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　　取名背后的考量

　　明星们用在国际媒体上的名字，取名时会有怎样的考量呢。

　　关于中国人的英文名，华东师范大学博士吴海云在第六声撰文称：

　　An obvious interpretation of naming practices claims that having a Western name makes it easier for a Chinese person to navigate cross-cultural interactions. While this assertion is true in part, it fails to explain why other globalizing countries do not partake as widely in such a phenomenon. Why do, say, the Japanese or Koreans not take English names? An alternative explanation views the enthusiasm for English names as a manifestation of a more general admiration for the West.

　　取英文名这个现象最显而易见的解释是可以让中国人在跨文化交流中更如鱼得水。但这个判断并不完全正确，它没有解释为什么其他正在全球化进程中的国家没有参与到这种现象里来。比方说，为什么日本人和韩国人没有大规模地取英文名?还有一种对这个问题的解释是，对英文名的热情显示了对西方的崇拜。

　　However, in my opinion, what both of these interpretations ignore is China’s own rich naming tradition. After all, when Chinese people take English names, they do not give up their birth names; the new name becomes merely an additional moniker. In fact, the adoption of a series of names and nicknames is a long-held custom in the country.

　　但我觉得，上面这两种解释都忽略了一点，那就是中国自己的丰富的取名文化。毕竟中国人取英文名的时候，并没有抛弃他们自己的名字，新的英文名只是作为一个补充名存在。事实上，这种取几个名字或者绰号的行为一直存在于中国的传统文化里。

　　Until the mid-1900s in China, a person would normally inherit their father’s xing, or surname, at birth. Later, at 100 days old, the baby would be given a ming, a personal name chosen by the parents. At the beginning of adulthood — usually age 20 for men and age 15 for women — the individual would be granted an alternative personal name, or a zi. In the Confucian society of ancient China, it was common courtesy to address people using their zi.

　　20世纪中叶之前，中国人通常会在出生的时候先继承父亲的姓氏，然后百天的时候取一个名，由父母选定。在成年的时候——一般男性是20岁，女性是15岁——这个人就会再拥有一个名，或者字。在孔子那个时代，礼貌的做法是称呼对方的字。

　　Apart from the three kinds of formal names, a self-chosen name known as a hao was also very popular. The zi of the famous Tang dynasty poet Li Bai was“Taibai,”but to this day many Chinese know him by two haos:“The Lay Buddhist of Qinglian (青莲居士)”and“The Banished Immortal (谪仙人)”. The latter came from a tenet of folk wisdom, which dictated that those who had misbehaved in heaven were frequently exiled to the human realm and became people of great talent.

　　除了上面这三种正式的名字之外，人们还可以自己选定一个名字，叫做号，这种做法很受欢迎。唐朝著名诗人李白的字就是“太白”，但是如今很多中国人都知道他还有两个号，一个叫“青莲居士”，另一个叫“谪仙人”。后面这个号来源于一个民间故事，说的是，犯了天条的神仙会被贬谪到凡间，而且会拥有超凡的才华。

　　From the first half of the 20th century onward, as China began to modernize, the practice of taking zi and hao began to die out. Today, most Chinese have only xing and ming. Against this backdrop, the current trend toward taking English names can be viewed as a form of cultural resurgence — a continuation of ancient tradition with a modern twist.

　　从20世纪上半叶开始，中国开始现代化进程，人们给自己取字和号的做法开始慢慢消失。如今的大多数中国人只有姓和名。在这个大背景下，目前取英文名的做法可以看做是某种意义上的文化复兴——一种古老取名文化的延续，不过是带了一点现代的色彩。

　　More accurately, English names today play the same role as hao did in traditional China. Both are self-chosen and aim to reveal an aspect of the individual’s personality. In imperial China, the literati would commonly hold several hao at the same time, each intended to shine a light on a different side of their characters or reflect a valuable experience from their lives.

　　准确一点来讲，如今的英文名就相当于从前的号。二者都是自己选择的，而且都是为了展示这个人的某一侧面。在封建时代，中国的士大夫们通常会同时拥有很多个号。每一个号都是为了凸显他们个性中不同的侧面，或者是为了反映出生活中宝贵的经历。

　　In the same way that one’s hao was bound by certain social conventions, so are English names subject to certain rules. In today’s China, English names may be commonly used among Chinese colleagues in the workplace but almost never in a familial context or among best friends.

　　号受到特定社会习俗的约束，同样地，英文名也需要遵循特定规则。当今中国，英文名在职场的同事之间使用得很广泛，但家人之间和亲密朋友之间并不会称呼对方英文名。

　　As a form of address, English names imply a certain amount of distance between speakers. In this way, these adopted monikers allow people to embody different social identities, in the same way that xing, ming, and hao denoted social boundaries in former times.

　　作为称呼的一种形式，英文名自带一点点距离感。这样一来，人们使用这些代号来体现自己的不同社会身份，这一点和过去的姓、名，以及号一样，象征着社会界限。

　　明星们的名字会受到各种因素的影响：市场宣推的需要、个人的文化认同等等。

　　但不可否认的一点是，从来就不是名字定义了你，而是，你定义了你的名字。

　　你有过英文名吗?取名的时候是什么想法呢?