Online Chinese Course: The Mystery of Chinese Names

As we all know, a name is a special symbol of someone. However, it is not easy to give somebody a good name. There are 1.4 billion people in China and so it is common for people to get the same name. Actually, naming somebody is a process requiring skills and careful consideration. Otherwise, the name may cause some jokes in your life. In this online Chinese course, we are going to talk about the mystery of Chinese names. By knowing it, we will find the attraction of Chinese characters and Chinese culture, which will be beneficial to our Chinese language learning.

When it comes to the Chinese names, it is natural to think of some common names. Just like the names “Tom”, “Mary”, and “Jack”, “Peter” in western world, “张伟(zhang1 wei3)”, “王丽(wang2 li4)”, “刘丹(liu2 dan1)”, “李倩(li3 qian4)”, and “王刚(wang2 gang1)” may be the most common names in China. According to a official survey, there are at least 300 thousand “刘丹” in China.

For many Chinese parents, how to give a special and wonderful name to their kids is a vital process. Because Chinese language is endowed with profound history and deep culture, each Chinese character and each character combination may express specific meaning. For example, the first name of “龙腾(long2 teng2)” is considered to a magnificent name, which contains the most distinguished animal in China——“龙(long2), dragon”. And “龙腾” means the dragon is going to take off and it indicates that the parent wish the child to have a bright future someday.

Here is the joke time. “小明(xiao3 ming2)” always talks a lot in the Chinese courses. One day, the teacher called his name and asked, “Who are you talking with?” 小明 replied, “杜子腾 (du4 zi2 teng2)”. The teacher felt annoyed and said, “How can you say you have a stomach rather than answer my question?” Actually, “杜子腾” has the same pronunciation of “肚子疼(du4 zi3 teng2), which means stomach”. That is why the teacher misunderstood it and caused the joke.

source: http://smile1xia.jigsy.com/entries/education/online-chinese-course-the-mystery-of-chinese-names