The Chinese given names are the equivalent of the Western first names.

This Chinese given names have two parts. That is if it's a two-word given name. The first word is the generation name. The second is the personal given name.

My name has three characters like this: 丁首荣, Ding Shou Rong. Ding is my family name. Shou is my generation name. What is this?

I have two other brothers. They both have a middle name that has this character 首 Shou. My male cousins have the same middle names too. Likewise, my sisters have their own feminine generation name. The male and female siblings do not share the same generation name.

Going up one generation to my father's, he and his brothers (my uncles) have the middle name of 孝 Xiao. And my grandfather had his own generation name.

Where do they come from?

Long ago when a clan lived in smaller population, the people have an ancestral memorial hall. And a generation name poem is kept here. The poem may be short or long. And so each generation uses each successive character in the poem as the generation name. When the characters in the poem run out, they repeat the cycle.

Fast forward to today. Is generation name still used?

My son has a different middle name from my brothers' sons. As we moved further from our cousins, we have also sort of lost touch with them. They have also named their sons' middle names differently. You can say there is no longer a generation name. What we have are only the middle names.

Generation names now happen mostly within the same family. My brother has his own generation name for his sons. While I have my own.

In the method that I used to select the best Chinese names, I don't strictly follow the generation naming convention. From experience, I find them at most times very restrictive to getting a good name.

Chinese characters can sound the same although written differently. For parents that insist on having generation name, this is the best way of working around it. Example, these two characters sound the same - cheng - 铖 and 浈. However there is no guarantee that you can always get a close match.

Some people omit the middle name and thus have only one word as their Chinese given names.

Some babies have only two-word names. The family name and a given name.

With the method I use, it is recommended to have a three-word name. This will have a better overall configuration. And it will be more unique because you have more words to mix and match.

Also, I recommend that parents follow the Pinyin system of romanisation of Chinese names. Pinyin is the system used by China. Therefore it is the most popularly used and easy to read.

Selecting a given name today is not easy. People are moving towards a more modern feel in the names. Gone are the days where babies were simply named as Village, Mountain, River, Sun, Moon, Gold, Water and other natural things. Those were the influence of the agricultural society. Today, parents want names that are less tangible, and more to do with good virtues or just nice sounding without any associated meaning to it.

How did you get your name? We all have our share of stories on our Chinese given names. Each one is certainly special.

Best Chinese Names - Learn about the 4 hidden factors for selecting the best Chinese given names.

Auspicious Good Names
Good names are like good prayers. The Chinese have known about this a long time ago. Want to know why?