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I suggested naming a Chinese baby girl 桂英 after her grandmother but my suggestion was rejected as the name was considered outdated. I know there is a legendary heroine named 穆桂英 and the name 桂英 is commmonly used by many Chinese ladies. The name itself sounds beautiful and bears nice meanings. Is it considered as outdated? If so, why did it lose its popularity?

By the way, if there is any statistics, I would love to know the rank of the name 桂英 by popularity among 2018 born baby girls. May I know how to find it out?

Zuriel
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  • Haha, today popular names for baby are mostly contributed by 80's parents, deeply influenced by web novel, "fast food" literature. In these works several pattern of characters are often used in many characters' names to sound emmmmmmm beautiful, antique... It doesn't means these names are bad, but just too unimaginative and monotonous. – Toosky Hierot Jan 16 '19 at 07:21
  • Unfortunately, my name, which was took long ago, though, falls into today's popular names... frustrating. – Toosky Hierot Jan 16 '19 at 07:24
  • outdated? someone's kidding :(

    imo, it's an average / good name.

     – 水巷孑蠻 Jan 16 '19 at 07:51
  • Names in a lot of cultures follow fashions: take "Chris" in Hollywood. You want to get the right balance of individual-vs-fashionable, distinctive-vs-recognisable for any of your children. – Michaelyus Jun 20 '19 at 15:35

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Yes, it is indeed outdated.

Moreover, you may not want to name your child after a renowned person, for example （武）则天、（毛）泽东、（周）恩来、（朱）元璋 and so on. Especially when you two share the same surname.

However, some more common names, especially single-character names, could still be used, for example, （杨）勇、（李）密、（刘）秀、（王）勃 and so on. But try to avoid when you share the same surname.

Also, it is not a common practice to have children and their elder relatives using same characters in first names. We do not memorize our loved ones that way.

As for the popularity of a name, you may check the 公安部 website.

A name can lose its popularity when more and more people start using it, just like the cloth fashion, something new has to come up every decade!

zyy
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    Thanks! Is 穆桂英 considered as super famous in China? It seems that she is only from a novel. – Zuriel Jan 16 '19 at 05:16
  • @Zuriel Yes, she is indeed! There are many operas about her and almost all Chinese you would meet know her, not necessarily in detail though. – zyy Jan 16 '19 at 05:20
  • Then why there are many Chinese ladies named 桂英? – Zuriel Jan 16 '19 at 05:21
  • @Zuriel When did those names appear? I do not personally know anyone whose name is 桂英。 – zyy Jan 16 '19 at 05:24
  • You mentioned that people do not want to name their children after super famous people. Is it only true recently or is it always so? If it is always the case, why in mid 20th centry were many babies named 桂英? – Zuriel Jan 16 '19 at 05:29
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    @Zuriel You don't want to name your children after super famous people because you don't want your Children to be make fun of. And there's no proof of many people named 桂英 in the mid 20-centry. People also don't name after famous people due to respect. No one whose family name is 孔 would name his son 丘 because there is only one 孔丘, Google who 孔丘 was – Tang Ho Jan 16 '19 at 06:38
  • @Zuriel And I have heard people naming their children as 王者荣耀、陆焰之瞳、史诗王爵 and so on, those are considered 中二 and not preferred either. – zyy Jan 16 '19 at 16:19
  • @zyy thanks! What does 中二 mean here? – Zuriel Jan 16 '19 at 16:55
  • @Zuriel 中二 basically means 幼稚，or naive. – zyy Jan 16 '19 at 18:58
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    The people who named their son 瓜瓜 should go to prison... – Tang Ho Jan 17 '19 at 04:19
  • @TangHo That is a funny one. – zyy Jan 17 '19 at 04:44
  • @TangHo, though no one is named 孔丘, here is an example of one of his major disciple's name is used by somebody else: https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/32661/an-extremely-rare-same-name-used-by-two-people – Zuriel Jan 18 '19 at 15:53
  • Even a very common name, once became historically famous, people will never use it again. For example, 韓 is a common surname, 信 is a common first name, but no modern people dare to name his son 韓信 (there was another famous 韓信 when 韓信 was alive, so we call that other 韓信 as '韓王韓信' ); It is like an unwritten rule: 姓曹不能單名操，姓関不能單名羽，You can work around by using different character or add one more character and name your son 韓有信, 曹一操 or 関天羽 (and people will still make fun of these names) – Tang Ho Jan 18 '19 at 19:55
  • @Zuriel 穆桂英 is very famous, almost every one know her. Her story is told by many different kind of folk plays. Even the old uneducated that can not read know her. – sfy Jan 19 '19 at 13:24
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There is some rules for naming a baby. 1.Avoid same name with Historical Figure. 2.Never to using a very strong word such as 钢。 3.The name should be speak loudly. 4.where is weak of 五行 then take that word. such as if you weak of 木 then the word should have the 木. for example 林.

So 桂英 should not be your baby's name.

daotian
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桂英 sounds like people living in 1k years ago…

Eruku Tsukasa
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No. Don't do that. This definitely sounds ancient. Modern Chinese people rarely use any of these two characters, 桂 and 英, unless they can come up with a fancier character combination.

For the character 桂, I know a lot of 50-year-old Chinese women are named after 桂芳. For 英, I think nowadays people prefer to use 瑛 more.

Fortunately, Chinese has numerous homophones. If you really like these two characters, maybe you can try homophones like 樱 instead, which has the same pronunciation as 英. People tend to use more poetic and aesthetic characters for names.

Glorfindel
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Seaky Lone
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