The Chinese believe a person's name can determine their destiny; that an auspicious name will bring forth prosperity and achievement while an inappropriate one may prevent the individual from enjoying a good life.
Chinese names usually consist of three characters, the family name or surname preceding the generation name and the final character indicating the personal name. The importance of roots, clans or family is evident in the fact the surname comes first.
The emphasis is therefore on the group as opposed to the individual.
Surnames may be derived from a region or village in China in which one's ancestors originated. The Bai Jia Xin, or Book of a Hundred Names, lists the county and province of origin of 100 surnames. However, some Chinese names are not listed in this compendium.
Some surnames consist of two characters, such as Ow Yang, Shang Guan and Si Ma. In such instances, the person may have either three or four characters in total in their name or both the generation and personal names. Note that those with a single character surname may also forgo the generation name, resulting in a two-character name.
We will look at the composition of names further next week.