Avril writing her name in Chinese [Taiwan 2004] cute
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Interesting Chinese Name Culture

How Many Surnames in China?

According to the records of the One Hundred Family Names (a book about the Chinese surnames which was written in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty), there are 408 monosyllabic surnames and 30 hyphenated surnames in China. But by today’s statistics and other ancient documents there more than 5600 in China! In addition, some ethnic groups have names but have no surnames, for instance the Dai people.

Ten Common Used Surnames

According to the national census, the ten common used Chinese family names are Li, Wang, Zhang, Liu, Chen, Yang, Zhao, Huang, Wu and Zhou.

How to Address Chinese People

It is customary to address Chinese by their given name, using the title Miss, Mrs., or Mr. until persons become good friends and know other’s nicknames. There are a large range of official titles and formal address forms in daily use, especially occupation-linked titles such as doctor, professor, and mayor.

Younger members address elder members according to their formal role within families such as elder brother, cousin, sister-in-law and so forth.

How Chinese Address Each Other

Mostly, Chinese address each other by their names. Take a girl whose full name is Li Hui Lan. People address her Li Hui Lan, Hui Lan, A Lan, or Xiao Lan, even some (those who are elder than she or of the same age) may call her Xiao Li. If a man whose full name is Huang Yue Po, people address his full name or Yue Po, or Lao Huang(usually those who are younger than he or of the same age), or Xiao Huang (usually those who are elder than he or of the same age). Interestingly, if the man with a pockmarked face, some people may not address his full name Huang Yue Po, they might nickname him Huang Ma Zi (Yellow Pockmarks).

But this is considered impolite.

Some Interesting Chinese Formal Names

If you can read Chinese and have lived in China for some years you may find some interesting Chinese names. Take some examples: “Chen Bai Wan”, this is a man’s name. “Chen” is his family name. “Bai Wan” means “millionaire” in Chinese; “Wang Da Fa” is another man’s name. “Da Fa” in his name indicates “making a big fortune”. From the two men’s names you can see their parents have based great hopes on the sons; “Wu You Mu”, “You Mu” in the name means “have wood”. The man may lack “wood” in his fate. According to “the five elements” in ancient Chinese philosophy, any one of the five (metal, wood, water, fire and earth) are indispensable for a person’s fate, or s/he will meet disaster; “Li Wei Dong”, “Yi Wei Hong”, and “Zheng Wen Ge”, all these names with very markedly characteristics of the times. The first one “Wei Dong” in the name means “defending Mao Zhe Dong”; the second “Wei Hong” means “defending the red political power”; the last “Wen Ge” means “cultural revolution”, from the names you can see that the three persons were born during 1966-1976; “Ning Zhao Di”, this is a girl’s name. She may be the first one child of the family or her parents have given birth to several girls before her, they want a boy after her so they name her “Wanting Brother”, this is considered a good wish; “Zhao Lai Fu”, “Lai Fu” in the name denotes “happiness coming”; “Qian Wang Cai”, “Wang Cai” means “prosperous and wealthy”, “Sun Guo Qing”, “Guo Qing” means “National Day”, so long as you meet a man whose name is “Guo Qing” you can draw the conclusion without question that his birthday is October first (the National Day of China). In addition, some Chinese parents name their children according to the 12 zodiacal animals. For instance, Song Sha Sha (***the site cannot read Chinese charcters, please click the url under this article to see the name), a girl’s name. The radicals “*”and “*” in the character “*” stand for grass and water in Chinese respectively. So you can make out the girl’s animal signs are ox, horse or sheep.

Some Funny Chinese Pet Names

Some pet names are also very interesting. If you have the opportunity to pay a visit to some Chinese rural areas you will discover some. For instance: “Tie Dan” literally “iron egg”; “Lao Da” (the oldest child), “Lao Er” (the second oldest child), “Lao San” (the third oldest child), “Lao Si” (the fourth oldest child); “Gou Sheng” literally “dog has as remainder”. In the rural Chinese areas, dog is considered having strong vitality. And because the boy is the last son of the parents, they hope he can grow adult. In the remote villages, some uneducated fond parents may give pet name their children “Da Gou” (the first dog); “Er Gou” (the second dog); “San Gou” (the third dog); “Si Gou” (the fourth dog)… by parity of reasoning.

Chinese Name Culture
China in everyone’s mind is a mysterious colour, because there was eighth wonder of the world terracotta warriors. It will be a mystery. China is formal state, has thousands of years the cultural history, this makes it in people’s eyes more magic. Do you know? Chinese name is a culture. Please follow me to come together to understand Chinese name culture
The Chinese are a bit superstitious, especially while giving the name to the newborns. They presume that the name plays a large part in controlling the life span of the young one. They mostly adopt the principle of Yin & Yang, Five Elements, etc. with respect to this. Strokes form the character in Chinese. Yin refers to even number of strokes, while Yang refers to odd number of strokes. The number of strokes plays the vital part. Date of birth and time are made use of in determining the eight characters, which is known as Ba Zi.
Some parents prefer names depending upon his expectations-like health, intelligence, position in life etc. Some others consider historical event while naming the baby.
For those believing in astrology a child’s name may be according to the time and date of birth. The season may also be considered. The birth year, animal signs etc may also play a role in the naming.
The most lacking element in the chart is water. Astrologer will find a name pertaining to water. Suitable names are water, river, pond, lake, ocean etc. Winter is also okay, but to a small extend. If the lacking element is wood, names like forest, tree, bamboo etc may suffice.
Some others look for a name that accommodates the needed element.
Normally Chinese adopt basic characters. As an example, the character for fire and earth make up that for stove. So if fire or earth is absent, give the name related to stove.

Demonstration of writing your name in Chinese Rainbow Calligraphy by Master Jacky Chow.
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