A Comparative Study Of The Names Between Post-80s And Post-00s-from The Perspective Of Sociolinguistics

Personal names loaded with abundant cultural connotation and plentiful social andhistorical information. For an individual, it is a language symbol which distinguishes oneselffrom others. For a certain period, it is an important symbol which distinguishes socialpsychology of the different historical periods. Personal names exist in the form of languagewords, which is an indispensable part in human language, and it is worthwhile for studying.Personal names usually contain two parts: surnames and given names.“Surnames” hasits stability and continuity, which will not be changed by the development of society andhistory, while “given names” has its arbitrariness and variability, which will be affected bycultural and social development, geographical factors, and personal preference. Therefore,this thesis ignores research in surnames, but focus on study of given names. The study ofChinese names has a long history, and it has got abundant achievements. However, most ofscholars pay more attention to qualitative research in ancient names from the phonology,structure and semantics, but rarely in both quantitative and qualitative study of thecontemporary personal names. Based on this fact, the author selected the post-80s names andpost-00s names as the research object, striving to find the features of contemporary personalnames. Meanwhile, since they were born in two different times, the study of their names willbetter reflect the impact of social change on personal names. Moreover, in order to make theresearch data more credible, all of collected names are given in good faith. Then, the authoranalyzes and compares the collected data through a quantitative and qualitative research so asto find the commonness and differences of the names between two generations and try toexplore its internal reasons. Based on name and culture theory, onomastics theory, andLabov’s variation theory, the author offers explanations to the results.Through the study of the structure of names, high-frequency characters, andlow-frequency characters in names, this thesis gets the final results. There are three features incommon. First is weakening of political colors in two generations’ names. From1949to1979,China was in a special historical eras, the name itself was also endowed with many political colors and historical imprint after undergoing political and social turmoil. The typical nameswere Jianguo(建国), Yuanchao (援朝), Weidong (卫东),etc. These names have disappeared inpost-80s and post-00s. Their names are closer to common people’s life and their aspirations.Second, the phenomenon of use generation characters in personal names is reduced. Since1980s, influenced by western individualism, people began to pursue personality and unique,in addition, with the popularity of one-character given names and the increase of nuclearfamily, generation names lose the survival foundation. Third, the gender information in twogenerations’ names has been reduced. Through analyzing and processing the collected data,the author found that most of post-80s and post-00s prefer to choose unisex characters as theirgiven names, such as Yu (宇), Wen (文), Zhe (哲), Nan (楠), Xiao (晓), Hai (海), Zi (子), Bo(博), etc. The differences are also show in three points. First is the difference in name’sstructure. The survey suggests that single name once prevalent in the80s, however, in the newcentury, people tend to select two-character given names, meantime three-character givennames also appeared in post-00s names. The second is the differences in selecting characters.Compared with post-00s, the semantic of post-80s name is relatively narrow. It mainlyfocuses on describing natural scenery and beautiful appearance, as well as expressingaspiration, but, the semantic of post-00s is wider. It covers intelligence, virtue, best wishes,self-cultivation, aspiration and other aspects. The third is the differences in emotionalsustenance. The author believes that this difference is due to social development, people beginto pay more attention to their spiritual life with the material life getting richer, meanwhile, theparents’ psychological expectations to their children have been also changed.To sum up, there are differences and commonness between two generations’ nameswhich are not only the features of ages, but also the changes of times. The names of each eraare proper reaction of people’s living condition and their good wishes. Language variation isonly the external thing, but, the internal reason is connect with social development andprogress, as well as the change of people’s thought.