Chapter Text
Historically, a Chinese person would have a patrilineal family name [姓 (xing)] and “milk name” [乳名 (ruming)] at birth, then a personal name [名 (ming)] given at 100 days after birth. Milk names apparently varied based on family situation - there is some historical record indicating that some of the wealthy gave lucky or aspirational milk names; religious families might give names with religious connotations, and the peasants (whose children faced greater rates of infant mortality) gave pejorative nicknames like Little Dog to avoid attracting the jealous attention of bad spirits during the most vulnerable time for the baby.
Upon reaching adulthood (age 20, according to the Book of Rites), a boy is given a courtesy or style name [字 (zi)]. Canon doesn’t seem to follow the same timing, since the boys all had courtesy names by the time they went to study at the Cloud Recesses, which was around age 15, but perhaps they are considered to have reached adulthood earlier. According to the Book of Rites, girls receive a courtesy name upon being promised to be married, but canon did not specify if any of the women had courtesy names.
Historical Chinese names are written as follows:
[Family name/ 姓 (xing)] [personal name/ 名 (ming) ]
Courtesy name [Courtesy name/ 字 (zi)]
If you look at the floating text next to a person in their first appearance in the cartoon or drama, it’s their name in the above format. (If both courtesy and personal names were not given in the novel, only their known name is shown, such as for Lan Jingyi.)
Note, the family name is not repeated in front of the courtesy name when introducing the person with both personal and courtesy names.
Example: Lan Zhan, courtesy name Wangji. 蓝湛， 字忘机
Not: Lan Zhan, courtesy name Lan Wangji.
When addressing a person, one would use their family name and courtesy name:
Example: Lan Wangji 蓝忘机
Generally, only close family (such as parents) would address someone by a personal name.
Each Chinese character is one syllable. Family names are typically one character, with a few rare exceptions such as Ouyang (欧阳). Personal names and courtesy names can be one or two characters long. The Pinyin system romanizes family, personal, and courtesy names as one word with no spaces between the two characters, and with only the first letter capitalized.
Example: Lan Wangji 蓝忘机
Not: Lan Wang Ji or Lan WangJi.
Example: Ouyang Zizhen
Not: Ou Yang Zi Zhen or OuYang ZiZhen
In the wuxia (a Chinese literary genre) tradition, martial artists of a high calibre are known by descriptive nicknames, which can be derogatory or laudatory. Examples from wuxia novels are the “Western Venom” (西毒) from the Return of the Condor Heroes novel, or “Brocade Furred Rat” (锦毛鼠) from the Seven Heroes and Five Gallants. MDZS is considered a xianxia novel, which is a subgenre of the wuxia genre, and follows many of its conventions, so the high level cultivators also have descriptive nicknames. A person with a laudatory nickname might be addressed by that nickname as a gesture of respect.
In modern China, a person would only have a family name and personal name. Milk names (except to mean an informal nickname for a baby or child) and courtesy names are no longer used.
In general, the following naming conventions would be used, in order of most respectful to most familiar, to refer to a person:
1. Lauditory title: e.g. Hanguang-Jun/ Lord Light-Bearer
2. Relationship title (non-familial): e.g. Sect Leader, Shifu, Xiandu
3. [Family name]-qianbei / Senior [family name]
4. [Family name]-[general title]: e.g. Wei-gongzi, Jiang-guniang, Yu-furen
5. [Family name]-[familial relationship title]: e.g. Jiang-shushu/ Uncle Jiang, Wei-gege
6. Relationship title (familial): e.g. Father, Uncle, Brother
7. [Family name] - [Courtesy name]: e.g. Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian, Jiang Wanyin
8. [Family name]-xiong: e.g. Nie-xiong
9. lao-[family name] (meaning old) or xiao-[family name] (meaning little): (note: not used in canon)
10. Courtesy name by itself: e.g., Wangji (used by Lan Xichen). Note, this only works if the courtesy name has two characters.
11. a-[one character from courtesy name]: e.g. a-Yao
12. xiao-[one character from courtesy name]: note: not used in canon
13. [Courtesy name]-gege or -jiejie or -ge or -jie or -mei or -di: not used in canon
14. [Family name]- [Personal name]: e.g. Lan Zhan
15. Doubling of a character from a courtesy or personal name (usually only used for children): e.g. Xianxian
The foregoing order is just based on my own sense, not any sort of official ranking, and some of these are pretty close in terms of level of familiarity; sometimes it just depends on the person’s name and what sounds better - e.g. a-Wang and xiao-Ji sound terrible in Chinese, so it is more likely that someone will call him Wangji, and those nicknames all indicate about the same level of closeness.
Chinese names are always at least two syllables. No one would ever just refer to someone by one character of their name. e.g., no one would call Wei Wuxian just Xian. If it's shortened to a nickname or diminutive, one would always use a way that leaves the name at at least two syllables: e.g., a-Xian, or Wangji. As a cautionary note to non-Chinese speakers, ask a Chinese speaker before you give your characters new nicknames that aren't canon. For example, if you have someone refer to Lan Wangji as "Jiji" (i.e., doubling a character from his courtesy name), that person just called him a penis. As another example, "Wangwang" is the sound of a dog barking. Chinese words are full of homophones, so it's easy to get tripped up.
Note: if a person doesn’t have the right level of relationship and uses a more familiar term of address, then it’s typically considered insulting or rude.