Chapter 6 Section IV Naming

Three months after birth or a hundred days after the full moon, the child should be named by his father, and the naming ceremony should be held very solemnly.According to the "Book of Rites Nei Ze", on the day of naming, all men and women in the family should get up early, take a bath and change clothes, and prepare meals.After the mother took the baby out of the room, the father insisted on naming the baby with his right hand.Then give the child to the nanny, who tells the name to all the women and mothers.Then tell the butler, and the butler will tell the other men.Then, write down in detail when the child was born on a certain day of a certain month and year, and tell Lu Shi (a small official in Luli).Lu Shi wrote the child's name and date of birth in two copies, one was kept in Lu's mansion, and the other was handed over to the state government for collection.The naming ceremony represents the addition of a new member to the family and society.Since then, children have had their own titles.

As for the given name, it often reflects the worship of all things in nature at first, such as Tianshou, Tianwei, Tianze and so on.Later, the names often contained the wishes of the elders, such as Xiangzi, Fuzi, Ruyi, etc.Usually men use names such as Fu, Lu, Shou, Xi, Fu, Gui, Cai, Kang, Virtue, Talent, Ren, Wen, Shi, Jie, Shi, Guang and so on.For female names, there is a "Song of Women's Names" that is very representative: "Fenglian is a clever girl, Yuanjuan is a beautiful girl [ji tight]. Magnolia sweet-scented osmanthus, Lingshan Ruizhuzhen. Furong Lizhiping, Luanfeng Chunqiu Qing. Shuangji Eyandi, Yingfangfen Cuiqin. Sumei Shuhuimin, Xiuhua Huiyueqin. Caixia Yunjinghong, beautiful Zhaojunzhen." In addition, boys are generally named according to their seniority, that is, cousins ​​of the same generation The name of each family must be embedded with the same word, so that the order of seniority can be seen at a glance.