Q: Dear Uncle Wang,

Are there any rules when naming children in China?

A: The Chinese pay a lot of attention to naming their children. Choosing a name for a baby is an art form in itself. The name, according to Chinese beliefs, can determine a child's fate as regards their education, career and marriage. The name a child is given is one way in which parents express hope for their offspring's life ahead. The Chinese believe that the key to a happy and prosperous future begins with the right name.

Unlike in the West, China has no fixed canon of names. Parents can choose from any word in the Chinese vocabulary and they naturally pick words that have positive connotations.

Usually, girls are given names that denote feminine virtues, such as beauty, and often they refer to flowers or birds. Boys' names, meanwhile, are commonly associated with strength, bravery and wisdom, and often reference animals such as tigers and dragons.

When naming a child, several factors need to be taken into account, such as the year, month, date, and even the time the child was born. Some people also think that the number of strokes in the Chinese characters of the name may have some bearing on the child's destiny.

But it is not only the meaning of the words and its connotations that count, but also how the name sounds and how it looks when written. The family name and the given name need to work together in harmony, both phonetically and visually.

In the past, children's names were also said to be able to fight off evil spirits that could cause illness and premature death. Some traditional families would even given unattractive nicknames to their children as a way of protecting them from evil spirits while they were still young and vulnerable.

Unlike in the West, a child in China will never be exactly named after an older relative. To Chinese sensibilities, this would be seen as a display of disrespect. Naming a child after its father or grandfather, for example, would permit junior family members to "improperly" misuse these revered names. It is also considered a bad form to copy the names of famous people, celebrities or famous historical figures.

During the age of emperors in ancient China, if other bearers of an emperor's name didn't change it upon his ascension, they could be severely punished.

Some more superstitious Chinese people may even seek the advice of a "literomancer" who is kind of a fortuneteller who advises parents what to name their child based on written Chinese characters. The advice usually pertains to the number of strokes in a given name and the correlation between the meaning of the characters and the child's time of birth. In some regions, where it is possible, people can even change their legal given name in order to help improve their "luck."

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