关于名字的英语文章

The importance of a name

Social scientists say that what you're called can affect your life . Throughout history, names have not merely identified people but also described them. For better or worse , sometimes qualities may be suggested by your name and conveyed to other people before they even meet you. A name, as the symbol that represents one’s identity, is very important in our life from we are born.

In China, parents attach great importance to names because their children’s names usually contain the characteristics that they want their children to possess. For example, many Chinese boys have the character ‘Yong’, which means brave. Furthermore, an eye-catching name can also create a good first impression and thus benefit one’s career. This is why many stars choose to change their names once they become famous.

Meaning of Chinese names

1 See your fate from name

Chinese people always attach great importance to the choice of names. In the Chinese earliest dictionary it was explained as follows: name contained the invisible fate and the visible and meaning characters. Fate was something not easy to definite. It coincided with 'the hidden material,' metal, wood, water, fire, and earth .The five elements decided by the birth date according to the astrological principles. Nowadays, we think it superstition , but there are still some rules of

thumb tend to be followed by parents, like balance between the baby's birth date and the five elements in its life. Take my name for example, after I’m born, my mother asked a fortune-teller about my fate and my name, it’s said I’m lack of metal, so you can see there is a 金 in my name.

2 See the develop of country from names.

The May Fourth Movement in 1919 make drastic changes in Chinese culture. So did it influence names. It contended all sorts of characters could be used to form a person's name. Then after the founding of New China, name began to take on a political touch, such as 'Ai Guo' which means 'love the country' and so on. Another obvious change in Chinese name is that many people now use only two characters. A study shows that, before 1966, about 90 percent of chinese names had three characters. But a recent survey tells us that about half of today's younger people have two character names.

Meaning of English names

English first name has many origins.

1 Christianity. It’s one of the most influential sources because most English-speaking countries are Christian countries. Traditionally, a child is given a Christian name by its godfather and godmother at baptism. Parents often give their children names after the people in the Bible. Such biblical names as Adam, Abraham, Daniel, and Peter are most commonly used first name.

2 Mythology. For example, in several thousands years, the whole western world was under the influence of Greek-Roman mythology. Classical Greek mythology provided names like Daphne, Phoebe, Cynthia, and Jason.

3 Literature. Take Shakespeare as an example. Because of the great influence of him, many people like to choose names from his works. He provided Miranda, Jessica and Cordelia, and so on.

4 Natural environment. In several millenniums years of human civilization, people’s lives have close relation with the natural environment. So, there are also many first names originated from animals and plants. Such as Bird, Fox, Goose, Fish, and Bush, Rice, Wood, Rose, and so on.

5 Foreign origins. For example such first names as Ivan originated from Russian, Albert, Adolph, Carl from German names.