Names are very important to the Chinese. When a baby is born, or even before birth, choosing a meaningful name becomes the most important part of the entire family's ritual. And unlike letters and words of Western names, because of their evolvement from hieroglyphics, Chinese characters give a unique visual image of the person they represent.

In China, names are normally two or three characters, and the order of the given name and the family name is a reversal of Western names. According to Chinese tradition, the name of a person starts with his/her surname, which is followed by the given name, like Gong Li. This is because in Chinese culture, emphasis is placed on revering the ancestors, and part of this process means people honor their ancestors by placing the family names ahead of the given names.

In some families, the first of the two characters in a person's name is shared by all members of a generation and these generational names are worked out long in advance. They can even incorporate characters of epic poems, shared by succeeding generations.

Some names of brothers or sisters are frequently related. For example, one child may be named bo, while his (her) brother or sister may be named tao. Combined together, the word botao mean waves or billows.

Most Chinese also have a "little name" or pet name, which their parents and close family members and friends call them by. These names are generally not used by anyone outside this close circle and have sharp regional characteristics according to traditions or conventions of different regions.

Destiny starts here

To help them decide on a baby's name, Chinese parents often make use of the dictionary, hoping to find characters or words that have both a beautiful sound and a positive meaning. Given names may also reflect the hopes or blessings from parents or family.

For example, the given names of China's former leaders Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai are very meaningful in Chinese. The character ze means granting beneficence to something or somebody. So zedong means, granting beneficence to the orient. The character en means kindness and lai means to come, so enlai means kindnesses is coming. However, translations of their names into a foreign language will lose these subtle connotations.

One of the most common characters in Chinese given names is wen, meaning culture and knowledge. This character in a name clearly reflects the ultimate value in modern Chinese society: culture and education.

Another commonly used character in the given name is zhi, meaning will, intention or emotions, showing the expectation of the parents that the child will grow up with a strong will.

In other cases, the character qian, meaning humility, is given in the hope that the child would always remain humble. The character fu, meaning rich, is used in the hope that the child would lead a prosperous life. Besides the meaning of the name, Chinese people also pay attention to whether the name is auspicious, believing a name will affect the child's destiny.

In recent years, a trend has developed where parents are buying names for their babies from experts specializing in this field. The year, month, day and hour of a baby's birth are all taken into consideration in the naming process, much like the use of astrology in the West. The experts use the five natural elements of gold, wood, water, fire and earth, which Chinese philosophy believes form the core of the universe, to define a person's destiny. For example, if a baby's fate is calculated to lack water, they will find a name representing or related with water to compensate.