Milestones in order. This is history, not a weekly activity grid.
- Theophoric and virtue names
- Generation poems
- Lineage lists
- Meiji surnames + registers
- Korean hangul-only options
- Japanese tōyō/jōyō reforms
- Jinmeiyō kanji list
- Luck-app market
Darker cells mean a higher score for this topic on that metric.
LessMore
Last reviewed Sources & creditsMedia creditsMethodology
Quick answers
What is a generation name?
In many Chinese lineages a poem or list assigns one character of the given name by generation, so cousins share a written coordinate.
What is 돌림자?
A Korean practice of sharing a hanja/syllable across siblings or a generation. It marks a set. It does not forecast fortunes in this atlas.
Why does Japan have a kanji list for names?
The koseki (family register) and ministry lists (jōyō and jinmeiyō) limit which characters can be filed for a given name.
Do Statistics Korea tables use hanja?
KOSTAT publishes given-name frequencies; families may still think in hanja even when the file is hangul. Read releases as counts, not as luck.
Is a “good” character one with lucky strokes?
Not here. A good character is one the family intends, the registrar accepts, and the bearer can live with — no stroke-count science.
Can I mix a Chinese generation character with an English name?
People do, as stacked identities. Keep the kin logic and the English fashion logic in separate columns.
Literary Chinese supplied a shared character inventory across East Asia. Local readings and laws then diverged.
Modern states added registers and allowed-character lists, which turned calligraphy into compliance.
Timeline
- Theophoric and virtue names
Early Chinese given names already used characters as compositional hopes.
- Generation poems
Elite lineages systematised shared generation characters.
- Lineage lists
Families maintained written generation orders — kin bureaucracy before the modern state.
- Meiji surnames + registers
Japan required family names and tightened the official written person.
- Korean hangul-only options
Hanja given names remained common even as hangul literacy and later KOSTAT counts rose.
- Japanese tōyō/jōyō reforms
Character lists for education spilled into name practice.
- Jinmeiyō kanji list
Japan explicitly listed extra characters allowed in given names.
- Luck-app market
Stroke-count products scaled; this atlas refuses them as science.
Eras
- Literary — Shared character world — A literate elite could read names across polities.
- Lineage — Poem as algorithm — The generation character was scheduled.
- Register — Koseki and family files — The state became the font authority.
- App — Luck overlay — A commercial layer this page will not use.
Shifts
- From hanja-default to hangul-optional Korea, late 20th c. — Visible in KOSTAT mixes by year — historical description.
- From open brush to closed list Japan, 20th c. — Jinmeiyō as legal friction.
- From kin-only to diaspora romanisation Global — The character and the Latin string both have to work.
The deep culture is real. The lucky-stroke industry is a parasite on that culture.