culture · 5 May 2026
Chinese Naming Conventions Explained
Chinese names follow different conventions from Western ones — surname first, given name second, a limited pool of surnames, and a significance to the individual characters that has no equivalent in most Western naming. Here is how the system works.
Chinese names are written surname first. In 毛泽东 (Máo Zédōng), 毛 is the surname and 泽东 is the given name. The first character of a three-character name is almost always the surname.
The surname pool is highly concentrated: 李 (Li), 王 (Wang), 张 (Zhang), 刘 (Liu), and 陈 (Chen) together cover hundreds of millions of people. Given names are chosen for meaning — characters representing virtue, nature, strength, or other aspirations.
Generational names: traditional families shared one character across all same-generation members, recorded in a clan genealogy. The Kong family (Confucius's descendants) still follows this system.
Forms of address: surname + title (王老师, Teacher Wang), or 小 (little) + surname for younger people, 老 (old) + surname for affectionate address to older acquaintances. Using given name only is informal and reserved for close friends or juniors.
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names, language, culture, etiquette, identity