Mdzs/The Untamed Cultural Annotation Thread 2: WHY DOES EVERYONE HAVE LIKE 4 NAMES?

it's because of the traditional belief that your birth name is a deeply intimate thing reserved for your closest family and friends

I mean, "Wei Ying" literally means BABY WEI

in ancient China, boys have their coming-of-age ceremony at 20 and girls have them at 15 (boo, ew). that's when they get a Courtesy Name that people will start calling them as a sign of respect.

Birth names are generally 1 character, while courtesy names are 2

but why does WWX start calling LWJ by his birth name right away?

BECAUSE HE'S DELIBERATELY BEING RUDE. HE'S AIMING TO PISS HIM OFF AND GET A REACTION OUT OF HIM.

but ancient Chinese people were so weird about names that even using someone's courtesy name was considered rude if you were of much lower social ranking than them, so usually people are referred to by a title, which is where stuff like "Hanguang Jun" come in

so you can tell how a character feels about someone else by how they refer to them -

Birth Name (1 character): Intimacy
Courtesy Name (2 characters): Respect, but somewhat distant
Title (something long-winded): MAXIMUM RESPECT AT MAXIMUM DISTANCE

"shit, do Chinese people honestly still live like this??"

no. this is bc the wars brought on by Westerners in the 19th and 20th centuries shattered and traumatized Chinese people so much that we were like WHAT IS THE POINT?? and abolished many traditions to westernize ourselves

a pivotal point was the May 4th movement in 1919, 8 years after the fall of the last dynasty, Qing. Student protestors felt like the reason we lost all those wars was because we were too busy boggling ourselves down with complicated traditions like HAVING 4 NAMES

but of course, not everyone felt this way. the Kuomingtang, which ended up ruling mainland china for a while, was like "um, no, being just like white people is not the solution"

but ultimately things got so messy with world war 2 and the rise of communism and the Chinese civil war that Chinese people stopped bothering with courtesy names and honorifics across the board

though I would say parts of the tradition has retained in the form of "baby names"

my family doesn't call me Xiran, they call me by a Baby Name, which is usually a cute nickname that has 2 repeating syllables, like Beibei or Xuanxuan

I HAVE LITERALLY NEVER HEARD MY ACTUAL NAME BEING UTTERED BY MY PARENTS

for this reason I think Chinese people tend to not be very attached to their names. like, I have a cousin who changed her whole ass name at 18 because her parents believed the one they gave her was too epic (something about a phoenix) and caused her to not have good grades

oh yeah, this is also a thing. there's this belief that if you name your kid something Too Epic then they won't be able to handle that and the name would end up cursing them to mediocrity.

i also legit can't remember my cousin's name because i only know her by her baby name LOL

sometimes parents deliberately give their kid a terrible name so they have less to live up to. like, Han dynasty teen general Huo Qubing's name literally means "to get rid of disease"

it didn't work he died at 23

OH MAN BUT FUN FACT: if you became emperor, you will NEVER hear your birth name said out loud again! not even by your mom! not even the sound of it, because they will change EVERYTHING to dodge it!

LIKE THEY RENAMED A WHOLE ASS MONTH BC IT CLASHED WITH THE FIRST EMPEROR'S NAME

Famed Chinese moon goddess Chang'e?? yeah...THAT'S NOT HER ORIGINAL NAME, WHICH IS HENG'E.

THEY HAD TO CHANGE HER WHOLE LEGEND DURING THE HAN DYNASTY BECAUSE ONE EMPEROR WAS NAMED "Liu Heng"

anyway, "how do Chinese people keep up with all these names??", you ask? well, our secret is

we don't. we suffer in confusion through the beginning of most historical dramas, just like the rest of you.