okay first hello now I'm writing a novel and I got everything figured out (the whole plot) it's xianxia genre but im stuck with the names mostly for the mc I know that Chinese names consist of a surname and given name with the first charecter being the surname and the second the given name So the mc given name is liu as in the willow (I got the name from this website www.20000-names.com/male_chinese_names.htm) and I don't know how to pick a surname so I would like to ask if someone could help me with the surname hopefully it sounds good also the liu must stay since it is relevant to the plot and must stay or else I'm going to have to change a lot of crap
For foreigners, yes. But for Chinese their surnames don't have any meaning. They are simply spoken/read. Just like John Smith, you wouldn't expect him to be a smith, right? (In truth he's from the CIA^ ^)
wow well I thought Chinese people would give their kids names that match with their surnames also just to clarify I can stick any surname with a given name as long it sounds good and it works
Idk, some surnames have cool meanings like Long (dragon) and some are weird like Chang (Long) and some have no meaning. Like mine is Tan/Chen (means what?? nothing lol) And for their full name it might not mean anything either, its more of whether it sounds nice sometimes. Because I'm pretty clear that my name has no meaning to it and a bunch of my chinese friends have no special meaning to their name That said if you still need help with picking a surname I don't mind helping.
Not necessarily. While normally children take their father's surname, this varies between different cultures. In modern China, you would take your father's surname, unless you're the illegal 4th child, in which you will either not get the same surname as your siblings or you'd be adopted by another family and have their surname. The rest of the world doesn't have this problem. As for period time in which most xianxia is based on, you must understand that the concept of surname didn't really exist. What they had as surname was clan name, such as Xiao, Miao, Lu, Da, Li and for Han clansmen, Liu. In other words, if a village or town has only one clan, all of them save for travelling mechants, would have the same surname, assuming they even use it. What they commonly used were courtesy names and nicknames. For example, Xuzhu. This is not a person with the surname Xu and the given name Zhu. It is simply a name given to a buddhist monk who throw away his earthly baggage, including his own name. In this case, the name means Hollow Bamboo, a very down-to-earth name. Another example is, Tianshan Tonglao. Tianshan is not her surname. No part of this name is her real name. The entire name is simply something people call her in reverence. It means 'Child Old Woman of Mount Heaven'. Also, because you can't choose which clan you're born into, the meaning of surnames aren't really taken into consideration when deciding the child's name.
I don't know if your a dude or dudette but I love you. I can finally start writing, been stuck on the name for a week