The Original of Chinese Names

名字的起源

It is said that the original purpose of giving each person a name was for convenience¹. Ancient people found that whenever It was dark, they couldn't see each other and they couldn't tell who's who. Each person was given a name, so that they could address each other easily, even in the dark. Later, people became more and more particular about their names. Under the influence of political,economic and other factors,people had different preferences² at different period of time.

据说，最初给予每个人名字的目的是为了方便。古代人发现，每当天黑了，他们无法看到对方，他们分不清楚谁是谁。每个人都被赋予一个名字，使他们能够很容易称呼彼此，即使在黑暗中。后来，人们越来越讲究他们的名字。在政治、经济等其他因素的影响下，人们在不同的时间段有不同的喜好。