Editing Chinese name (section)

== Given names ==
{{Main|Chinese given name}}
Given names show much greater diversity than the surnames, while still being restricted almost universally to one or two syllables. Including [[variant Chinese characters|variant forms]], there are at least 106,000 individual Chinese characters,<ref name="TME">The 2004 Taiwanese [[Ministry of Education (Republic of China)|Ministry of Education]] ''[[Dictionary of Chinese Variant Form]]'' compiled 106,230.</ref> but as of 2006, in the People's Republic of China Public Security Bureau only approximately 32,000 are supported for computer input<ref name="NYT">{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/world/asia/21china.html | work=The New York Times | title=Name Not on Our List? Change It, China Says | first=Sharon | last=Lafraniere | date=21 April 2009 | access-date=24 February 2017 | archive-date=15 August 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170815204501/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/21/world/asia/21china.html | url-status=live }}</ref> and even fewer are in common use. Given names are chosen based on a range of factors, including possession of pleasing sound and [[Chinese tones|tonal qualities]], as well as bearing positive associations or a beautiful shape. Two-character ''{{Lang|zh-latn|ming}}'' may be chosen for each character's separate meaning and qualities, but the name remains a single unit which is almost always said together even when the combination no longer 'means' anything.

Today, two-character names are more common and make up more than 80% of Chinese names.<ref name="ABC">Woo Louie, Emma & al. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=IGAClRACrsYC&pg=PA48 Chinese American Names: Tradition and Transition]''. McFarland, 2008. {{ISBN|0-7864-3877-0}}. Accessed 22 March 2012.</ref> However, this custom has been consistent only since the [[Ming dynasty]]. About 70% of all names were only one character long during the [[Western Han dynasty|early Han]] and that rose beyond 98% after the usurping [[Wang Mang]] banned all two-character names outright. Although his [[Xin dynasty]] was short-lived, the law was not repealed until 400 years later, when northern invasions and interest in establishing lineages revived interest in such longer names.<ref name="ABC"/> The [[Tang dynasty|Tang]] and [[Song dynasty|Song]] saw populations with a majority of two-character names for the first time, but the [[Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period|Liao]] between them and the [[Yuan dynasty|Yuan]] afterward both preferred single character names. The restoration of [[Han people|Han]] dominance under the Ming, promotion of [[Han culture]] under the [[Qing]], and development of [[generation name]]s established the current traditions.<ref name="ABC"/>

Given names resonant of qualities which are perceived to be either masculine or feminine are frequently given, with males being linked with strength and firmness and females with beauty and flowers. It is also more common for female names to employ diminutives like ''Xiǎo'' or doubled characters in their formal names, although there are famous male examples such as [[Deng Xiaoping]] and [[Yo-Yo Ma]]. People from the countryside previously often bore names that reflect rural life—for example, Daniu ({{zhi|c=大牛}}, <small>lit.</small> "Big Bull") and Dazhu ({{zhi|c=大柱}}, <small>lit.</small> "Big Pole")—but such names are becoming less common.

It is also considered bad form to name a child after a famous person, although tens of thousands might happen to share a common name such as "[[Liu Xiang (hurdler)|Liu Xiang]]".<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.163.com/07/0815/15/3LUPHGL4000120GU.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131224114430/http://news.163.com/07/0815/15/3LUPHGL4000120GU.html|title=中国1.8万多人姓名为刘翔 叫刘德华的人逾1.6万|url-status=dead|date=15 August 2007|archive-date=2013-12-24|author=Legal Evening News|author-link=Legal Evening News}}</ref> Similarly, owing to the traditional [[naming taboo]]s, it is very uncommon in China to name a child directly after a relative, since such children would permit junior family members to inappropriately use the personal names of senior ones. Ancestors can leave a different kind of mark: Chinese naming schemes often employ a [[generation name]]. Every child recorded into the family records in each generation would share an identical character in their names. Sixteen, thirty-two, or more generations would be worked out in advance to form a [[generation poem]]. For example, the one selected in 1737 for the family of [[Mao Zedong]] read:<ref>{{Cite web|title=中华毛氏网|url=http://maoshijiazuwang.com/NewsPage.aspx?id=15354|access-date=2020-11-27|website=maoshijiazuwang.com|archive-date=1 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221201071240/http://maoshijiazuwang.com/NewsPage.aspx?id=15354|url-status=live}}</ref>

::::{{lang|zh-hant|立顯榮朝士}}   ''Stand tall & display unstintingly before gentlemen,''
::::{{lang|zh-hant|文方運濟祥}}   ''And study & method will expand the borders of our fortune''.
::::{{lang|zh-hant|祖恩貽澤遠}}   ''Ancestral favors bequeath kindness through the ages,''
::::{{lang|zh-hant|世代永承昌}}   ''Descendants forever obliged for their prosperity''.

This scheme was in its fourteenth generation when Mao rejected it for the naming of his own children, preferring to give his sons the generational name An ({{zhi|c=岸}}, <small>lit.</small> "Lofty", "Proud") instead.{{Citation needed|date=June 2012}} A similar practice was observed regarding the stage names of [[Chinese opera]] performers: all the students entering a training academy in the same year would adopt the same first character in their new "given name". For example, as part of the class entering the National Drama School in 1933, [[Li Yuru]] adopted a name with the central character "jade" ({{zhi|c=玉}}).<ref>{{citation |last=Li |first=Ruru |author-mask=Li Ruru |contribution-url=https://chinoperl.osu.edu/sites/chinoperl.osu.edu/files/back-issues-no.29-liruru-caoyu-liyuru-report-color-photos.pdf |contribution=2010 Commemorations of the Theatrical Careers of Cao Yu and Li Yuru |date=2010b |title=[[CHINOPERL Papers]] |number=29 |publisher=Conference on Chinese Oral and Performing Literature |page=225 |access-date=19 May 2016 |archive-date=23 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160623154136/https://chinoperl.osu.edu/sites/chinoperl.osu.edu/files/back-issues-no.29-liruru-caoyu-liyuru-report-color-photos.pdf |url-status=live }}.</ref>

Depending on the region and particular family, daughters were not entered into the family records and thus did not share the boys' generation name, although they may have borne a separate one among themselves. Even where generation names are not used, sibling names are frequently related. For example, a boy named Song ({{zhi|c=松|l=pine tree}}) might have a sister named Mei ({{zhi|c=梅|l=[[plum tree|plum]]}}). In some families, the siblings' names have the same [[Radical (Chinese characters)|radical]]. For example, in the Jia ({{lang|zh-hant|賈}}) clan in ''[[Dream of the Red Chamber]]'', a novel mirroring the rise and decline of the Qing dynasty, there is Zheng ({{zhi|c=政}}), She ({{zhi|c=赦}}), and Min ({{zhi|c=敏}}) in the first generation, Lian ({{lang|zh-hant|璉}}), Zhen ({{zhi|c=珍}}), and Huan ({{lang|zh-hant|環}}) in the second, and Yun ({{lang|zh-hant|芸}}), Qin ({{lang|zh-hant|芹}}), and Lan ({{lang|zh-hant|蘭}}) in the third.

More recently, although generation names have become less common, many personal names reflect periods of [[History of China|Chinese history]]. For example, following the victory of the [[Chinese Communist Party|Communists]] in the [[Chinese Civil War|Civil War]], many Chinese bore "revolutionary names" such as Qiangguo ({{zhi|first=t|t=強國|s=强国|l=strong nation, strengthening the nation}}) or Dongfeng ({{zhi|first=t|t=東風|s=东风|l=eastern wind}}). Similarly, in [[Taiwan]], it used to be common to incorporate one of the four characters of the name "[[Republic of China]]" ({{zhi|first=t|t=中華民國|s=中华民国|p=Zhōnghuá Mínguó}}) into masculine names. Periodic fad names like Aoyun ({{zhi|t=奧運|s=奥运|tr=Olympics}}) also appear. Owing to both effects, there has also been a recent trend in China to hire fortune tellers to change people's names to new ones more in accordance with traditional Taoist and [[Five elements (Chinese philosophy)|five element]] practices. In creating a new Chinese name, it is sometimes the practice to analyze the number of strokes in the characters used in the potential name and attempt to use characters that produce specific totals of strokes.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thoughtco.com/number-of-stroke-chinese-names-2278472|title=Choosing a Chinese Name by Number of Strokes|author=Qiu Gui Su|date=8 March 2019|access-date=26 July 2019|quote=The total number of strokes of the zhōng gé should equal 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 23, 25, 29, 31, 32, 33, 37, 39, 45, 47, 48, 52, 63, 65, 67, 68, 73, or 81.|archive-date=26 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190726074836/https://www.thoughtco.com/number-of-stroke-chinese-names-2278472|url-status=live}}</ref>