中國傳統(tǒng)文化：中國人的姓名.

　　百家姓是中國人的姓名的大合集，那么中國人的姓名到底是怎樣出現(xiàn)和演變的呢?

　　A modern Chinese usually has a surname (“family name”)or xing and a given name (“firstname” or “Christian name”)，or ming(or mingzi)，always in that order.

　　現(xiàn)代中國人的姓名通常由姓(家庭姓氏)和名(個人所起的名字)組成,并 且姓在前，名在后。

　　Thus Deng Xiaoping is Mr. Deng with the personal name Xiaoping the same way John Jones isMr. Jones with the personal name John.

　　因此，鄧小平被稱為鄧先生，個人的名字為小平。 正如約翰?瓊斯被稱為瓊斯先生，個人的名字為約翰。

　　In ancient China, however，naming was very complicated and one person usually had severalnames, and naming involved xing, shi, ming, and zi.

　　在中國古代，起名非常復(fù)雜。 一個人可以有好幾個名字，包括姓、氏、名、字。

　　Each of these four words meant a different thing.

　　每一個都表達(dá)不同的意思。

　　Xing and shi together formed today's surname, and ming and zi today’s given name.

　　姓和氏演變?yōu)楝F(xiàn)在的姓，名和字則演變?yōu)楝F(xiàn)在的名。

　　Today, people use xingshi to rer to a person’s surname，mingzi to rer to one's given name.

　　所以現(xiàn)在人們通常用姓氏來指一個人的姓，用名字來指一個人所起的名。

　　Study of ancient Chinese documents shows that xing originally rerred to the names ofdifferent matriarchal tribes.

　　據(jù)對中國古代文獻(xiàn)的研究表明“姓”最初被用來指不同的女氏族長部落。

　　It also had something to do with the place where people lived.

　　和人們的居住地也有某些關(guān)系。

　　Researches show that xing came into being during the matrilin-eal society period, i. e. , aroundfour to five thousand years ago.

　　研究表明，“姓”出現(xiàn)于母系社會時期，大約四千至五千年之前。

　　Nearly always the family name (surname) is one-syllable long.The only common modernsurnames that are two-syllables long are ouyang and sima.

　　幾乎所有家庭的姓都是一個音節(jié)，常見的兩個音節(jié)的姓有歐陽、司馬等。