do not know. I kind of fly by the seat of my pants. Lich Rally Just Vibin.

#YAHOO DONE #malevolentmango #mis-types #also some #mis-takes #postmoogling #tumblr has a bug where the read more moves down a block of text upon clicking edit #cool

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