Chinese Baby Name Generator 起名
Traditional Chinese naming done the full way: the baby's BaZi decides the element the name should carry, 三才五格 stroke numerology shapes the structure, and every candidate character is screened against the ancestral name-avoidance rule.
起名擇名 · the art of the auspicious name
A Name to Last a Lifetime
We read the child's BaZi 八字 for the element their chart needs, honour 避諱 (no character shared with the parents or ancestors), check 三才五格 stroke fortune, and suggest names with real meaning. 賜子千金，不如賜子好名。
The child & the family
We never reuse a character that appears in the parents' or ancestors' names (避祖諱 / 避尊長諱) — a core rule of traditional naming. Stroke counts follow the 康熙字典; BaZi uses true solar months & the hour pillar when a time is given.
How a traditional name is chosen · 起名之法
1. 八字喜用神 — the element the chart needs. We cast the child's Four Pillars from the birth date & time, weigh the Five Elements, judge whether the Day Master is strong or weak, and find the element that brings the chart into balance. The name should supply that element.
2. 避諱 — respect the elders. By tradition a child's name must never repeat a character from a parent's or ancestor's name. We exclude every such character automatically.
3. 三才五格 — the stroke fortune. Using 康熙 stroke counts we compute the 天格・人格・地格・外格・總格 and the 三才 (Heaven-Man-Earth) configuration, then keep names whose numbers fall on auspicious 數理.
4. 音・形・義 — sound, shape & meaning. Finally we favour names that read beautifully and carry a worthy meaning.
A guide for reflection & inspiration. For a final name, our 大師 review (paid) hand-verifies strokes, tones and the full chart.
How a name is chosen traditionally
A Chinese given name is not picked for sound alone. The method has three layers. First the child’s BaZi is charted and the 喜用神 favourable element identified — the element the chart lacks. Characters carrying that element are then favoured, through their radical, their meaning, or their five-element association.
Second, the stroke counts of surname and given name are combined into the 五格 five grids — 天格, 人格, 地格, 外格, 總格 — and each grid’s number is looked up against the 81-number table. Third, the whole name is read aloud, in Mandarin and in the family’s dialect, because a name that charts beautifully and sounds unfortunate is a bad name.
避諱 — the characters you cannot use
The naming taboo is the part most software ignores. Traditionally a child’s name must not reuse a character from the name of a living or remembered elder in the direct line — parents, grandparents, and further back where the family keeps a generational record.
This tool asks for those names explicitly and removes any character that appears in them, including variants. If your family also uses a 字輩 generational character, enter it and it will be held fixed in the chosen position.
Stroke counts are counted the old way
五格 numerology uses 康熙字典 stroke counts, not the stroke count of the modern simplified form. 學 is 16 strokes, not the 8 of 学. Getting this wrong changes every grid and therefore every recommendation, which is why cheap generators disagree with practitioners.
Common questions
Simplified or traditional characters?
You can name in either. The numerology is always computed on the traditional 康熙 form, which is the correct classical practice, and both forms are shown for each candidate.
Can I use this for an adult or a business?
The BaZi and numerology layers work for anyone with a birth date. The 避諱 screening is specific to family naming and can be skipped.
What does the Master Review add?
A practitioner selects from the shortlist by hand, weighing the baby’s full chart, both parents’ charts, dialect pronunciation and the generational character, and explains the final recommendation.