the naming of names

[bonibaru]

Readers and writers: I want to write a little bit in Guardian, but I'm struggling with naming convention. Fics themselves seem all over the place. I've scanned back through the group posts at least a few weeks and not found an obvious post so the faster thing to do is just ask here.

Is it correct to refer to the characters by surname only (Zhao, Shen, Guo, Chu, Zhu etc) or by first name only (Yunlan, Wei) or always by full name (Zhao Yunlan, Shen Wei, Shu Hong) or a mix depending on context? I read that this can be context-dependent and I just want to be consistent without jarring the eyeballs of anyone trying to read.

For some reason I have no problem writing out Shen Wei every time but I keep wanting to default to just writing Yunlan (when he is POV character) and writing Zhao Yunlan *every* time feels like overkill, lol. And I want to call Guo and Chu just that but I keep writing out Lin Jing every time too. Is it because 2 syllables feels better? Augh. Halp me do better.

Comments

[asya_ana]

Generally speaking, you should always use the full name. However, intimates can use first names only. If the first name is one syllable, that doesn't "feel comfortable" for Chinese speakers, so another syllable is often added. I would also note that it's totally common and normal for even intimates to use the full name in everyday contexts.

Some people will also have nicknames for each other that are less intimate, such as Xiao Guo (little Guo) or Lao Chu (old Chu).

I know it feels weird to an English speaker to use the longer names constantly, but to read just the last name sounds very weird in Chinese.