Chinese Courtesy Names (字) and Art Names (号) Explained

Read any Chinese history, or watch any costume drama, and people seem to have too many names. The strategist 诸葛亮 is suddenly "Kongming". The poet 李白 signs himself "Taibai". A drama hero is called Wei Ying by one character and Wei Wuxian by the next.

They are not nicknames and they are not mistakes. Until the twentieth century, an educated Chinese man normally had at least three names: the 名 (míng) he was given at birth, the 字 (zì) or courtesy name he received at adulthood, and often a 号 (hào), an art name he picked for himself or was given by admirers. Each one had its own users and its own rules.

---

Why a second name was needed

The given name was personal, close to sacred. Wikipedia's courtesy name article puts the convention plainly: once a man reached adulthood, people of his own generation were expected to address him by his courtesy name, and his given name was reserved for himself and his elders. Calling a peer by his given name was rude; calling a superior by it could be an insult.

The 《礼记》 (Lǐjì), the Book of Rites, lays out the sequence of a man's names in one line from its 檀弓上 chapter, as quoted in Chinese Wikipedia's article on the courtesy name:

幼名，冠字，五十以伯仲，死谥，周道也。 Yòu míng, guàn zì, wǔshí yǐ bó zhòng, sǐ shì, Zhōu dào yě. "A name in childhood, a courtesy name at the capping, at fifty to be called by one's rank among brothers, a posthumous name at death: this was the way of Zhou."

The capping ceremony (冠礼, guànlǐ) marked a man's adulthood at twenty sui, and that is when he received his 字. Women could receive one too, when they came of age or were betrothed.

---

How a courtesy name was built

A 字 was usually not random. It was built to answer the given name, the way a second line answers the first in a couplet. Chinese Wikipedia sorts the relationships into a few kinds; the easiest to see are these.

Same meaning, said differently.

• 诸葛亮 (Zhūgě Liàng), 字 孔明 (Kǒngmíng). 亮 is "bright"; 孔明 is "very bright".
• 毛泽东 (Máo Zédōng), 字 润之 (Rùnzhī). 泽 and 润 both mean "to moisten, to enrich".
• 杜牧 (Dù Mù), 字 牧之 (Mùzhī): the courtesy name simply restates the given name.

Linked images.

• 岳飞 (Yuè Fēi), 字 鹏举 (Péngjǔ). 飞 is "to fly"; 鹏举 is "the roc rises", the giant bird of the Zhuangzi taking off. It is the same bird as in the idiom 鹏程万里 (péng chéng wàn lǐ).
• 关羽 (Guān Yǔ), 字 云长 (Yúncháng). 羽 is "feather"; 云长 is "long cloud". Feather and cloud both belong to the sky.
• 赵云 (Zhào Yún), 字 子龙 (Zǐlóng). Cloud and dragon: the Book of Changes says 云从龙，风从虎 (yún cóng lóng, fēng cóng hǔ), "clouds follow the dragon, wind follows the tiger".

A complement or a correction.

• 韩愈 (Hán Yù), 字 退之 (Tuìzhī). 愈 means "to surpass, to advance"; 退 means "to step back". Chinese Wikipedia calls this a complementary pair: the courtesy name tempers the given name.
• 杜甫 (Dù Fǔ), 字 子美 (Zǐměi). 甫 was an ancient term of praise for a man, and 美 means "beautiful, fine".

A borrowing.

• 王维 (Wáng Wéi), 字 摩诘 (Mójié). Put the two together and you get 维摩诘 (Wéimójié), the Buddhist sage Vimalakirti. The poet built his whole name around a figure he admired.
• 胡适 (Hú Shì), 字 适之 (Shìzhī). 适 is the 适 of 适者生存, "survival of the fittest", from Yan Fu's translation of Huxley, 《天演论》, which China Writer and The Paper both describe as a formative book of Hu Shi's youth. He was born 胡洪骍 (Hú Hóngxīng) and began using the new name in 1906.
• 蒋介石 (Jiǎng Jièshí): the English name Chiang Kai-shek is actually his courtesy name. His given name was 中正 (Zhōngzhèng). Wikipedia's courtesy name article notes both come from hexagram 16 of the Book of Changes.

---

Birth order in the name: 伯, 仲, 叔, 季

Many courtesy names start with a character that says where you stand among your brothers: 伯 (bó) or 孟 (mèng) for the eldest, 仲 (zhòng) for the second, 叔 (shū) for the third, and 季 (jì) for the youngest.

The neatest example is the four sons of the general Sun Jian, as listed in Chinese Wikipedia:

Son	Courtesy name	Position
孙策 (Sūn Cè)	伯符 (Bófú)	1st
孙权 (Sūn Quán)	仲谋 (Zhòngmóu)	2nd
孙翊 (Sūn Yì)	叔弼 (Shūbì)	3rd
孙匡 (Sūn Kuāng)	季佐 (Jìzuǒ)	4th

Confucius himself, 孔丘 (Kǒng Qiū), was 字仲尼 (Zhòngní): 仲, the second son. 曹操 (Cáo Cāo) was 字孟德 (Mèngdé), with 孟 as the eldest's marker.

This is also why the Book of Rites line says a man "at fifty is called by his rank among brothers". In old age the birth-order character alone could be used as a respectful form of address.

---

Li Bai and Taibai

Li Bai's courtesy name is the easiest one to remember, because it repeats his given name. He was 李白 (Lǐ Bái), 字 太白 (Tàibái). 太白 is the Chinese name for the planet Venus, the bright "great white" star.

The New Book of Tang (新唐书) gives the story behind it: 白之生，母梦长庚星，因以命之, "When Bai was born, his mother dreamed of the evening star, and so he was named for it." 长庚 (Chánggēng) is Venus as the evening star. Given name and courtesy name both point at the same planet.

Li Bai also had the kind of name that sits in the third layer. He called himself 青莲居士 (Qīnglián Jūshì), "the Householder of the Blue Lotus", and admirers called him a 谪仙人 (zhéxiānrén), an immortal banished to earth. Chinese Wikipedia records both.

---

Art names (号)

The 号 was the freest of all Chinese names. A man could choose it himself, often at middle age, or have it given by admirers. Wikipedia's art name article sorts most of them into a few sources: a feature of the place where the person lived, a saying they were known for, a famous poetic image, or an official post or birthplace.

• 苏轼 (Sū Shì), 字 子瞻 (Zǐzhān), 号 东坡居士 (Dōngpō Jūshì). Exiled to Huangzhou in 1080, he farmed a plot a friend helped him obtain in 1081 on an "eastern slope", and took his name from it. That is why the dish 东坡肉 (Dongpo pork) carries his art name, not his real one.
• 陶渊明 (Táo Yuānmíng), 号 五柳先生 (Wǔliǔ Xiānsheng), "Mister Five Willows", after the willows by his gate. Even his main name is uncertain: Chinese Wikipedia gives his courtesy name as 元亮 (Yuánliàng) and records that some sources give his given name as 潜 (Qián).
• 欧阳修 (Ōuyáng Xiū) called himself 六一居士 (Liùyī Jūshì), "the Householder of the Six Ones", from his own description of his life.

居士 (jūshì) in these names originally meant a lay Buddhist, a "householder" who was not a monk, and became a standard art-name ending for a scholar who presented himself as retired from public ambition.

---

Courtesy names in dramas: Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji

Xianxia and wuxia dramas keep the whole system alive, which confuses many international viewers. The clearest case is The Untamed (陈情令), adapted from Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's novel 魔道祖师. Its two leads each have three names, as Chinese Wikipedia's cast list sets out:

• 魏婴 (Wèi Yīng), 字 无羡 (Wúxiàn), 号 夷陵老祖 (Yílíng Lǎozǔ), played by Xiao Zhan.
• 蓝湛 (Lán Zhàn), 字 忘机 (Wàngjī), 号 含光君 (Hánguāng Jūn), played by Wang Yibo.

So "Wei Ying" is the given name and "Wei Wuxian" is the courtesy name, and the choice of which one a character uses tells you how close they are. Our Untamed name explainer covers the title, and our C-drama character names guide shows how other dramas use the same layers.

---

Why the practice faded

Wikipedia notes simply that courtesy names are no longer common in modern Chinese society. Mao Zedong still had one (润之), but in everyday life today almost nobody uses one. The art name survives best among painters, calligraphers and writers, where a pen name still does the same job.

But the habit of thinking in pairs survived. Many modern given names are still built like a courtesy name: two characters that answer each other, or a phrase lifted from a classic. We cover those sources in Chinese Names From Poems and Chinese Idiom Names. For how the given name itself fits with the surname and generation character, see How Chinese Names Work and Chinese Generation Names (字辈) Explained.