The names are common language phenomenon, not only because it is a kind of identification code between people to distinguish each other, but also because it is a national historical and cultural information carrier. It conveys a language of a nation, as well as history, geography, religion, custom, social status and other aspects of information. Names have been interpreted in two senses:a broad sense and a narrow sense. The names ,in its narrow sense, refers to the names of things ,such as names of persons , names of places , names of companies, trademarks and so on.
The names ,in its broad sense ,extend to a common names of things even to names of basic concepts. The former is generally called study of naming the object , while the latter is extended to the etymology. But there will not be a gap, it might as well put together to discuss. Names, as a symbol and sign, is not strange to us. Everyone from childhood is given their names by their parents,which closely related to their whole life. Besides, names have something to do with every single day in your whole life. They are essential tool in social interaction.
What’s more, the way you addressing people’s names shows your emotion. These are the condensation of cultural tradition and social customs. Therefore, different cultures have different inheritance custom of names. Different cultural traditions and social customs in China and English-speaking countries cause the different custom of names . Chinese Names 1. 1 Names bear the parents’ expectations of children and parents’ hobbies. Parents hope that their children have a promising future ,so they named the child ” Peng fei “. Parents love the winter plum, and they name their daughter ” Dan mei “. . 2 Names contain misfortunes-free ,disease-free, turn calamities into blessings, and compensate for the fate of the significance of defects. Such as the names of the child ” Qubing”, ” Changsheng “. 1. 3 Living area ,time and weight at birth will be reflected in the names.
According to the survey, Beijing people like to use the ” Rong “, Shanghai people like to use the ” Bao(treasure)”, ” Mei(sister )”. “Jiujin( Nine pounds)”, “Liujin(six pounds )” is its weight at birth, but also become some local naming conventions. Boring at the beginning of liberation was called Jianguo(open) “. Nowadays, with the development of globalization, the name such as “Jeanne “, ” Lisa “, turn out to be the trend of the times. 1. 4 Ethical, moral and religious sense in Chinese names also reflected. Chinese culture is a kind of ethical culture, this feature was fully reflected in names. ” Virtue(de)”, ” benevolence(ren)”, ” loyalty(zhong)” and ” filial piety(xiao) “, these words represent personality. English Names English name is generally composed of three parts. The structure is as follows: given name + middle name +family name.
A first or given name is generally given by parents or priest . Middle name is named after parents and their friends . Such as the famous British scientist Darwin. His full name is Charles Robert Darwin . Darwin’s father was called Robert, and his uncle was named Charles. So named Charles Robert Darwin, in the hope that Darwin will be able to inherit his father and uncle’s career. Chinese Worship heroes and sages or celebrity’s names, English people also have the habits of using sage names, which reflects the people hero worship social psychology.
A lot of people directly use the celebrity ‘s name, such as Washington ( the first president of the United States ) it is the family name at first, but later in order to express to his love and respect, is widely used as a given name. English-speaking countries, people will use some influential political figure’s name or grandparent’s name called the baby. This is done in order to show their respect to politicians or their grandparents . In the traditional Chinese culture , it is not permitted. The names should be different in gender. This is the basic principle .
Therefore, both Chinese and English names with gender identity, male names usually reflect the masculine. As the Chinese like to use words such as Zhijian, Zhiguo. In English, mostly in Andrew ( Andrew ) originates from the Greek, meaning brave outspoken; Peter ( Peter ) originates from the Greek, meaning rock, which is firm and indomitable . The female name implies beautiful appearance, elegant noble virtue. Such as Hellene ( Helen ) originates from the Greek, meaning beautiful, Susan ( Susan ) derived from the Hebrew, meaning elegant and warm Name, as a symbol, convey a specific cultural information.
The name is the most basic interpersonal appellation, which has a very close relationship with a nation’s history, religion, culture and customs. Generally speaking, the name implied a national history, language, psychology, ethics and morality,and is a national culture part. Chinese name embodies the blood patriarchal idea. by contrast, the English national names and naming behavior reflects the western culture of individualism, standard value orientation.
