A Comparative Study of the Names between China and America – From the Perspective of Sociolinguistics

A Comparative Study of the Names between China and America – From the Perspective of Sociolinguistics

孙艳霞

黑龙江省双鸭山市林业学校  155100

Abstract

Name is a specific symbol given to each person by human beings to distinguish inpiduals, and a sign to identify characteristic property through verbal and textual information. Different name cultures have been formed in China and the West. The surname, as one of the symbols of the family, has stability and representativeness. The changes of names show the features of different times. In this essay, we will analyze the social background and profound implications that influence contemporary Chinese and American name cultures from a sociolinguistic perspective.

Keywords:Name; Cultural differences; Sociolinguistics

1.Introduction

Name is a symbol of humanity, a tool of communication and a carrier of bloodline continuity, influenced by social history, regional environment, institutional concepts, traditional customs, religious beliefs and other factors. Language cannot be separated from society and is a product of human society. Therefore, sociolinguistics is a discipline specializing in the study of social phenomena in language.

As an important part of language, the changes in names are closely related to the development of society. In different historical periods, naming styles have varied. The variation of names reflects the social characteristics of different periods. Studying names can help us understand the society, culture and language of the time.

Name reflects many aspects of a nation and is a window to society. There are huge differences between Chinese and English names in terms of name composition and surname origin. Studying name culture helps us to understand the historical development, religious beliefs, emotional values and ways of thinking of each. The study of names is important to promote the communication and cooperation between China and the West.

2. Literature Review

The study of Chinese names has a long history and made rich achievements in this area. However, scholars at home and abroad have focused more on the qualitative study of ancient personal names in terms of pronunciation, character shape and meaning, while little attention has been paid to the quantitative and qualitative study of contemporary personal names.

The study of Han Chinese personal names began in the 1980s with Researched on Chinese Names (1987) written by Xiao Yaotian and Aspects of Chinese Names (1988) written by Wang Quangen, which at the beginning mainly studied the origin and characteristics of names. Currently, study of personal name has included various aspects such as naming skills and arts, cultural connotation, character norms, social characteristics and phonetic studies.

Western name studies are mainly focused on the classification, origin, variation, distribution, and cultural connotation of names. Publications include The Story of Our Names (Elsdon Coles Smith, 1959), Dictionary of American Family Names (Patrick Hanks, 1962), Naming Your Baby(Julia Cresswell, 1973), and The Origin of English Surnames (Reaney, P.H., 1979).

3. Methodology

The author selected popular Chinese and English names in recent years as the research data for this paper, in order to discover specific social reality and cultural connotations. Although the Chinese and English names are in different social environments, they share common characteristics of the times.

The Chinese name data presented in this study is derived from the Ministry of Public Security's National Name Report of 2021, which uses big data technology and statistical analysis.

The English name data uses a list of the most popular baby names in the United States published by the Social Security Administration (SSA). The list was extracted from birth records across the United States.

4. Results and Discussion

As we all know, the name consists of two parts: the surname and the given name. Therefore, in the statistics, the names are counted separately.

Although it is said that the data quoted in this article are the results of the last two years. In fact, popular names do not usually appear out of thin air. Very often, the top ten popular names of the year come from the top 25 of the previous year.

4.1 Chinese Popular Names

    Until December 31, 2021, a total of 8.873 million newborns were born in China in 2021 and have been recorded at public security organs for household registration, of which 4.681 million (52.75%) were male newborns and 4.192 million (47.25%) were female newborns.

Table 1: Top 10 Boy Baby Names of 2021 in China

Table 2: Top 10 Girl Baby Names of 2021 in China

Table 3: Top 10 Characters of Baby Names of 2021 in China

    From the above tables, it is easy to see that popular names have certain patterns in terms of phonology and morphology. However, this paper analyzes the relationship between names and society from a sociolinguistic direction.

    Chinese characters carry a unique cultural meaning, and people's moral qualities and talents are embedded in them. This cultural meaning forms a strong psychological orientation, and names also invariably influence people's character, sentiment, career, etc. The naming of men and women shows different value orientation.

Table 4: Top 10 One-character Names in China

Table 5: Top 10 Two-character Names in China

In the above table we can see the distribution of personal names in terms of gender. Gender affects the range of characters used in names. Men tend to choose characters that indicate career success, such as "伟", "军", "建", etc., or characters that indicate good moral character, such as "勇", "强", "华", etc., which are parents' expectations for men to develop a tough and masculine personality. Women tend to choose soft and fine words for their names, such as "桂", "兰", "梅" for flowers and plants, "玉", "珍" for precious ", "敏", "静", " 秀", indicating virtue. All of these characters reflect the tender qualities of femininity.

Even in the popular names of recent years, we can still see the influence of traditional culture on names. The gold, wood, water, fire and earth radicals often found in names is the impact of the Chinese Yin-Yang and Five Elements theory. The five elements are born together in the order of gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, and at the same time, they are mutually exclusive in the order of earth, water, fire, gold, and wood. People believe that name and future destiny are a whole and closely related to each other. Numerologists calculate the five elements of a person based on the birth time. According to the deficiencies of the five elements, a suitable character is added to the name to complement the deficiencies of the eight characters in the numerology and to avoid the occurrence of unknown risks.

The application of the Five Elements theory in names is the development of human consciousness to a certain stage. It reflects people's demand for prediction and change of fate, and is a mild cultural psychological stimulus. This cultural phenomenon still persists in modern society, and its implicit wish for blessing is widely used in naming.

If most names, especially those of the last century, are recognizable by their gender. In recent years the names of newborns have become more neutralized. The popular characters "梓", "沐" and "一" in 2021, and the frequently used characters "芮", "林" and "航" in 2020, are all generic for both genders. These prove that the gender ambiguity of names is becoming more and more significant.

In addition, we can also notice the frequent use of unusual words in the name. The primary reason for the use of rare words is to avoid repetition of names. With a fixed surname, parents often seek out out-of-the-ordinary words to avoid repetition. Due to national policies and comprehensive factors, many children are now the only kid in the family. Moreover, with the improvement of the quality of national education, the parents' literacy level is relatively high, so they often seek to take a special name for their children. Besides, people's cultural level has gradually increased, and they realize that the name contains many connotations. To a certain extent, the name reflects the cultivation of parents, so the preference is for elegant names, which not only express good wishes but also show cultural qualities.

Surnames are more stable than given names. Chinese surnames have not seen much change. But there are still minority surname orientations emerging. More and more children's surnames are becoming two-character, that is, a combination of the father's and mother's surnames, forming a new surname. Although there is no corresponding data to give support, such cases are not uncommon. This type of naming reflects today's birth tendency, where parents are more inclined to choose to have only one child. At the same time, it also represents a breakthrough in the traditional surname inheritance and the popularization of the concept of gender equality.

4.2 American Popular Names

Each year, the Social Security Administration publishes the totals for the first names from all Social Security card applications for births that occurred in the US since 1880. The publication is the most complete record of first name usage in the United States.

In Western countries, names are mainly derived from Germanic, Latin, Greek, Slavic, Hebrew and other languages and nationalities, and are heavily influenced by religious and historical legends of heroes. Since the majority of people in Western countries believe in Christianity, Christian-related nouns have become an important source of Western names.

Table 6: Most Popular Names in the United States

Christian parents like to name their children after the Apostles or other prominent Christian figures, such as John, Peter, Marco, Paul, and so on. Many are still called Mary or Maria, the name of the Virgin Mary.

Nowadays, Europeans often use birth calendars as a reference to look at the names of famous people in history which reflects the Western people's feelings of remembrance and respect for historical figures. For example, in 2020, the name Gianna increased by more than 4,000, more than any girl's name in more than a decade. The reason may lie in the deaths of basketball star Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter Gianna in a helicopter crash in January 2020. He played for California's Los Angeles Lakers for 20 years before retiring in 2016. Gianna now ranks high on the California list of names (No. 7 in 2020). The name Kobe has also increased by nearly 1,000.

Table 7: Top 10 Baby Names of 2021 in American

Boy names ending in "n" remain very popular this year (Benjamin, Jackson, Mason, Sebastian and Ethan are all in the top 20), while names ending in "a" and beginning with "E" (Emma, Ella, Evelyn, Elizabeth and Eleanor) dominate the list of girls.

Table 8: Top 10 Most Common Surnames in American

The United States is unique in its surname variations, which are inseparable from the fact that it is a migrant nation. 2020 Census data are not yet available. So, we can only compare the 2010 figures reported by the Census Bureau with the year 2000. The trend is that common names are increasing among the Hispanic population and decreasing among the white population. One of the reasons for this is the existence of shared or unshared surnames between different groups. The most common Hispanic and Asian surnames are not as common among other racial or ethnic groups. However, the most common White and Black/African American surnames are often shared between the two groups. This may be related to the history between the two groups.

5. Conclusion

There are great differences between Chinese and American name cultures, which are related to their distinct social backgrounds.

Chinese names are influenced by traditional doctrines and changed under modern concepts, showing a trend of neutrality. The improvement of Chinese national education, the change of fertility concept and other factors have led to the breakthrough and innovation of names.

American names are influenced by religion and race. Contrary to China, which tries to avoid taking the same name with elders and superiors, American names tend to choose the names of famous people to show respect and commemoration. American surnames show an ethnic feature, which is also closely related to their social history.

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