[midhir]

That's interesting, I thought the given name in Chinese was almost always two characters. Is this not the case?

我是中文学生 :)

Funnily the first thing you learn in Chinese is how to say who you are. But there's very little help with actually picking a Chinese name!

[sohkamyung]

It's not for Malaysian born Chinese. We usually have three names. For example, mine is SOH Kam Yung:

SOH - family name

Kam - 'generational' name (same as for my brothers)

Yung - my given name

For simplicity, I usually add a hyphen (Kam-Yung) in my name to make it easier for people to refer to me in non-formal settings, i.e. I should be called "Kam Yung" or "Mr. Soh".

Calling me "Kam" (it has happened) is nonsensical from my point of view.

[donpark]

Same for Koreans. Capitalizing the first character of the 'generational' name and lowercase for given name could work.

But I think emphasizing the given name offers better UX so given name should be all caps and family name should be all lowercase like this: YUNG Kam soh or soh Kam YUNG.

[Double_a_92]

> Calling me "Kam" (it has happened) is nonsensical from my point of view.

Would just Yung be ok?

[z2]

As others have alluded to--here's an explanation for _a good portion_ of the people who have two character given names. The first character of the given name is defined by ancestors, generations ago in a poem. Each subsequent generation uses the next character of that poem.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation_name

This stopped for much of the mainland in the last century due to a few revolutions that happened there.

[headsupftw]

"I thought the given name in Chinese was almost always two characters. Is this not the case?"

Not at all. Nowadays there are hundreds of millions of people in Mainland China with a single-character given name. Case in point: former tennis player Li Na, former basketball player Yao Ming.

I say "Mainland China" because I notice people from Hongkong and Taiwan have mostly two-character given names.

[gibolt]

One character names are quite common, but 3+ character names exist also, especially for ethnic minorities. This applies to given and surnames.

Any 'always' cases with names are never to be trusted. https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-...

[cbhl]

given name != surname

surname = "last" name = family name

[ardy42]

> That's interesting, I thought the given name in Chinese was almost always two characters. Is this not the case?

It depends, I think. I don't know about all of China, but in some places they alternate the length of the given name by generation (e.g. if you have a two-character given name, you give your children a one-character name, and vice versa).

[ksec]

>I thought the given name in Chinese was almost always two characters. Is this not the case?

Mostly in Old, Traditional or Southern part of China.

[seanmcdirmid]

When was the last time mainland China had a leader with a one character given name?

But ya, it is a matter of preference.