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.
Sinologists, Korean onomasticians and Japanese legal bureaucrats are the faculty.
A paid stroke consultant is not visiting faculty.
People
- Chinese lineage historians various · China — Generation poems
Documented the kin-coordinate system.
- Korean onomastics researchers 20th–21st c. · Korea — Hanja and 돌림자
Describe sibling-set design and KOSTAT fashion separately.
- Japanese Ministry of Justice list-makers 1981– · Japan — Jinmeiyō
The legal inventory of name characters.
- Statistics Korea ongoing · Korea — Frequencies
The non-mystical popularity layer.
- Patrick Hanks (contrast) 1940–2024 · United Kingdom — Alphabet-name etymology
A reminder that English names have histories too — different technology.
- Stanley Lieberson (contrast) 1933–2018 · United States — Fashion still applies
Character systems do not abolish taste cycles in readings and hangul.
Quote a list, a poem or a statistical office. Leave the five elements at the door.