Chinese Generation Names (字辈) Explained: The Family Poem

If you have Chinese relatives, you may have noticed that a whole row of cousins share one character in their given names, even cousins who grew up on different continents. That is not coincidence or fashion. It is a generation name, in Chinese 字辈 (zìbèi) or 辈分字 (bèifen zì), and in a traditional lineage it was set decades before any of those cousins were born.

This article explains how generation names work, where the character comes from, and what it looks like in some of the best-documented families in Chinese history. For the full structure of a Chinese name, start with How Chinese Names Work.

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What a generation name is

A traditional Chinese given name has two characters. In a family that follows 字辈, one of those two characters is fixed by generation: every son, and every paternal cousin, born into the same generation carries it. The other character is the individual's own.

Wikipedia's article on generation names defines it exactly that way: one character in the given name, shared by siblings and paternal cousins of the same generation. The practice is also found in Vietnamese and Korean naming (Korean calls it hangnyeolja).

The clearest examples are famous brothers:

• 毛泽东 (Máo Zédōng), 毛泽民 (Máo Zémín), 毛泽覃 (Máo Zétán): all three Mao brothers share 泽 (zé), "moisten, grace, favour".
• 梁思成 (Liáng Sīchéng), 梁思永 (Liáng Sīyǒng), 梁思礼 (Liáng Sīlǐ): the sons of the reformer Liang Qichao share 思 (sī), "think". Wikipedia's generation name article uses the Liang brothers as its example.

So when you read 泽东, the 泽 tells a relative which generation he belongs to, and the 东 is the part that is personally his.

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Where the character comes from: the generation poem

The generation characters are not chosen one at a time. A lineage sets them in advance as a generation poem (字辈诗 or 字辈谱), and each generation takes the next character in the poem. Wikipedia describes these poems as running from about a dozen to hundreds of characters, usually composed by family elders when a branch was established, and recycled or extended when they run out.

The poem is written into the family genealogy, the 家谱 (jiāpǔ) or 族谱 (zúpǔ). A child's place in it can be read straight off the name: if you know the poem, you know whether a stranger with your surname is your uncle's generation or your grandson's.

That is the real job of the system. It records 辈分 (bèifen), generational seniority, in a culture where how you address someone, and how they address you, depends on it. A cousin who is younger than you in years but one generation above you in the poem is still your elder.

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The Confucius family poem

The best-documented generation poem belongs to the descendants of Confucius, the 孔 (Kǒng) family. Wikipedia's generation name article prints the sequence:

希言公彦承，宏闻贞尚衍； 兴毓传继广，昭宪庆繁祥； 令德维垂佑，钦绍念显扬……

It reads as a string of auspicious words more than as a poem with a plot: hope, words, public duty, talent, continuation; breadth, renown, steadfastness, esteem, overflowing; flourishing, nurturing, passing down, continuing, widening; and so on.

You can watch the third line move through the twentieth century:

• 孔令贻 (Kǒng Lìngyí, 1872–1919), Duke Yansheng, carries 令.
• His son 孔德成 (Kǒng Déchéng), the 77th-generation descendant of Confucius, carries 德 (dé, virtue). So does his elder sister 孔德懋 (Kǒng Démào): in this family a daughter's name follows the poem too.
• The 78th generation's character is 维.
• Kong Decheng's grandson 孔垂长 (Kǒng Chuícháng), the 79th generation (known in Taiwan as Kung Tsui-chang), carries 垂.
• Kong Chuichang's children, including 孔佑仁 (Kǒng Yòurén), carry 佑, the next character in the line.

Four generations, four consecutive characters of the same line: 令, 德, 维, 垂, 佑. Anyone who knows the poem can place a member of the family instantly.

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The Qing emperors' generation characters

The imperial clan of the Qing dynasty, the Aisin Gioro, used generation characters for its princes, and emperors added to the sequence as it ran out. Chinese Wikipedia's article on the Aisin Gioro clan sets out the history:

• The Kangxi Emperor's sons were fixed on 胤 (yìn) from the twentieth year of his reign. The future Yongzheng Emperor was 胤禛 (Yìnzhēn).
• Their sons took 弘 (hóng): the Qianlong Emperor was 弘历 (Hónglì).
• Qianlong set 永 (yǒng), 绵 (mián), 奕 (yì) and 载 (zǎi) for the next generations, taken from a poem of his.
• The Daoguang Emperor set 溥 (pǔ), 毓 (yù), 恒 (héng) and 启 (qǐ). That is why the last emperor is 溥仪 (Pǔyí).

The imperial version came with a twist that only an emperor could add: naming taboo. When 胤禛 became the Yongzheng Emperor, his brothers had to stop using 胤, the first character of his personal name, and switch to 允 (yǔn). The Jiaqing Emperor changed his own name from 永琰 (Yǒngyǎn) to 颙琰 (Yóngyǎn), and the Daoguang Emperor from 绵宁 (Miánníng) to 旻宁 (Mínníng), so that their brothers and the rest of the empire would not have to give up a common character. We explain that taboo system in How Chinese Names Work.

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Other ways to mark siblings

Not every family used a poem. Some marked siblings in other ways:

A shared radical. The Song-dynasty writer 苏洵 (Sū Xún) named his sons 苏轼 (Sū Shì) and 苏辙 (Sū Zhé). The two characters share the 车 (vehicle) radical: 轼 is the front rail of a carriage and 辙 is the rut its wheels leave. Su Xun explained his choice in a short essay, 《名二子说》 (Míng Èr Zǐ Shuō), "On Naming My Two Sons": the rail looks useless but a carriage is incomplete without it, and the rut gets no credit for the carriage's work but also takes no blame when it overturns. He feared the first son would not hide his talents, and expected the second to stay safe. It is one of the most quoted pieces ever written about naming children.

A shared character in the second position. The three Soong sisters, 宋霭龄 (Sòng Ǎilíng), 宋庆龄 (Sòng Qìnglíng) and 宋美龄 (Sòng Měilíng), all end in 龄 (líng). Their brother T. V. Soong, 宋子文 (Sòng Zǐwén), does not share it: a shared character can belong to the sisters alone.

A word split in two. Wikipedia's generation name article gives a modern example: name two children from the halves of one word, such as 健康 (jiànkāng, "healthy"), so the siblings become 王健 and 王康.

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Is it still used?

Less than it was. The Ministry of Public Security's 2020 name report shows parents today choosing from a pool of fashionable characters, led by 梓, 子, 宇, 辰 and 一, rather than from a family poem, and Wikipedia's generation name article notes the custom fading among the Hui once the state began keeping its own population records. But many lineages still keep their genealogy and poem, and some families still give children the generation character, sometimes only in a Chinese name used alongside an English one.

If you want to find your own family's character, the place to look is the 族谱. Elders often know the poem by heart, because it was the way they learned who in the family was senior to whom.

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Generation names on screen

Screenwriters use the same conventions, so a shared character between two drama siblings is usually deliberate. See our C-drama character names guide for how screenwriters use it, and the Pursuit of Jade name breakdown for a drama that builds its plot into a name.

Generation names sit alongside the courtesy name, which every educated adult once had as well. That second name system is in Chinese Courtesy Names (字) and Art Names (号) Explained. And for why the 1990s briefly made one-character given names common enough to break the generation pattern, see Why Some Chinese Names Have Only Two Characters.

The idiom that fits the whole system is 饮水思源 (yǐn shuǐ sī yuán): when you drink water, remember its source. A generation character is that idea written into a name.