Culture is everything and everywhere (Xu Lisheng, 2008:5), it is believed that having a good understanding of people’s names will contribute to the communication between people and help build up good interpersonal relationship. Otherwise misunderstanding can be unavoidable. Therefore it is important for us to have a good knowledge of different name culture. In this thesis, cultural differences of names between China and English-speaking countries will be studied. The thesis goes like that, the first part is the introduction, the second part mainly deals with the differences on names between English-speaking countries and China. The third part is about the differences on naming practices and the last part is the conclusion.

2.Differences on Names between English-speaking Countries and China

    Basically speaking, differences on names between English-speaking countries and China firstly reflect on the structures and origins, which are closely related to the historical background and cultural value of both areas. Just as Donald Lines Jacobus, the father of American genealogy, put it, “the trend of history generally can be reflected by name” (M.V, 1996: 24).  

2.1 Different Structures of the English Name and Chinese Name

   A complete English/Chinese name is composed by the surname and the given name, but the structure and the order are quite different between the two. 

2.1.1 Structure of English Name

An English name is composed by two parts or three parts, namely given name & surname or given name & middle name & surname. Generally speaking, most western people only have one given name (also called the first name or baptismal name), it is usually given by the church (sometimes by parents) at the time the new born baby accepts baptism (Du Xuezeng, 1999:24). Take Henry Smith for instance, Henry is the given name while Smith is the surname. On top of that, some people still have middle names between their given names and the surnames. For example, Thomas Alva Edison, Alva is the middle name usually given by the parents or relatives who cherish the child very much. However, the middle name which reflects the kinship can be only used for dealing with the paperwork or signature, it can’t be accepted as a legal name, so people never use it in court.   

    Still, however, we might have ever encountered the complicated names which compose by at least four parts, such as the name of big-name football star David Robert Joseph Beckham. Actually, this is a less common structure of English name, the structure is the given name & the second name & the third name &……& the surname. Except the given name and surname, the rest of names are usually given by their parents for some purposes, missing someone, for instance.