There is an old saying in China: name a girl from the Book of Songs, a boy from the Verses of Chu. For three thousand years, parents and scholars have reached into classical poetry for given names, borrowing a character or an image from a line so that the name carries the feeling of the poem with it. Here is how that tradition works.
Where the names come from
- The Book of Songs (诗经): China's oldest poetry collection, full of plants, birds, rivers, and quiet virtue. A rich source for graceful, gentle names.
- The Verses of Chu (楚辞): lusher and more mythic, orchids and fragrant herbs, rivers and flight. A source for names with depth and reach.
- Later poets: lines from the Tang and Song dynasties are borrowed too, for their images of light, water, and mountains.
Image, not quotation
A name does not quote a whole line. It takes one character, and with it the picture that line paints. Read it as the image behind the character, not as a credential to show off.
Why the tradition lasts
A character chosen this way is doing two things at once: it means something on its own, and it echoes a line that has been loved for centuries. That is a quiet kind of depth, the name sounds simple, but it has roots.
A name with roots
Our naming draws given-name characters from this same well, the Book of Songs and Verses of Chu, then balances them to the element your birth chart leans on. The result is a name that is both yours and part of a very old line.
Get a Chinese name drawn from classical roots and chosen around your birth. Free, with pronunciation and meaning.
Generate my Chinese name