courtesy name
Sign in to saveAlso known as style name, zi
name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name in East Asian cultures
In the Vinony graph
Vinony's link graph records 3,179 inbound references to courtesy name, and connects out to pinyin, family name and Manchu.
Vinony files it under Chinese language, Chinese names and Culture of Japan.
Vinony links it to 32 Wikipedia language editions.
Key facts
- Traditional chinese
- (表) 字
- Hanyu pinyin
- (biǎo) zì
- Wade giles
- (piao)-tzu
- Vietnamese alphabet
- biểu tự , tên tự , tên chữ
- Ch h n
- 表字
- Ch n m
- 𠸜字 , 𠸜𡨸
- Hangul
- 자
- Hanja
- 字
- Revised romanization
- ja
- Mccune reischauer
- cha
- Kanji
- 字
- Hiragana
- あざな
- Revised hepburn
- azana
via Wikipedia infobox
~5 min read
Encyclopedic overview
A courtesy name (Chinese: 字; pinyin: zì; lit. 'character') is an additional name bestowed upon individuals at adulthood, complementing their given name. This tradition is prevalent in the East Asian cultural sphere, particularly in China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam. Courtesy names are a marker of adulthood and were historically given to men at the age of 20, and sometimes to women upon marriage.
Unlike art names, which are more akin to pseudonyms or pen names, courtesy names served a formal and respectful purpose. In traditional Chinese society, using someone's given name in adulthood was considered disrespectful among peers, making courtesy names essential for formal communication and writing.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “courtesy name” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.