When it comes to naming, parents of different ages have different priorities when naming. For some young parents, they want to name their children nice and meaningful. For the older generation, in addition to having a connotative meaning, the name of a child also needs to be determined strictly according to the family name, because naming according to the character can reflect the child's seniority, and this kind of naming based on seniority can reflect the child's seniority. The method has already begun in ancient times, so why was naming according to seniority in the first place, and why is it not popular now? Let me talk about genealogy today.
The surname culture has a history of thousands of years. A person's name has its own unique meaning. In addition, naming at that time was more serious and could not be chosen casually. At that time, in order to better pass on the inheritance between the same family, and there were many branches between the families, so in order to facilitate the distinction, the ancients would choose the names in the order of seniority, junior and seniority. When naming someone, they will also consciously avoid the names used by their ancestors. When it comes to naming according to seniority, there is another story. It is said that the idea of ??seniority first came from Zhu Yuanzhang. At the beginning, Zhu Yuanzhang was called Zhu Chongba, but he didn't like it and thought the name was not good, so he changed his name to Zhu Yuanzhang. Later, when he became emperor, he felt that a good name was not enough. He wanted his descendants to have a good name, so he stipulated that when naming his descendants, they could only use two characters. The first character is seniority, which is based on where he is. Names are given in order, and the second character is up to you. Later, he also listed a generation for future generations: "Yunwen follows the instructions of his ancestors, Yinwu Dajun wins, etc." Then this method of naming according to seniority has continued to influence today.
Since it is passed down from ancestors according to seniority, why is it not popular now? I think there are three points. The first point is that the current concept has changed. In ancient times, there was a lot of respect for seniority. At that time, the rank could be seen from the name. But in this era, people's minds will be more open, and there is no such thing as so-called level, so when naming, we will not choose according to seniority; the second point is that the characters in the genealogy have not been fully inherited. Think about it, most people are relatively unfamiliar with genealogy, and generally compile genealogy. The people are all slightly older elders. Generally, young people do not know much about genealogy, so they will not choose names according to the characters in the genealogy. The third point is to avoid repetition, although it is said that according to the characters in the genealogy, The generation does not have to conflict with people with the same surname, but many surnames have certain rules when choosing the generation. Maybe you encounter the same character in this generation, so wouldn't there be many duplicate names? , so now many parents will avoid duplication and keep the name unique when naming their children.