22 names, kinship terms, titles, and terms of address
22.1 Names: 姓名 xìngmíng
The order of a Chinese name is:
family name + given name
姓 名字
xìng míngzi
王 莉花
Wáng Lìhuā
张/張 伟明/偉明
Zhāng WěimíngIn this book we translate Chinese names using Chinese word order. That is, 王莉花 Wáng Lìhuā
is translated as ‘Wang Lihua’ and not ‘Lihua Wang.’22.1.1 Family names
There are over 3500 Chinese family names. However, of these, only about 100 occur widely.
This is probably the basis of the expression 老百姓 lǎobǎixìng ‘the old 100 family names,’
which is used to refer to ‘the people’ or ‘the common man.’
The three most common Chinese family names are 李 Lǐ, 王 Wáng, and 张/張 Zhāng. The next
most common family names, representing the overwhelming majority of Chinese people, are
刘/劉 Liú, 陈/陳 Chén, 杨/楊 Yáng, 赵/趙 Zhào, 黄 Huáng, 周 Zhōu, 吴/吳 Wú, 徐 Xú,
孙/孫 Sūn, 胡 Hú, 朱 Zhū, 高 Gāo, 林 Lín, 何 Hé, 郭 Guō, and 马/馬 Mǎ.Most family names are a single character/single syllable in length. However, there are a small
number of two-character/two-syllable Chinese family names. The most common are 司马/司馬
Sīmǎ, 司徒 Sītú, 欧阳/歐陽 Oūyáng, and 皇甫 Huángfǔ.22.1.2 Given names
A given name consists of one or two characters/syllables. There is no fixed inventory of given
names in Chinese as there is in English such as Ruth, Michael, Lisa, and Mark. Instead, names
express meaning, and families select as names, words or phrases with positive connotations
that they wish to associate with their child. While this method of naming is also used in the
West, it is the exception rather than the rule.
In the traditional naming process, the first character of a given name is a generational name:
all children in the family who are of the same gender and in the same generation share the
same first character in their given name. The second character reflects some other positive