5.6: Names and titles

Names need not be introduced by shì. In some contexts more specialized verbs must be used. One you encountered in Unit 1: xìng ‘be surnamed’ (which also functions as a noun meaning ‘surname’). Another is jiào ‘to be named; to call’. But before we illustrate their use, we should add to the brief remarks about names and titles made in §1.6.1 and §1.9.1. [edit references]

Names

Some common English names are directly transliterated into Chinese: Yuēhàn Shǐmìsī ‘John Smith’, keeping the English word order of given name before surname. Students of Chinese are usually given Chinese names, based on their own (either their surnames if they have enough syllables, or their full names), and these conform to Chinese types of two or three syllables. In such cases, Chinese word order, with surname before given, is followed. (In all but the first example below, English surnames are reduced to single syllables in the Chinese, as shown by the highlighting.)

Wèi Délì	Paul Wheatley
Táng Lìlì	Lily Tomlin
Máo Xiān’ān	Anne Mauboussin
Léi Hànbó	Robert Leonhardt
Lǐ Dān	David Lippmann

Such names are indistinguishable from names of actual Chinese, such as these:

Cuī Lín	Kāng Yòuwéi	Yuán Shào	Zhèng Chénggōng
Zhèng Hé	Máo Qílíng	Wáng Lì	Bái Sùzhēn

Xìng

Chinese names consist of a surname, or xìng, in initial position, followed by a given name or míngzi, literally ‘name-characters’. Xìng are usually – but not always – single syllables. As a verb, xìng is almost always used when asking for, or responding with, someone’s surname:

Tā xìng shénme? Tā xìng Huáng.	What’s her surname? She’s surnamed Huang.
Xìng Wáng? Bú shi xìng Wáng, tā xìng Huáng.	Wang? No, not Wang, she’s named Huang.

When addressing someone directly, the honorific expression guìxìng ‘worthy-surname’ (cf. guì ‘expensive’), with or without a pronoun, is the usual question:

<Nín> guìxìng?	May [I] ask your surname [please]?
Wǒ xìng Wèi.	I’m surnamed Wei.

Jiào

In much of the English speaking world, where informality tends to be considered a virtue, the shift from surname to given name can proceed very quickly. However, in Chinese, address in a professional setting is likely to persist longer as xìng plus title. So under normal levels of politeness, you would question someone about their xìng, not about their míngzi. However, in the appropriate context, it is possible to seek someone’s full name (regardless of the number of syllables). In such cases, the verb jiào ‘be called’ is used. Jiào can take either the person or the word míngzi as its subject; and it takes as its object at least two syllables of a name, never a single syllable. Below are some options, first for Lǐ Xiāngjūn, a three-syllable name, then for Zhèng Hé, with only two.

Q	A
Tā jiào shénme míngzi? Tā de míngzi jiào shénme?	Tā jiào Lǐ Xiāngjūn. Tā <de míngzi> jiào <Lǐ> Xiāngjūn.
Tā jiào shénme míngzi? Tā de míngzi jiào shénme?	Tā jiào Zhèng Hé. Tā <de míngzi> jiào Zhèng Hé.

Asking and giving a name

Typically, in face-to-face interaction, one asks politely for a surname, and in many cases, the response will be just a surname. However, where statuses are more or less matched, once the surname is provided, it is often followed by the full name, and this is a good model for the foreign student to copy:

<Nín> guìxìng?
[Bái Sùzhēn]	Wo xìng Bái, jiào Bái Sùzhēn.
[Xǔ Xiān]	Wǒ xìng Xǔ, jiào Xǔ Xiān.

Titles

Here is a short selection of titles to add to lǎoshī. All of them follow a xìng, though some may be used alone under certain conditions. Xiānshēng ‘mister (first-born)’ is the generic title for adult males. In Taiwan, or overseas communities, xiǎojie ‘Miss; Ms (small older-sister)’ is quite a common title for unmarried women up to a certain age or, still with the woman’s xìng, even for young married women. In the same communities, married women can be addressed, with the husband’s xìng, as tàitai (etymologically related to tài, the adverb). The latter term is hardly ever used on the Mainland, and even xiǎojie is used much less there. On the Mainland, if no professional title (such as lǎoshī) is available, the options are to use full name or mingzi, or simply to avoid direct address completely.

Shīfu, literally ‘craftsman’, but often translated as ‘master’, has shifted in its usage in the last few decades, but traditionally, it has been used to address blue-collar workers (male or female). Finally, jīnglǐ ‘manager’, is a professional title for males or females, of the sort that might appear on a business card. Note the order surname before title:

surname	(given name)	title
Wèi	<Bóyáng>	lǎoshī	Professor
Shí	<Jìlóng>	xiānsheng	Mr.
Chén	<Yuè>	xiǎojie	Miss; Ms
Wáng	<Guóbǎo>	shīfu	‘master’
Zhōu	<Lǐ>	jīnglǐ	manager

Shì with names

As noted above, while surnames [alone] can only be introduced with the verb xìng, full names can be introduced by shì as well as jiào. In fact, unlike the other two verbs, shì can also introduce name and title. The shì option identifies one of a known group, and as such, is often appropriate to a classroom setting:

Tā shi Lǐ Guānghuī; tā shi Wáng Shuò; tā shi Táng Bīn; wǒ shi Wèi lǎoshī. Dì-yī ge shi Xiāo Míngzuǒ, dì-èr ge shi Lǐ Míng, dì-sān ge shi Xiè Jìng.

 

Nĭ shì bu shi Zhāng xiānsheng?	Are you Mr. Zhang?
Zhāng jīnglǐ, hǎo.	How are you, Manager Zhang?
Zhè shi Dù shīfu.	This is Master Du.
Wŏ shi Wáng lăoshī; tāmen dōu shi wŏ de xuéshēng.	I’m Prof. Wang and these are my students.
Chén xiǎojie shi Běijīng rén.	Miss Chen is from Beijing.

Exercise 4.

a) Assuming you were an official of appropriate rank and eminence to address the question, write out how the following people might respond (in the modern world) to <Nín> guìxìng?

1. Hú Shì, (20th C. philosopher and reformer, graduate of Cornell University):	Wǒ xìng Hú, jiào Hú Shì.
2. Sīmǎ Qiān (the Han dynasty historian):
3. Zhāng Xuéliáng (Manchurian warlord):
4. Hán Yù (Tang dynasty scholar):
5. Yáng Guìfēi (courtesan, from the late Tang dynasty):
6. Cuī Jiàn (rock musician):

b) Translate the following, being careful to follow Chinese word order:

1. I’m a teacher.

2. Who’s she?

3. Her surname’s Sòng, her full name’s Sòng Měilíng.

4. Hi, my name’s Lǐ Dān.

5. Who’s he? / He’s my teacher.

6. That’s Zhōu Lì.

7. His surname’s Chén, full name, Chén Bó.

8. And him? / His surname’s Xǔ, full name, Xǔ Xiān.

9. This is master Wèi.

10. Her name’s Smith [Shǐmìsī].

(edit notes: edit previous section references)