<p>Traditionally, naming is mostly based on family tree. But in recent years, we are given more freedom to name our children. From people I know with 3+ given names, I understand that there are several considerations from their parents.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>1) Literal translation from original names in their ethnic groups other than
  ethnic Han.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>I've seen people with 4 or even 6 characters in their given name.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>2) Add mother's surname in it.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>I have some friends whose name structure look like <code>father's surname</code> + <code>mother's surname</code> + <code>2 characters</code>. This is not the traditional way like adding husband's name before wife's whole name, it's more based on some casual reasons like "It means I'm the love of my dad and mom", or "It sounds good".</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>3) Surname happens to be the initial character of a 4-character
  phrase/idiom.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>One of my friend told me her grandpa loves an idiom so much and the initial character happens to be her surname, so she got her name as it is right now.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-13T09:46:27.130Z
Another reason that applies to a person I know is that the parents and the two sets of grandparents each added a syllable, which is probably an attractive solution to single-child families.
KWeiss
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-13T21:35:10.140Z
2016-07-13T21:35:10.140Z
Gracegotlost
<p>It is possible, for a Chinese to have a first name longer than 2 characters. I had a classmate like that, but I don't think I should reveal his name here.</p>

<p>It is fully legal and proper, and is becoming more widely accepted in recent years.</p>

<p>However, this wasn't common when you date back. If you look for materials talking about China and Han (汉) people more than a hundred years ago, you probably won't find any.</p>

<p>I guess one reason for having longer names is that as communication approaches improve, people start to learn that there are a lot of other people in China using those common names - if they don't want to think of a creative and unique short name, one way to avoid that is to have a longer-than-usual name.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-15T08:29:14.207Z
The term *first name* may be misleading, especially when you are talking about Chinese names in English. The two cultures have different convention in whether to put the suname before or after the given name. I think *surname* and *given name* should be used instead of *last name* and *first name* to avoid ambiguity,
ltux
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-15T17:10:18.553Z
@ltux **I agree that is more general.** However, English speakers will not read your name in the Chinese way, except for the well-known celebrities/leaders, like Mao, etc. On the other hand, no matter how you read your name, "first name" is always equivalent with given name.
bfrguci
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-15T18:51:27.287Z
Not only well-known celebrities. For example, the names of the characters in [The Three-Body Problem](https://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765382032/), a sicence fiction translated from Chinese, are all traslated in their original order. In China, a name translated from English is usually kept its original order. But in English world, the order of a name translated from Chinese is not consistent. You can refer to [this question](http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/8249/ch-e-name-translation-etiquette). I insist that the term *first name* is ambiguous.
ltux
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-15T20:47:51.923Z
@ltux Whether the term is ambiguous or not has nothing to do with that inconsistency.
bfrguci
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-15T20:48:26.663Z
@ltux Whatever, that's not the point of this question so let's don't worry about it at all.
bfrguci
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-13T16:44:20.990Z
2016-07-13T16:44:20.990Z
bfrguci
<p>Here is a <a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%BB%83%E5%AE%8F%E6%88%90%E5%8F%B0%E7%81%A3%E9%98%BF%E6%88%90%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C%E5%81%89%E4%BA%BA%E8%B2%A1%E7%A5%9E%E7%B8%BD%E7%B5%B1" rel="nofollow">real case</a>. He changes his name to "黃宏成台灣阿成世界偉人財神總統(Huang Hung Chen Taiwan Ah Chen World Great Person Rich President)". It is the longest name in Taiwan now.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-14T20:00:13.057Z
Makes for a great business card at least!
Olle Linge
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-15T17:12:18.080Z
That's just a funny special case... Normal people won't do that.
bfrguci
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-14T01:51:43.547Z
2016-07-14T03:52:02.530Z
2016-07-14T03:52:02.530Z
Diaph
<p>Now in China mainland, you can find 4 character names mostly in pediatric departments, kindergartens and primary schools.</p>

<p>For Han people, most patterns are </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>father's surname+mother's surname+2 given characters
  OR father's surname+3 given characters</p>
</blockquote>

<p>However influenced by popular novels and dramas of Mary Sue style, some young parents give names like all kinds of <em>Zixuan</em>, <em>Yuhan</em>, <em>Zihan</em>, <em>Haoyu</em>, which are too widely used. One jokes says if you call Zixuan in a kindergarten, 1/3 of the children will answer you. Their given names may be 紫萱 子轩 梓萱 紫瑄 子煊. If you call Zihan, another 1/3 will answer you, named 紫涵, 子涵, 子翰, 梓晗.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-14T06:36:53.370Z
2016-07-14T06:36:53.370Z
ElpieKay
<p>hmm... yeah, i'd say that 3 character names are perfectly respectable. my grandpa talked bout how 3 character names are the most desirable, and giving one kid a 3 character name but not the other is like setting up the other kid up for failure lol. someone with a 3 character name gives me the impression of someone very respectable. although they sound kinda strange in modern-times 3 character names are perfectly fine. i met a guy named 雞鶴群, for instance.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-01T21:15:50.800Z
2021-04-01T21:15:50.800Z
cathy
<p>in my experience, in recent years, there're more people with 3 characters given name; from taiwan, or mainland. these characters are just common chinese character, no special meaning when combined together.</p>

<p>sorry, i can't provide any valid, real example here.</p>

<p>guess a is that, with 1 or 2 characters as given name, there're chances that someone else would have the same surname + given name; which made many unnecessary, even unsolvable troubles. so, people start to get a 3 characters given name; in order to distinguish from others.</p>

<p>guess b is the influence of japanese culture. with 1 character surname + 3 characters given name, the combination is 4 characters long; which would look like a common japanese name.</p>

<p>again, i can't prove it :(</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-13T16:03:00.550Z
Even if a Chinese people has 1 character surname + 3 characters given name, his/her name won't look like a common Japanese name. That's because Chinese have very different taste from Japanese when choosing Chinese characters for given names. And, the two countries use totally different surname sets. It's very easy to distinguish a Chinese name from a Japanese one, even if they are both made up of four Chinese characters.
ltux
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-13T16:11:22.540Z
yes, only for people understand chinese & japanese. however, for "foreigner" who have no / little knowledge, a 4 characters name in kanji, it's hard to distinguish. anyway, it's a guess, i maybe wrong :)
水巷孑蠻
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-14T08:53:49.377Z
For example, 王史提芬, a bicycle player for Hong Kong.
SOFe
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-14T20:23:13.927Z
well, the question mentioned "that weren't transliterations or pseudonyms" :)
水巷孑蠻
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-13T15:11:04.093Z
2016-07-13T15:11:04.093Z
水巷孑蠻
<p>Most Chinese given names are 1 or 2 characters long. Were there any proper, Han Chinese given names of 3 or more characters, that weren't transliterations or pseudonyms?</p>

<p>Surnames are different; while most are only one character, there are quite a few that are <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_compound_surname" rel="nofollow">two characters or more</a>. However, I haven't found any example of given names being longer than 2 characters. For example, despite keeping their Manchu surname, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aisin_Gioro" rel="nofollow">Aisin Gioro</a> clan adopted Chinese naming conventions: Puyi's brother was named 愛新覺羅溥任, with a 2-character given name.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-13T16:40:04.600Z
In old Hong Kong tradition, when a woman got married to a man, she put the man's surname before her full name, e.g. 陈方安生, 陈冯富珍, 叶刘淑仪, 方黄吉雯, 范徐丽泰. Here comes the problem, say, what's the surname for 范徐丽泰? Since their children's surname is 范, if we consider her surname is also 范 but not 范徐, then 徐丽泰 becomes the given name having 3 characters.
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-13T16:44:37.950Z
And I actually encountered some 3-character given name. [This website](http://zhaoren.idtag.cn/samename/searchName!searchIndex.htm) has a database for all available names in China. It may help you find some examples.
Stan
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-13T17:21:18.053Z
this tradition is 冠夫姓, adding husband's surname to the front of wife's surname. technically, the wife's given name is not changed, only the surname changes from 1 character to 2 characters.
水巷孑蠻
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-04-02T15:42:37.050Z
Yes. Check out recent news from Taiwan. Some people, for free shusi, changed their name to include 鮭魚, e.g. 劉品漢帥鮭魚. And a mainland Chinese, for the love of the game, named his son 王者榮耀.
joehua
<names>
Chinese given names with 3 or more characters?
# Chinese given names with 3 or more characters?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-07-13)

Most Chinese given names are 1 or 2 characters long. Were there any proper, Han Chinese given names of 3 or more characters, that weren't transliterations or pseudonyms?

Surnames are different; while most are only one character, there are quite a few that are [two characters or more](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_compound_surname). However, I haven't found any example of given names being longer than 2 characters. For example, despite keeping their Manchu surname, the [Aisin Gioro](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aisin_Gioro) clan adopted Chinese naming conventions: Puyi's brother was named 愛新覺羅溥任, with a 2-character given name.

**Tags:** names
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: In old Hong Kong tradition, when a woman got married to a man, she put the man's surname before her full name, e.g. 陈方安生, 陈冯富珍, 叶刘淑仪, 方黄吉雯, 范徐丽泰. Here comes the problem, say, what's the surname for 范徐丽泰? Since their children's surname is 范, if we consider her surname is also 范 but not 范徐, then 徐丽泰 becomes the given name having 3 characters.  
> **username_1**: And I actually encountered some 3-character given name. [This website](http://zhaoren.idtag.cn/samename/searchName!searchIndex.htm) has a database for all available names in China. It may help you find some examples.  
> **username_2**: this tradition is 冠夫姓, adding husband's surname to the front of wife's surname. technically, the wife's given name is not changed, only the surname changes from 1 character to 2 characters.  
> **username_3**: Yes. Check out recent news from Taiwan. Some people, for free shusi, changed their name to include 鮭魚, e.g. 劉品漢帥鮭魚. And a mainland Chinese, for the love of the game, named his son 王者榮耀.  

---

## 6 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2016-07-13. Score: 2

Traditionally, naming is mostly based on family tree. But in recent years, we are given more freedom to name our children. From people I know with 3+ given names, I understand that there are several considerations from their parents.

> 1) Literal translation from original names in their ethnic groups other than
> ethnic Han.

I've seen people with 4 or even 6 characters in their given name.

> 2) Add mother's surname in it.

I have some friends whose name structure look like `father's surname` + `mother's surname` + `2 characters`. This is not the traditional way like adding husband's name before wife's whole name, it's more based on some casual reasons like "It means I'm the love of my dad and mom", or "It sounds good".

> 3) Surname happens to be the initial character of a 4-character
> phrase/idiom.

One of my friend told me her grandpa loves an idiom so much and the initial character happens to be her surname, so she got her name as it is right now.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: Another reason that applies to a person I know is that the parents and the two sets of grandparents each added a syllable, which is probably an attractive solution to single-child families.  

---

### Answer by username_6 on 2016-07-13. Score: 1

It is possible, for a Chinese to have a first name longer than 2 characters. I had a classmate like that, but I don't think I should reveal his name here.

It is fully legal and proper, and is becoming more widely accepted in recent years.

However, this wasn't common when you date back. If you look for materials talking about China and Han (汉) people more than a hundred years ago, you probably won't find any.

I guess one reason for having longer names is that as communication approaches improve, people start to learn that there are a lot of other people in China using those common names - if they don't want to think of a creative and unique short name, one way to avoid that is to have a longer-than-usual name.

> **Comments:**
> **username_7**: The term *first name* may be misleading, especially when you are talking about Chinese names in English. The two cultures have different convention in whether to put the suname before or after the given name. I think *surname* and *given name* should be used instead of *last name* and *first name* to avoid ambiguity,  
> **username_6**: @ltux **I agree that is more general.** However, English speakers will not read your name in the Chinese way, except for the well-known celebrities/leaders, like Mao, etc. On the other hand, no matter how you read your name, "first name" is always equivalent with given name.  
> **username_7**: Not only well-known celebrities. For example, the names of the characters in [The Three-Body Problem](https://www.amazon.com/Three-Body-Problem-Cixin-Liu/dp/0765382032/), a sicence fiction translated from Chinese, are all traslated in their original order. In China, a name translated from English is usually kept its original order. But in English world, the order of a name translated from Chinese is not consistent. You can refer to [this question](http://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/8249/ch-e-name-translation-etiquette). I insist that the term *first name* is ambiguous.  
> **username_6**: @ltux Whether the term is ambiguous or not has nothing to do with that inconsistency.  
> **username_6**: @ltux Whatever, that's not the point of this question so let's don't worry about it at all.  

---

### Answer by username_8 on 2016-07-14. Score: 1

Here is a [real case](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%BB%83%E5%AE%8F%E6%88%90%E5%8F%B0%E7%81%A3%E9%98%BF%E6%88%90%E4%B8%96%E7%95%8C%E5%81%89%E4%BA%BA%E8%B2%A1%E7%A5%9E%E7%B8%BD%E7%B5%B1). He changes his name to "黃宏成台灣阿成世界偉人財神總統(Huang Hung Chen Taiwan Ah Chen World Great Person Rich President)". It is the longest name in Taiwan now.

> **Comments:**
> **username_9**: Makes for a great business card at least!  
> **username_6**: That's just a funny special case... Normal people won't do that.  

---

### Answer by username_10 on 2016-07-14. Score: 0

Now in China mainland, you can find 4 character names mostly in pediatric departments, kindergartens and primary schools.

For Han people, most patterns are

> father's surname+mother's surname+2 given characters
> OR father's surname+3 given characters

However influenced by popular novels and dramas of Mary Sue style, some young parents give names like all kinds of *Zixuan*, *Yuhan*, *Zihan*, *Haoyu*, which are too widely used. One jokes says if you call Zixuan in a kindergarten, 1/3 of the children will answer you. Their given names may be 紫萱 子轩 梓萱 紫瑄 子煊. If you call Zihan, another 1/3 will answer you, named 紫涵, 子涵, 子翰, 梓晗.


---

### Answer by username_11 on 2021-04-01. Score: 0

hmm... yeah, i'd say that 3 character names are perfectly respectable. my grandpa talked bout how 3 character names are the most desirable, and giving one kid a 3 character name but not the other is like setting up the other kid up for failure lol. someone with a 3 character name gives me the impression of someone very respectable. although they sound kinda strange in modern-times 3 character names are perfectly fine. i met a guy named 雞鶴群, for instance.


---

### Answer by username_2 on 2016-07-13. Score: 0

in my experience, in recent years, there're more people with 3 characters given name; from taiwan, or mainland. these characters are just common chinese character, no special meaning when combined together.

sorry, i can't provide any valid, real example here.

guess a is that, with 1 or 2 characters as given name, there're chances that someone else would have the same surname + given name; which made many unnecessary, even unsolvable troubles. so, people start to get a 3 characters given name; in order to distinguish from others.

guess b is the influence of japanese culture. with 1 character surname + 3 characters given name, the combination is 4 characters long; which would look like a common japanese name.

again, i can't prove it :(

> **Comments:**
> **username_7**: Even if a Chinese people has 1 character surname + 3 characters given name, his/her name won't look like a common Japanese name. That's because Chinese have very different taste from Japanese when choosing Chinese characters for given names. And, the two countries use totally different surname sets. It's very easy to distinguish a Chinese name from a Japanese one, even if they are both made up of four Chinese characters.  
> **username_2**: yes, only for people understand chinese & japanese. however, for "foreigner" who have no / little knowledge, a 4 characters name in kanji, it's hard to distinguish. anyway, it's a guess, i maybe wrong :)  
> **username_12**: For example, 王史提芬, a bicycle player for Hong Kong.  
> **username_2**: well, the question mentioned "that weren't transliterations or pseudonyms" :)  

---

