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是的。中国的孩子通常都随父姓，只有极个别的随母姓，意为家族的香火通过名字和血缘都一脉相传下去，家族也就越来越大。听说古时候起名字是要按资排辈的。通常是依据家族流传下来的家谱，用姓加上表示辈分的字，再加上自己的名字。因而有可能整个家族里同一辈的孩子，名字的前两个字都一样，只有最后一个字不同。也有一些名字还体现了当时的时代特色。比如新中国刚成立的那段时间，建华，爱国，保田等名字特别流行，真是从根本上体现了爱国主义。

shìde 。Zhōngguó de háizi tōngcháng dōu suí fù xìng ，zhǐyǒu jí gèbié de suí mǔ xìng ，yì wéi jiāzú de xiānghuǒ tōngguò míngzi hé xuèyuán dōu yīmàixiāngchuán xiàqu ，jiāzú yě jiù yuèláiyuèdà 。tīngshuō gǔshíhou qǐ míngzì shì yào ànzīpáibèi de 。tōngcháng shì yījù jiāzú liúchuán xiàlai de jiāpǔ ，yòng xìng jiāshàng biǎoshì bèifèn de zì ，zài jiāshang zìjǐ de míngzi 。yīnér yǒu kěnéng zhěnggè jiāzú lǐ tóngyībèi de háizi ，míngzi de qián liǎng ge zì dōu yīyàng ，zhǐyǒu zuìhòu yī ge zì bùtóng 。yě yǒu yīxiē míngzi hái tǐxiàn le dāngshí de shídài tèsè 。bǐrú xīnzhōngguó gāng chénglì de nà duàn shíjiān ，Jiànhuá ，Àiguó ，Bǎotián děng míngzi tèbié liúxíng ，zhēnshì cōng gēnběn shàng tǐxiàn le àiguózhǔyì 。

Yeah. Chinese kids often get their father's surname. Only a few take their mother's surname. Because families' ancestral worship is passed on through surnames and blood ties, families get bigger all the time. I hear that in ancient times, names were given by seniority. It was usually done according to family trees passed down through families. You'd use the surname, plus a word to show the generation, and then a name. Because of this, there might be a full generation of kids in a family who share the first two characters of their name, with only the last word different. And there are some names that show characteristics of a particular era. For example, during the time just after the foundation of the People's Republic of China, names like ''Building China," ''Patriot," and ''Protecting the Land" were very popular. It really shows people's patriotism.

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你们家还有家谱啊！我怎么不知道！

nǐmen jiā háiyǒu jiāpǔ ā ！wǒ zěnme bù zhīdào ！

Your family still keeps track of your family tree! How could I not know this?

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家谱里规定的呀，我们宝宝应该是“定”字辈的。

jiāpǔ lǐ guīdìng de ya ，wǒmen bǎobao yīnggāi shì “dìng ”zì bèi de 。

It's a rule in our family tree! Our child should be in the “Ding” generation.

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我们家的情况，你不都知道吗？就是平民百姓。家谱很平常啊，以前很多家庭都有。只不过后来人口流动，大家都不重视了就丢失了。

wǒmen jiā de qíngkuàng ，nǐ bù dōu zhīdào ma ？jiùshì píngmín bǎixìng 。jiāpǔ hěn píngcháng ā ，yǐqián hěn duō jiātíng dōu yǒu 。zhǐ bùguò hòulái rénkǒu liúdòng ，dàjiā dōu bù zhòngshì le jiù diūshī le 。

You don't know about our family situation? We're a common family. Family trees are very common. Before many families kept them. It was only after the population became more mobile that everyone stopped paying attention to it and it disappeared.

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那你们家谱上都写了什么啊？

nà nǐmen jiāpǔ shàng dōu xiě le shénme ā ？

Then what's written in your family tree?

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这是你们家族血脉传承的见证嘛。啊呀，要是我们家也有家谱就好了。

zhè shì nǐmen jiāzú xuèmài chuánchéng de jiànzhèng ma 。āyā ，yàoshì wǒmen jiā yě yǒu jiāpǔ jiùhǎole 。

This is an authentication of your family's heritage. Jeez, if our family still had a family tree that'd be great.

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你去上海图书馆看看。那里有个家谱数据库，保存着很多家谱。说不定有你们家的。

nǐ qù Shànghǎi túshūguǎn kàn kan 。nàlǐ yǒu gè jiāpǔ shùjùkù ，bǎocún zhe hěn duō jiāpǔ 。shuōbudìng yǒu nǐmen jiā de 。

Go to Shanghai Library to take a look. There's a family tree database there, and many family trees are saved there. Maybe yours is there.

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