Ogihara Yuji
Faculty of Science Division II, Tokyo University of Science, Tokyo, Japan.
Front Psychol. 2020 Sep 29;11:2136. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02136. eCollection 2020.
By comparing naming practices between China and Japan, I propose three suggestions on Cai et al.'s (2018) Study 2, which examined historical changes in baby names in China. Their study found that the average daily frequencies of Chinese characters used in baby names decreased between 1950 and 2009. The authors concluded that unique names increased for this period and suggested a rise in the need for uniqueness and individualism in China. However, there are three questions that have remained unanswered. First, did the Chinese characters that were used in names indeed become more unique over time? Second, did the number of Chinese characters in names increase over time? Third, did the reading (pronunciation) of names become more unique over time? Answering these three questions would further increase the validity and impacts of the article and contribute to a better understanding of cultural changes in China.
通过比较中国和日本的命名习惯，我对蔡等人（2018年）关于中国婴儿名字历史变迁的研究2提出三点建议。他们的研究发现，1950年至2009年间，中国婴儿名字中使用的汉字平均每日出现频率下降。作者得出结论，这一时期独特名字增多，并暗示中国对独特性和个人主义的需求上升。然而，有三个问题仍未得到解答。第一，名字中使用的汉字是否真的随着时间推移变得更加独特？第二，名字中的汉字数量是否随着时间增加？第三，名字的读音是否随着时间变得更加独特？回答这三个问题将进一步提高文章的效度和影响力，并有助于更好地理解中国的文化变迁。
