little or no celebration (except, perhaps, a special meal for family members). The naming cer dis,ny for a boy normally involves a banquet for neighbors and village elders, along with the ribution of red eggs to members of the community The first name a child is given is referred to as his or her ming 2 This name (ming)may be based on literary or classical allusions. It may express a wish for the childs or familys future or it may enshrine some simple event that took place at or near the time of the childs birth. Examples of this kind of naming are found not only in Ha Tsuen but in other areas of China as well. Arlington, in an early paper on Chinese naming, describes how the name "sleeve"was given to a girl of his acquaintance who at the time of her birth had en wrapped in a sleeve(1923: 319). In the Peoples Republic of China, people born during the Korean War might be called"Resist the United States"(Fan- mei)or"Aid Korea"(Pang ch'ao). Alternatively, children may be given the name of their birthplace, for example "Born in Anhwei"(Hui-sheng) or"Thinking of Yunnan"(Hsiang-yun). In the past girl babies might be named Nai ("To Endure"). This name was given to infant girls who survived an attempted infanticide. One way of killing an infant was to expose it to the elements. If a girl survived this ordeal, she might be allowed to live. In these cases the name Nai commemorated the childs feat of survival a childs name may express the parents' desire for no more children. For instance, in Taiwan a fifth or sixth child may be named Beui, a Hokkien term meaning""Last Child. Alternatively, a father may try to assure that his next child will be a son by naming a newborn daughter " Joined to Brother"( Lien-ti). There are several girls with this name in Ha Tsuen. a father or grandfather might express his disappointment or disgust by naming a second or third daughter " Too Many"(A-to) or"Little Mistake"(Hsiao-t so) or"Reluctant to Feed"(Wang-shih).A sickly child might be given the name of a healthy child. my informants told me that a long awaited son may be given a girl's name to trick the wandering ghosts into thinking the child had no value and therefore could be ignored(see also Sung 1981: 81-82). For example, a Ha Tsuen villager, who was the only son of a wealthy family(born to his fathers third concubine) was known by everyone as"Little Slave Girl"(in Cantonese, Mui-jai In most cases the infant receives a ming during the full month ceremony but this name is little sed. For the first year or two most children are called by a family nickname ("milk name"or nai ming). Babies are sometimes given milk names like"Precious"(A-pao), or A-buh(mimick ing the sounds infants make)or"Eldest Luck, "or"Second Luck, "indicating sibling ord Some care and consideration is given to a child s ming, especially if it is a boy. By referring to the Confucian classics or by alluding to a famous poem, the name may express the learning and sophistication of the infants father or grandfather. The name, as we will see, may also save the child from an inauspicious fate. Commonly girls' names(ming)are less distinctive and less considered than are boys names. And, as we have seen, girls' names may also be less flattering "Too Many"or"Little Mistake. " Often a general, classificatory name is given to an infant girl Martin Yang reports from rural Shantung that Hsiao-mei("Little Maiden")was a"generic"girls name in his village (1945: 124). Most Chinese personal names are composed of two characters, which follow the one char- acter surname(for example, Mao Tse-tung or Teng Hsiao-ping). One of the characters of the ming may be repeated for all the children of the same sex in the family or perhaps all sons born into the lineage one generation (for example, a generation or sibling set might hat personal names like Hung-hui, Hung-chi, Hung-sheng and so on. ) Birth order may also be indicated in the child's name. In these cases part of the name indicates group affiliation and sibling order. However, one of the characters is unique to the individual and so the child distinguished from his siblings. a variation on this theme occurs when a parent or grandparer elects a name for all sons or grandsons from a group of characters that share a single element (known as the radical--a structured component found in every chinese character), For exam ple, Margaret Sung (1981: 80)in her survey of Chinese naming practices on Taiwan notes that the named and the nameless 621