Liu Yang Yi Kuan (third from the left) and his friends. Photo by reporter Gao Ke and intern Wang Hai.
"Yang Yi Kuan, Mr. Huang is looking for you." At 11:50 AM on the 17th, the bell rang to mark the end of class in Room 8, Grade 2 at Chongqing No. 7 Middle School, and classmate Yu Liang called out to his good friend.
Liu Yang Yi Kuan and Yu Liang are both classmates in Room 8, Grade 2 at No. 7 Middle School and good friends. They are also the same age - 13 years old. Among the 56 students in their class, their names are somewhat special because they both incorporate the surnames of their father and mother.
If one pays attention to the names of children around them, one will notice that it is becoming increasingly common for a child's surname to be a combination of the father's and mother's surnames.
Especially in many single-child families, the father's and mother's surnames are combined to form the child's surname. As a result, names have evolved from the traditional two or three characters to four characters.
Can the combination of father's and mother's surnames become a new compound surname? Experts say this differs somewhat from traditional compound surnames like Sima, Ouyang, and Linghu. Moreover, it has not yet reached a significant scale, nor is it practiced by the majority, so the possibility of it becoming a compound surname is relatively low.
"A four-character name, somewhat unique"
Liu Yang Yi Kuan lives on Fengtian Road in Shapingba District. When the reporter met him at noon on the 17th, he was just about to go to the cafeteria with his classmate and good friend Yu Liang for lunch.
Dressed in sportswear, he spoke and acted more maturely than children of the same age. Talking about his own name, Yi Kuan said that since he started writing his own name in first grade, he has always felt that his name is particularly unique. Most of his classmates have three-character names, some have two-character names, but his name has four characters.
"Because my name is somewhat unique, when I first entered elementary school and junior high, teachers often called on me to answer questions," Yi Kuan said.
Due to the uniqueness of his name, after entering junior high, many classmates liked to chat with him and wanted to be friends with him. Initially, classmates would call him by his full name, but later, as they became close friends, they began calling him "Big Brother Kuan." The classmates said they call him "Big Brother Kuan" because Yi Kuan gets along well with others, and over 20 classmates in the class consider him a good friend.
Why was the name Liu Yang Yi Kuan chosen? Yi Kuan's mother, Ms. Yang E, said that Liu is the father's surname and Yang is the mother's surname. "There are too many duplicate names now, and we didn't want our child to have a common name, so we included both parents' surnames in the child's name."
At the same time, the child's name also embodies the parents' hopes for his future. The character "Yi" was chosen by the father, meaning beautiful virtues. The character "Kuan" was chosen by the mother, who hopes the child will have a broad mind and a bright future.
Many classmates have four-character names
Compared to Liu Yang Yi Kuan's name, Yu Liang, who also incorporates his parents' surnames into his name, has a simpler name. He and Yi Kuan were classmates in junior high and are good friends.
"My father's surname is Yu, and my mother's surname is Liang, so I am called Yu Liang. My name includes both my parents' surnames and their hopes for me —— hoping I can become a pillar of the nation," Yu Liang said.
"Because my name is unique, I am especially interested in people with unique names," Yu Liang said. Before entering junior high, he attended Hualongqiao Elementary School, where there were five or six classmates with four-character names. Of course, there were also those with two-character names like himself, such as Luo Yuan.
Father's surname + Mother's surname becomes a trend
If everyone pays attention, aren't four-character names becoming more and more common around us?
Especially now, as the peak period for single-child couples getting married and having children approaches, for both families being "only children," whether the next generation should follow the mother's surname or the father's surname has become a difficult decision for young couples.
Recently, an 80s-born reader told our newspaper's "Urban Marriage Observation" column that their child had been born for five months but had not yet registered at the police station. The main reason was that she and her husband had not yet decided, more accurately, had not yet agreed on whose surname the child should follow and what name to choose.
This reader said that her parents only have one daughter and one grandchild, while her husband comes from a family of two brothers. Her parents suggested that the grandchild could take the mother's surname. Her husband agreed to let their son take her surname, but she wanted to include both their surnames. Her husband thought that a four-character name was too eye-catching and would make the child a focus of attention.
By Ren Mingyong, reporter of this newspaper
Expert's opinion:
Father's surname + Mother's surname
is a reflection of pursuing novelty and fashion
Chongqing Academy of Social Sciences researcher Sun Yuanming: Combining the father's and mother's surnames to form the child's surname has actually always existed; it was just less common and individualized in the past, but now it is more widespread.
Why is that? On the one hand, China implemented the family planning policy starting from the late 1970s, resulting in a large number of single children. As the generation born during that period reaches reproductive age, the question of whose surname the child should follow has become an issue for this generation to consider.
Numerous families without sons try every means to prevent their family surname from disappearing into history. These people with deep-rooted traditional views face a dilemma: on one hand, the long-standing custom is that the child follows the father's surname, and on the other hand, there is the challenge of continuing the family surname. Combining the parents' surnames to form a double-barrelled surname is an increasingly common compromise solution found by more and more families regarding their children's surnames.
At the same time, choosing a double-barrelled surname is also a pursuit of novelty and fashion. Since ancient times, people have followed certain trends in naming. For example, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Xiang Yu, Liu Bei, Cao Cao, Xiao Qiao all have two-character names. Now, choosing a four-character name is also a trend, and it can help avoid duplicate names, making the name more personalized and distinct from others. Additionally, this breaks away from the tradition of following the father's surname, reflecting gender equality.
However, there is one problem with double-barrelled surnames: what happens when these children grow up and have their own children? Will their next generation have three-character or four-character surnames? This is a question worth pondering together.