Although Chinese people have a saying that one should remain true to one's name, historically Chinese have had many names. They have had given names, surnames, literary names (zi), characteristic names (hao), and even nicknames.
雖然中國人有「行不更名、坐不改姓」一說，但歷來國人就有好幾個名字；有名、有姓、有「字」、有「號」，還有小名。