Abstract Nowadays, almost everyone has his/her own name, which has been the most important identification used to distinguish a person/ a group from the other. As a product of the development and progress of human society, names  represents a kind of culture phenomenon, hence different names culture contains different information about the developmental history, religious belief, cultural tradition, values and ways of thinking of different nations. So  understanding the culture of a country’s name will help us to better understand the general culture and custom of a country indirectly. This paper, with its rich examples of both Chinese and English names, firstly describes the differences between Chinese and the English names on structures and origins respectively, then lays emphasis on analyzing their differences on naming practices so as to further deepen the understanding of Chinese and English culture and promote the cross-cultural communication.52862

Keywords: structure; origin; naming practices; culture

摘要如今，几乎每个人都有自己的姓名——一个用于区别个人或其他群体的重要标识。 作为人类社会发展进步的独特产物，姓名象征着一种文化现象。不同的姓名文化隐含了不同的民族发展历史、宗教信仰、文化传统、价值观念、思维方式等信息，因而通过了解一个国家的姓名文化有助于我们了解该国的总体文化和风俗习惯。本文通过列举丰富的中英姓名的例子，旨在从姓名的构成、起源入手，重点分析两者在取名习俗上的差异，突出中英姓名的文化差异以加深对中英文化的理解，促进中英跨文化交流。

毕业论文关键词：结构；起源；取名习俗；文化

Contents               

1. Introduction..1

2. Differences on Names between English-speaking Countries and China.2

2.1 Different Structures of the English Name and Chinese Name…………2

2.2 Different Origins of the Surnames .3

3. Differences on Naming Practices.6

   3.1 Religious Beliefs Vs Superstition6

   3.2 Weak Hierarchy Concept Vs Strict Hierarchy Concept..7

   3.3 Arbitrary Use of Words Vs Limited Use of Words ..8

   3.4 Reflecting Personal Preferences Vs Reflecting Social Background..9

4.  Conclusion..11

   Works Cited12

   1.Introduction 

    Nowadays, as a result of globalization, cross-cultural communication has become more popular. The success of Beijing Olympic Game exposed a wonderful and spectacular culture to friends all over the world. Similarly, the scattered Confucius Colleges in many countries over the world have been introducing China’s long and rich culture all the time. Being the inevitable trend of the social development, cross-cultural communication will be more common and frequent in the future, therefore the importance of understanding cultural differences among different countries should not be neglected, especially the culture of names.源-自/吹冰+,论^文'网]www.chuibin.com

When we establish interpersonal contact with somebody, we all start with introducing our names, as we all have a different identification--name. The definition of name is “a word or phrase by which a person, thing, or class of things is known, called, or spoken to or of” (E.Agnes, 2003: 133). Thus name has been the simple, direct and useful symbol mark used for distinguishing people or other things in human society. But where did names spring from? Why do people have different names? What are the meanings behind the names? These might be the typical questions haunting us. However, since ancient times, there have been numerous studies on names culture carried out by scholars around the world. For example, Onomastics, as a separate subject, appeared in the western country long ago. While in China, according to the historical records, scholars first studied names culture in the Eastern Han Dynasty, then in modern times, more and more scholars devoted themselves into this field under the influence of freedom of mind and cultural trend. For instance, works studied on the first names include How did the First Names Come into Being, Introduction of Chinese First Names; works on the given names study includes ZhaoQianSunLi—the Chinese Names Culture; and works studied on the ways of naming include Naming Read, Art of Naming. It’s undeniable that those works integrate great information and entertainment and are also very available. However, their research areas in general are too broad to delve into in-depth study, let alone study by combining with other countries’ names from the cross-cultural perspective.