Name introduction:
Names refer to the names of people, products and articles. There are broad and narrow names, as well as nicknames, aliases, posthumous title and birth names. Broad names include the surname and first name of citizens and the names of legal persons and unincorporated organizations; In a narrow sense, the name only refers to the first and last names of citizens. It is a combination of names and words.
In ancient China, names and characters were used separately. Now collectively referred to as "name", refers to the name or first name.
Basic meaning:
It is said that in ancient times, babies were named by their fathers three months after birth, which is the origin of the ancient "names". In fact, in some areas of China, the custom of naming babies at full moon still exists, but the right to name babies is no longer borne by the father alone, but by the baby's relatives.
Interestingly, in ancient times, when Han boys reached the age of 20, they had to hold a ceremony of tying their hair and wearing a crown to show their adulthood, and then they had to choose words. When a girl 15 years old, a ceremony of "tying her hair and adding weight" will be held to show that she can get married. At this time, she also has to choose words. It can be seen that both men and women in ancient times had figures, such as Qiu Jin, a modern female revolutionary.
China ancient name:
In history books or ancient books, we can often see that the ancients had characters besides names. The ancients had "names" and "characters", and "names" were also called "real names". It is said that ancient babies were taken away by their fathers three months after birth. The word "Zi", also called "Biao Zi", is a name associated with the real name besides the real name.
When a man was crowned at the age of 20, he took the words (but in the troubled times of the Three Kingdoms, he was rebellious and didn't necessarily follow the rules. Cao Chong and Sun Liang were both crowned after death, but both had characters), while women took characters when they were crowned at the age of fifteen. Surname, before the Xia Dynasty, and the choice of words is said to have begun in the Shang Dynasty, such as overthrowing Shang Tang, formerly known as Lu, also known as Tianyi, the word soup.
Also, there is a difference between a name and a character. The ancients often claimed their own names to show humility, called people's words to show respect, and the combination of surnames and words was also a kind of respect.