Personal name

It is nearly universal for a person to have a name; the rare exceptions occur in the cases of mentally disturbed parents, or wild children growing up in isolation. A personal name is usually given at birth or at a young age, and is usually kept throughout life; there might be additional names indicating family relationships, area of residence, and so on. The details of naming are strongly governed by culture; some are more flexible about naming than others, but for all cultures where historical records are available, the rules are known to change over time.

Nonhuman personal names

Apart from the Linnaean taxonomy, some individual nonhuman animals and plants are given names, usually of endearment.

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In some cultures, pets or sporting animals are sometimes given names similar to human names. Other cultures, such as the Chinese, give the animals nonhuman names, because it would be offensive and disrespectful to the person of the same name; even cultures that give human names to animals sometimes do so to an ugly animal to insult the bearer of the name. For examples of nonhuman names,

Related Topics:
Pet - Animal - Chinese

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• An emperor during the Three Kingdoms period, Liu Bei's horse was called "Dilu" (的盧), meaning "Truly Dark," which might be metaphorically named for the ill fate it supposedly brought its previous owners.
• Liu Bei's general, Guan Yu's horse was "Chi Tu" (赤兔), meaning "Red Hare," reflecting on the amazing speed of the horse.

In bonsai, some plants are given adjectival names, such as "The Cloud of Joyful Memories."

Related Topics:
Bonsai - Adjectival

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