A courtesy name is a name traditionally given to Chinese men at the age of 20
sui, marking their
coming of age. It was sometimes given to women, usually upon marriage. Thus, the given name was reserved for oneself and one's elders, whereas the courtesy name would be used by adults of the same generation to refer to one another on formal occasions or in writing. Another translation of
zi occasionally encountered is the "style name", but this translation has been criticised as misleading since it could imply an
official or legal title Generally speaking, courtesy names before the
Qin dynasty were one syllable, and from the Qin to the 20th century they were mostly
disyllabic, consisting of two
Chinese characters. Another way to form a courtesy name is to use the homophonic character
zi () – a respectful title for a man – as the first character of the disyllabic courtesy name. Thus, for example,
Gongsun Qiao's courtesy name was Zichan (), and
Du Fu's was Zimei (). It was also common to construct a courtesy name by using as the first character one which expresses the bearer's birth order among male siblings in his family. Thus
Confucius, whose name was Kong Qiu (), was given the courtesy name Zhongni (), where the first character
zhong indicates that he was the second son born into his family. The characters commonly used are
bo () for the first,
zhong () for the second,
shu () for the third, and
ji () typically for the youngest, if the family consists of more than three sons. General
Sun Jian's four sons, for instance, were
Sun Ce (, Bófú),
Sun Quan (, Zhòngmóu),
Sun Yi (, Shūbì) and
Sun Kuang (, Jìzuǒ). Reflecting a general cultural tendency to
regard names as significant, the choice of what name to bestow upon one's children was considered very important in traditional China.
Yan Zhitui of the
Northern Qi dynasty asserted that whereas the purpose of a given name was to distinguish one person from another, a courtesy name should express the bearer's moral integrity. Prior to the twentieth century,
sinicized
Koreans,
Vietnamese, and
Japanese were also referred to by their courtesy name. The practice was also adopted by some
Mongols and
Manchus after the Qing conquest of China. ==Examples==