How to say "so-and-so is named after so-and-so"?
xiaophil
May 18, 2010, 12:56 AM posted in I Have a QuestionOkay everybody, the question is in the title. I have wanted to say this a number of times. I even asked my Chinese teacher once, and I couldn't communicate the concept to her. To tell the truth, I couldn't understand why she couldn't get it. Maybe Chinese doesn't have a special way of saying it. For example, would this be the normal way:
因为我和老婆特别骄傲奥运会，所以我们叫我么的孩子“奥运”。
xiaophil
And there it is. Lately you have been the answer master. Thanks!
bodawei
Actually I don't want you to be too impressed, I just found it in my dictionary. :) To this point in time I had never heard this; good question though.
And I might have mentioned before, I like learning everything I can about Chinese names.
xiaophil
I'm curious, how was this listed in your dictionary? "named after"?
bodawei
It was under 'namesake' - 以他人的名字取名的人。
A longer way of expressing it (from my paper dictionary):
那孩子是按他父亲的名字取的名。 (The child was named after his father). However I like the economy of 同名。
xiaophil
I prefer 同名 as well. I can easily remember that. I guess that 同名 doesn't actually indicate that the two people/places/things have the same name on purpose, though.
bodawei
I wondered about that - the English translation 'namesake' can be unintentional. Certainly in English we use it this way. I guess we need a native speaker to enlighten us on this subtle meaning? 同名 may be ambiguous as to whether the naming after is deliberate or not.
bodawei
May 18, 2010, 01:16 AM她和我同名。 (She is named after me.)
孙子和爷爷同名。 (The grandson is named after the grandfather.)