Page "Chinese name" Paragraph 13

It is also considered bad form to name a child after a famous person, although tens of thousands might happen to share a common name such as " Liu Xiang ".

Similarly, owing to the traditional naming taboos, it is very uncommon in China to name a child directly after a relative, since such children would permit junior family members to inappropriately use the personal names of senior ones.

Ancestors can leave a different kind of mark: Chinese naming schemes often employ a generation name, though in the PRC this practice ceased due to the Cultural Revolution and One Child Policy.

Every child recorded into the family records in a each generation would share an identical character in their names.

Sixteen, thirty-two, or more generations would be worked out in advance to form a generation poem.

For example, the one selected in 1737 for the family of Mao Tse-tung read: