名 (míng): name

Meanings

1 name
2 fame
3 measure word for people

Characters

名

míng

name; fame

Combines 夕 (evening) + 口 (mouth) — calling out your name in the dark.

Examples

请问您贵姓大名？

Qǐngwèn nín guìxìng dàmíng?

May I ask your name?

班里有三十名学生。

Bān lǐ yǒu sānshí míng xuéshēng.

There are thirty students in the class.

他是一个有名的人。

Tā shì yī gè yǒumíng de rén.

He is a famous person.

Tips

usage

As a measure word, 名 is more formal than 个 for counting people: 三名老师 (three teachers) sounds more official than 三个老师.

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

Bottom indexing mouth radical. Combined with 夕 above, this is one of the most pedagogically perfect compound ideographs in the script: 'evening + mouth' = calling out one's name in the dark. The mouth grounds the verbal nature of names — a name is fundamentally what you say when asked who you are.

semantic

夕 xī

evening; dusk

Top component — pictograph of a half-moon, signifying evening or nightfall. In 名 it sets up the classic ideographic story: when night falls and you can no longer see who's approaching, you must call out your name to identify yourself. Same family of evening chars: 多 (many = double evening), 外 (outside), 梦 (dream).