Chinese Family members naming system
Friday, 18. May 2012
There is a pattern to name members of family in Chinese. I have added the character selection of family member reference in my cantonese input methods:
Chinese family naming system
The diagram illustrates the reference, starting from oneself, either man and woman with respect to the female to call or male to call the other side.
For the husband to call on the female side. If his wife’s father, he would call him 外父, using the character 外 to mean external and 父 is the same for either husband and wife to mean father. Wife’s father will be called 外父 and wife’s mother will be called 外母, same 母 is mother. Wife’s brother will be called 大舅 or 舅仔 depending he is a bigger brother or little brother. 大 means big. 仔 means little one. Wife’s sister will be called 大姨 or 細姨 depending on her being bigger or smaller. Their kids, either brother’s or sister’s will be called 外甥 or 外甥女 depending on he is a boy or she is a girl. For mother’s brothers and sisters, they will be called 舅公 and 姨婆 to add the character 舅 and 姨. For mother’s father and mother, they are called 外公 and 外婆, hope that you can see the character 外 is being used. This is the system of using the characters to refer to members of wife’s side.
For husband’s side, father and mother of husband will be called 老爺 and 奶奶 by the wife. They can also be called 爸爸 and 媽媽 in the current system. The brothers and sisters of husband will be called 伯 or 叔 and 姑姐or 姑仔. Elder brother is called 伯 and younger brother is called 叔. Elder sister is called 姑姐 and younger sister is called 姑仔. So the system is to use characters 伯 or 叔 and 姑. 姐 is a generic character for elder sister. Kids of brothers will be called 姪仔姪女 and the character 姪 to mean brother’s children. Sister’s children will use the same as on wife’s side, 外甥 or 外甥女. The husbands and wifes of their children will add a character called 媳 or 婿 depending on he is a woman 媳 or man 婿 so you can called him 外甥女婿 or her 外甥媳.
Similar idea that husband of 姨 is called 姨丈, husband of 姑 is called 姑丈. But husband of elder sister is called 姊夫 or 姐夫 and husband of younger sister is called 妹夫.
Wife of elder brother is called 嫂 and wife of younger brother is called 媳.
Elder brother of father of husband is called 伯爺 and younger brother of father of husband is called 叔爺. But man calls elder brother of his father 伯 and younger brother of his father 叔.
It is quite a explanatory system and giving out more information about the relationship of any given member in the family. Not like the western culture, a simple “aunt” and “uncle” or “mother-in-law” etc are being used.
