help me improve these names pls

Question

im trying to come up with authentic names for a novel, and i have some that i have come up with, but i still need some help. here's a list.

Léi Yìchén (雷毅晨)

• Lei as in thunder
• Yi as in Brave, resolute, persistent.
• Chen as in Morning, dawn.
• The person is supposed to be a powerful and determined leader, bringing new beginnings and hope, and I want to use last names that would be more indicative of lightening/thunder/rain

秋月 Qiuyue

• 秋 as in autumn
• 月as in moon
• no last name/family name due to plot reasons, but she was born on an autumn night so i think it might fit. it also doesnt help that im really really attached to this name for some reason.

Wang Míngjié

• wang as in king
• mingjie i was told meant level headed and smart.
• Not sure about the specifics, but this person is supposed to be another leader, and is supposed to be wise and unique.

Jiang Ying Yue (江映月)

• Jiang as in river
• Ying as in reflection
• Yue as in moon
• She is supposed to be a very calm soothing personality, who is also kind and supportive.

望舒 Wang Shu

• Wang Shu as in the name of the god who drives the carriage for the moon
• Im still confused about the last name, it needs to be something that indicates freedom, and lightheartedness in spirit, but im not sure what.

Huang Qixing

• 黄 like glory (literally yellow I think, but im assuming it can be interpreted as glory or be an indication of it)
• 七星, which is closest to the big dipper in english.

Please let me know if any of these dont make sense or if there is some unintentional pun, positive or negative, or if these words are recognizable as Chinese names? They dont particularly need to sound like they belong to a specific timeframe, but id appreciate help in turning any of the modern sounding ones into those more ancient.

i also was wondering, a lot of authors use names to indicate what the personality of the character will be like, but can the opposite be done too? for example someone's name suggests that theyre very righteous and loyal, but the character is the most morally grey person you'll ever see. or is that too much?

thank you!

Answer 1

wang mingjie I assume is probably 王明杰。

There is a lot of freedom to Chinese names, especially for story purposes. For the names in your list, I don't see any "real" issues. Names are indeed often used to hint at personalities in storytelling/ are chosen with aspirations a parent has for their child.

As for making names sound from an older time period, it might be helpful to look into the specific societal/cultural setting you are using. There are a plethora of "standards" to look at, the earliest probably dating back to 左传 恒公六年 which lays out the set of rules, "名有五，有信，有义，有象，有假，有类。。。不以国，不以官，不以山川，不以隐疾，不以畜牲，不以器币。", which stated that names should contain a deeper meaning and provided 5 goods and 6 avoids. If we move along to when Confucianism was dominant, male names were often made with Confucian ideologies in mind; ex. 忠孝礼义仁。 In the Tang Dynasty for example, 论语 was commonly used in naming by selecting phrases from its excepts. If Buddhism was big during a dynasty, names then commonly contain characters like 佛 and 僧 or phrases picked from corresponding scripture.

Another thing to keep in the back of your mind that is more meta would be fengshui, the relationship of characters to the elements 金木水火土。For example, if you have a character born on XXXX datetime, according to 天干地支五行 / 生辰八字，that person will have an element in abundance and be lacking in another. A famous real example to look at would be 戴笠 who heavily believed in this and used cover names all with 水（氵）in them when he went on missions. On his last mission, he used the name 高崇岳 (which literally means admire the towering mountains) and his plane crashed into the mountains. Stuff like this could be fun to play with in a novel.