Chinese Names

This section will rely heavily on quoting from Ii Katsumori's Chinese Onomastics, to prevent re-inventing the wheel too much.  Direct quotes will be punctuated as such, and if the quote is from a different source, I will specify. - Choi Min 

"Another problem when looking at a name from a Chinese source is to determine just what sort of name it is.  Since Chinese does not generally use much in the way of punctuation, including spaces, and many characters used in names are also words in their own right, it can often be difficult to know what is and is not a name in the ancient sources.  In addition, since there is no strictly phonetic system in Chinese, foreign names are often translated into the Chinese name system, many times shortening them or adding a classifier of some sort to fit into the Chinese model.  Finally, a name can be made up of several elements:  A locative, a family name (sometimes a larger clan name), and/or either a given name, courtesy name (zi), or a nickname (hao).  The latter could sometimes take the place of the entire name altogether.  On top of that there were religious epithets.  Add to all this the various name taboos (see below) and phonetic drift over time, and anyone can feel lost."

Types of Names a Person Might Have

For the most part, all the information presented below will be usable for any noble, gender aside.  Often throughout history if a woman needed to exercise power or work in an official capacity, then they would be operating under these same concepts, with exceptions. 

"A traditional Chinese name has several parts.  The most important part of the name, for both men and women, is going to be the surname, often the family name or a locative, followed by the given name, usually a ming, zi, or hao.  For the SCA, this provides the minimum requirements for a registerable name.  A courtesy, or style, name (zi) is used to politely refer to someone (rather than using the more intimate given name).  Although intended as a unique element, a person might have multiple zi, particularly in later periods.  Another epithet is the nickname or studio name, called a hao.  This often takes the places of the entire name, but it might be paired with a locative or the family name."

Family Name, SHI (氏)

"The character used for a family name often has no meaning when used for another purpose, or if it does then it has been lost.  Many times, characters used in surnames will simply be defined as such, and nothing more.  Also, after marriage, both men and women kept their own family names."

Given Name, MING (名)

"A person’s given name is the official name, usually provided by his or her parents.  Single character names were predominant, as a rule, through at least the 10th century, though at different places and times multi-character names became fashionable.  While there were no hard and fast rules for given names, there do seem to be several traditions that became popular and were either continued or oft-revived throughout history." 

Choi Min note: Single character given names are definitely super dominant for given names, as compared to courtesy names, which appear to be mostly two characters.

"Except in the case of particularly famous individuals (usually scholars, like Kongzi or Sunzi3, or emperors, like Qin Shihuangdi or Han Wudi4), most people are listed in historical sources and biographies by their given name, with any other names being mentioned later in the text, if applicable."

"Women’s names are not recorded as often as men’s, but there are enough to see some similarities and differences.  One item of note with women’s names is repetition: Xue Susu (薛素素) of the Ming Dynasty has a given name with a double character.  This is a common modern practice, and appears to be a period one as well."

Courtesy Name, ZI (字)

"A zi functions as given name, used to politely refer to one of a similar or lower rank.  During the Zhou dynasty, a man traditionally obtained his zi during his capping ceremony.  A woman would traditionally receive a zi when she was engaged to be married, or came of marriageable age (about 15)."

Nickname/Style Name, HAO (呉)

The nickname, or style name, is very akin to an "artist name" in English.  Just like Lady Gaga is recognizable by that alone, a person might be equally or more known by their style name, or hao.  

"It usually is a reference to a place, such as the artist or scholar’s studio, or place of residence.  Take, for example, “The Daoist of Plum Mountain” (Meishan Daoren 梅山道人).  These are often multi-part names, including a locative and a descriptor.  The name might be shortened to just the locative  (e.g. Meishan), but rarely just the descriptor, since the latter is usually a stock phrase in common use that could indicate just about anybody."

"The hao was used by artists of any gender, though my current sample size of feminine hao is too small to draw any conclusions at this time." Someone adopting a style name did not have to be of noble class, and it was picked by the person using it, not generally given to them, but they could acquire style names in the manner of nicknames, where others began using it to describe them, and it could become a hao over time.

Religious Names

These are generally names one would adopt when they retire from politics and/or war to join a temple as a monk, nun, or acolyte, for example.  Information regarding religious names is somewhat scant but they are generally used in Buddhist contexts, often replacing the family and given names, and often incorporate two characters for each name. There may be generational names between master and student which follows similar conventions mentioned previously. References to writings of religious significance is also common.  

Putting It Together

Now that we know the context here's the basic steps:

1. Get the Chinese characters for each name piece.

2. Run them through multiple search engines for presumptuousness or seeing if real people use the name or if it's (for example) a name of a type of dung beetle or something that would be socially distasteful - or on Ii's taboo list (page 7).

3. Run them through the databases and sources listed and nab the dates. 

4. Go to established dictionaries (also listed in the sources page linked above) and grab the romanizations for the characters based on what Chinese language they want to submit in (i.e. Mandarin or Cantonese, etc).

5. Compile all that info and submit for commentary.

If the submitter only wants to browse, likewise do the normal consultation and see if you can start with a singular syllable, or the name of someone they want to pay an ode to (celeb, fictional character, family member), and pull names with that starting syllable, or let them browse a Chinese dictionary by inputting meaning words they'd want to convert, such as "Bright" or "Beautiful" and scroll the dictionary for characters they want to see options of.