Chinese Festival

CHINESE NAMES

I. FAMILY NAMES

1. In China family names of the Han Chinese (which account for about 92% of the total population of the country) are before given names.

2. At present there are about 3,000 family names for the Han Chinese, of which 300 are the most common.

2. Most Chinese family names have only one character. However, about 20 double-character family names have survived into the modern time. Some famous ones include Sima, Zhuge, Ouyang and Situ, etc..

3. There are family names with three or more characters, but those are extremely rare and are not ethnically Han Chinese.

II. CHINESE GIVEN NAMES

Chinese given names are made up of one or two characters.

1. Unlike the Western convention, it is extremely frowned upon to name a person after someone else.

2. There are age- old conventions about Chinese characters chosen for given names, e.g.___

(1) Given Names for Male

Characters meaning wealth, wisdom, courage, strength, ambition and glorification of ancestry are favoured given names for male. For instance,

富 (wealth)

贵 (honour)

发财 (get rich)

智 (wisdom), 聪 (intelligent), 敏 (smart)

勇 (brave), 壮 (strong), 力 (strength)

志远, 宏志, 鹏飞, 远大 (great ambition)

(2) Given Names for Female

It is frequently the case that girls will be given names which reflect "feminine"

characteristics