One Character in Chinese Personal Names

[philiptancl]

I often had been asked why they see quite substantial number of names they find in their zupu/jiapu contain only one character. Let me offer one explanation.

In ancient times, both single and double personal names were used with single character names more common. However, it is written in the Spring and Autumn Annals (《春秋》) that it is improper to have two character names. So when Wang Mang (王莽, 45 BC – 23AD) usurped the throne from the Han and founded the Xing dynasty (新), he issued a decree that everyone within the kingdom should only have one character personal name and anyone who had committed a criminal offence should be given a two character personal name. Wang Mang’s dynasty did not last very long. ( 8AD – 23AD), but the effect of his decree lasted a long time. So we find the people in the Three Kingdoms period which is over a hundred years after Wang Mang, all the people had one character personal name.

[monicatan]

Is this still a rather common practice in the early 20th century?  My grandmother, a Zheng/Tee, only had one character personal name? I was given two personal names (or rather one character was, I suspect,  a generational one since my sisters had the same character in their names).

[philiptancl]

Jul 30, 2018 3:02:58 GMT -5 monicatan said:

Is this still a rather common practice in the early 20th century?  My grandmother, a Zheng/Tee, only had one character personal name? I was given two personal names (or rather one character was, I suspect,  a generational one since my sisters had the same character in their names).

Hi Monicatan,

Jus replied to your other posting.

Ladies of your grandmother’s era from Fujian usually have one character for their names. That is what I notice among many of my female relatives of that era. It is not normal for ladies to have one character taken from the clan’s list of generation names. However it is quite common nowadays to adopt the same middle names among the daughters. However they are not generation names.

[monicatan]

Hello Philip Tan,

My apologies again for the late reply. I already replied to your other post. 

Thank you again for another helpful explanation on one character names and also the current practice on middle name.  For the longest time, I wondered about those two. Always happy to learn something new on Chinese culture. 

Good night. 

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Monica