How did ancient names change with the changes of history? What are their meanings?

The names of ancient people in China, like modern people, are symbols used by people to represent individuals in social communication. Surname is the name used by a certain group of people (clan, family); A first name is a surname used by a person alone.

The surnames of people in ancient legends in China, such as Xiong, Niu Kui and Qingyun, may all be clan surnames today. In ancient times, clans used natural objects as clan symbols, so most of these names were related to biological and natural phenomena. These family names may later evolve into surnames (bear, cow, cloud, etc.). ). In ancient times, people often used place names (such as "Fu" is a place name in the legend), professional names (such as "Wu" is a person engaged in divination), and ancestral names (such as Zhong You (a descendant of Xizhong, whose name is Huiwu). And fix this title as "surname". From the appellations of some people in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, we can also see traces of the formation of some surnames, such as Liu Xiahui, Luban, Gongsun Yang, Wei Yang and Shang Yang. In addition, some surnames, such as Huyan, Murong, Wei (Yu) Chi, etc., also appeared in the process of communication among ethnic groups in China.

The formation of surnames has different historical processes, and the same surname is not necessarily an origin. Such as He, some simplified the original surname Helan or Hedun to He, and some changed the original surname Qing to He to avoid the emperor's taboo. Surnames will also change due to political, geographical and ethnic reasons.

Names are personal symbols used in society. The "name" and "word" of the ancients are also commonly used to represent generations in the family. In the pre-Qin period, Jia Bo (Meng), Zhong, Shu and Ji were often used before the first name and surname, indicating that brothers were old and young, such as Bo Yi and Shu Qi, Bo was the elder brother and Shu was the younger brother; The word "Zhong" is the second child; Meng Jiangnv is Jiang's eldest daughter.

In addition to names and words, some ancient people also had numbers. "Hao" is a fixed alias, also known as another name. There are also "nicknames", which are recognized by others and are descriptions and descriptions of people.

In feudal society, surnames, names, characters and numbers not only reflect the feudal patriarchal clan system and moral concepts with their glyphs and meanings, but also are often directly used as tools for political struggle. Besides "posthumous title", "giving surnames" and "giving names" are also means for rulers to maintain or strengthen their rule.

As can be seen from the above examples, the knowledge of ancient people's surnames, names, characters and numbers is still very useful for us to read ancient books and study ancient people's thoughts, styles and ancient social life, and we need to know something about it.