Newborn baby’s Eight Characters

Another custom is to find the newborn baby’s Eight Characters（in fourpairs，indicating the year，month，day and hour of a person’s birth，each pair consisting of one Heavenly Stem and one Earthly Branch，formerly used in fortune-telling）and the element in the Eight Characters.It is traditionally believed in China that the world is made up of five principal elements:metal，wood，water，fire，and earth.A person’s name is to include an element that he lacks in his Eight Characters.if he lacks water，for example，then his name is supposed to contain a word like river，lake，tide，sea，stream，rain，or any word associating with water.If he lacks metal，then he is to be given a word like gold，silver，iron，or steel.

Some people even believe that the number of strokes of a name has a lot to do with the owner’s fate.So when they name a child，the number of strokes of the name is taken into account.

Some parents prefer to use a character from an eminent person’s name，hoping that their child inherits that person’s nobility and greatness.

Characters with noble and encouraging connotations are also among the first choices.Some parents inject their own wishes into their children’s names.When they want to have a boy，they may name their ginl Zhaodi meaning expecting a brother.

hancheng

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