All parents have experienced the excitement and anxiety of naming their newborn child. In every culture throughout the world, there is a general belief that names have an influence on the child’s life, either for better or for worse.

Most parents choose names by the following principles:

Meaning
Special significance
Family connection
Sound
Chinese parents also consider these things when naming their baby boy or girl. But Chinese parents also have to consider the qualities of the characters which make up the name.

Stroke Count for Chinese Names

Most Chinese names are made up of three characters. The first character is the family name, and the last two characters are the given name. There are exceptions to this general rule – some family names are made up of two characters, and sometimes the given name is just one character.

Chinese characters can be classified by the number of strokes required to draw them. The character 一, for example, has one stroke, but the character 義 has 13 strokes.