Chinese names

Mundeok

So I have a questions about names in chinese. I have seen 3 different variations as I see it in the way they are translated/romanized. There are the names like on ww(Ximen, Ji Ning, Meng Hao), then there are names that are somewhat similar but not quite the same like from the Warriors series( Cao Cao, Lui Bei, Zhuge Liang), and lastly there is the names that are totally different imo like from the Kingdom manga. So my question is this: Are these all valid/correct or is someone messing up. Or is it just a difference in how they're written? Because the ones from kingdom especially seem waay different. Maybe its cause of the time difference(diffrerent era). Would like to know your thoughts or opinions.

youdothatdo

The Kingdom manga is a Japanese work with names that mix Chinese and Japanese naming conventions, depending on whose translation you read.

According to wikipedia, the main character is Li Xin, 李信, and his best friend is Piao, 漂. Piao has no last name, probably because he's supposed to be an orphan and thus has no family to have a surname from. Aside from that, both names are valid names.

I haven't read Kingdom, so if you've any examples you aren't sure about, please list them.

Cao Cao (曹操), Liu Bei (劉備), and Zhuge Liang (諸葛亮) are all names that are valid.

Many of the names seen in novel are usually fashioned to sound 'cooler', but names such as Meng Hao (孟浩), Wang Lin (王林), and Ji Ning 纪宁) are also valid names. You may even see people with such names like these in real life. 

How the names are romanized differ from region to region. In China, they follow the Hanyu Pinyin system, and in Taiwan, they follow the Wades-Giles system.

There's thousands of different names in Chinese, much like how there's so many different names in English. Elisabeth, Elizabeth, Ellisabeth, etc. 

Gilthunder36

no....chinese names are quite intriguing since they symbolize you for example are some names of characters that imbue heroism when their name is literarily stands as such

robertoadkins

Chinese names it is more then just a name it is a big tradition and it is not a game!

bigmelon

all Chinese word or character is single pronounced. Chinese last name or family (姓)name can be one or two charcter, and Chinese first-name (名)could also be one or two.

Because you guys read many ancient background novels, you should notice that ancient Chinese first-name only use one character, and there is a two-character interpeting-name that given by one's elders or teachers with good wish or expectation that called by his peers or elders. For example,Cao Cao,in Chinese, it's 曹 操， 曹is the family name, 操 is the given name which means personal integrity here, and 曹操get a interpreting-name as Meng De(孟德） which means good morality. Because Cao Cao is a lord, probably no one would dare call his name. Usually Cao Cao's intimate friends will call him Meng'De (孟德). It's rude if you call somebody's family name and given name which only used in official papers or professing oneself.

Zhu'ge Liang
诸葛     亮
诸葛is the family name, and 亮 is the given name which means light or shiny. 诸葛亮‘s interpreting name is Kong'Ming 孔明。孔means tiny hole,明 means light or shiny too. So Zhu'ge  Liang's interpreting name probably means a little shiny, which holds expectation of some humility or wise (cause there is an ancient idiom goes"见微知著"----seeing much from little things).

Actually,ancient Chinese names is more complicated than that. It goes like姓氏名字. 姓 maybe means clan or race-name, 氏 means  family-name, 名 means given name，字 means interpreting name. With time goes by, clan names are not important anymore, "姓"(clan-name)and"氏"(family-name) is taken place by just one character “姓”（which used to stand for clan name now means family name). And modern given-name now consists one or two character rather than just on charcter.

If whoever speak Chinese mandarin now would find out although modern Chinese people say "名字" when they introduce themselves they actually just say a given'name--名， without a inpreting'name--字. It's interesting though the Chinese dictionary emphasize one's name should be "名字" rather than "名子"， there is actually no one hold a interpreting'name nowadays.


And for names in a novel especially in a web novel, the names could be a little messing. There could be just a 名 or just the name of something or even a phrase. So it's quite confusing.Maybe most Chinese could be lost in 姓氏名字， let alone you guys.

The God of Cuan

Japanese use Chinese kanji letter + their hitagana etc

So in kingdom, the name is Chinese name with Japanese pronunciation, hence the difference