Chinese Names: Character Meaning and Naming Customs
A Chinese name combines a family name with a given name. Meaning, sound, family practice and the written character form all matter when choosing or comparing names.
Five classical naming principles
The Zuo Zhuan records Shen Xu’s five categories: a birth circumstance, virtue, resemblance, a borrowed thing and a connection to the father. The discussion concerns the naming of a ruler’s son and the consequences of later name avoidance.
Read the chosen characters
Start with the exact written form, its meaning and pronunciation in the family’s language. A character can have several readings or meanings. A generation character may link siblings or cousins, while a given name can express a family’s hopes or a literary allusion.
Stroke-count choices
A simplified character and its traditional counterpart can contain different numbers of strokes. Dictionary radical counts and the visible modern form can also differ. Keep the character form and counting convention together when comparing a name’s numbers.