Chinese Names

Today with one of my Chinese-learning groups we were discussing such an interesting thing as Chinese names. The problem of name-giving in China is really big, because there are so many people and it's very important for a person to have a unique name. 

Today I want to tell you about such prefixes as "Xiao" and "Lao". There are thousands and thousands of people in China who have the surname Wang. It's as common as Smith or Brown in the UK. Very often you can hear that people are called Xiao Wang or Lao Wang. The word "Xiao" means "little, junior". The word "Lao" means "old, wise". It's easy to understand that the prefix "Xiao" is often used when addressing to a child, and "Lao" - to a grown up person. It'd be nice if it were that easy. But in reality there are a lot of hidden dangers.

One and the same person can be called both "Xiao Wang" and "Lao Wang" by different people in different situations. For instance, you can be 50 years old (quite a grown up person, aren't you?) but your GrandPa will still call you Xiao Wang (Little Wang) because your grandfather, of course, is much older than you. When a fifty-year-old-still-called-by-GrandPa-Xiao-Wang man comes to an office, there is no doubt that his colleagues will call him Lao Wang (Old Wang). At the same time if this man's boss (whose surname is also Wang) is younger than he is he can freely call him Xiao Wang, beacuse his position in the company is lower than the bosses. And of course you can't call your boss Xiao Wang (Little Wang) even if he is much younger than you. 

Hope it was interesting and easy to understand. If you understand Chinese you can listen to and read a little more about Chinese names here - Slow Chinese Podcasts.