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Anaming taboo is a culturaltaboo against speaking or writing the given names of exalted persons, notably inChina and within theChinese cultural sphere. It was enforced by several laws throughout Imperial China, but its cultural and possibly religious origins predate theQin dynasty. Not respecting the appropriate naming taboos was considered a sign of lacking education and respect, and brought shame both to the offender and the offended person.

• Thenaming taboo of the state (國諱guóhuì) discouraged the use of the emperor's given name and those of his ancestors. For example, during theQin dynasty,Qin Shi Huang's given name政 Zhèng (<*‍OCB-S: *teŋ-s) was avoided, and the first month of the year, theupright month (正月;Zhèngyuè) had its pronunciation modified toZhēngyuè (OC B-S: *teŋ, like征 "to go on a long journey, to go on a military campaign")^[1] and then further renamed as theproper/upright month (端月;Duānyuè < OC, B-S *tˤor]). The strength of this taboo was reinforced by law; transgressors could expect serious punishment for writing an emperor's name without modifications. In 1777,Wang Xihou, in his dictionary, criticized theKangxi dictionary and wrote theQianlong Emperor's name without leaving out any stroke as required. This disrespect resulted in his and hisfamily's executions and confiscation of their property (though all Wang Xihou's relatives were pardoned and spared execution).^[2] This type of naming taboo is no longer observed in modern China.
• Thenaming taboo of the clan (家諱) discouraged the use of the names of one's own ancestors. Generally, ancestor names going back to seven generations were avoided. In diplomatic documents and letters between clans, each clan's naming taboos were observed.
• Thenaming taboo of the holinesses (聖人諱) discouraged the use of the names of respected people. For example, writing the name ofConfucius was taboo during theJin dynasty.^{[citation needed]}

There were three ways to avoid using a taboo character:

• Changing the character to another, usually asynonym or one which sounded similar to the character being avoided. For example, theBlack Warrior Gate (玄武門; Xuanwu Gate) of theForbidden City was renamed theGate of Divine Might (神武門; Shenwu Gate) in order to avoid using a character from theKangxi Emperor's name, Xuanye (玄燁).
• Leaving the character as a blank.
• Omitting a stroke in the character, usually the final stroke.

Throughout Chinese history, there were emperors whose names contained common characters who would try to alleviate the burden of the populace in practicing name avoidance. For example,Emperor Xuan of Han, whose given name Bingyi (病已) contained two very common characters, changed his name to Xun (詢), a far less common character, with the stated purpose of making it easier for his people to avoid using his name.^[3] Similarly,Emperor Taizong of Tang, whose given name Shimin (世民) also contained two very common characters, ordered that name avoidance only required the avoidance of the charactersShi andMin in direct succession and that it did not require the avoidance of those characters in isolation.

However, Emperor Taizong's sonEmperor Gaozong of Tang effectively made this edict ineffective after his death, by requiring the complete avoidance of the charactersShi andMin, necessitating the chancellorLi Shiji to change his name to Li Ji.^[4] In later dynasties, princes were frequently given names that contained uncommon characters to make it easier for the public to avoid them, should they become emperor later in life.

During the rule of theMing Emperor of Han (Liu Zhuang), whose personal name was Zhuang, most people with surnameZhuang (莊) were ordered to change their names to its synonymYan (嚴).^[5]

The custom of naming taboo had a built-in contradiction: without knowing what the emperors' names were, one could hardly be expected to avoid them, thus somehow the emperors' names had to be informally transmitted to the populace to allow them to take cognizance of and thus avoid using said characters. In one famous incident in 435, during theNorthern Wei dynasty,Goguryeo ambassadors made a formal request that the imperial government issue them a document containing the emperors' names so that they could avoid offending the emperor while submitting their king's petition.Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei agreed and issued them such a document.^[6] However, the mechanism of how the regular populace would be able to learn the emperors' names remained generally unclear throughout Chinese history.

This taboo is important to keep in mind when studying ancient historical texts from the cultural sphere, as historical characters and/or locations may be renamed if they happen to share a name with the emperor in power (or previous emperors of the same dynasty) when the text was written. Thus, the study of naming taboos can also help date an ancient text.

Japan was also influenced by the naming taboo. In modern Japan, it concerns only thesuccessive emperors. For example, whether oral or written, people only refer to the reigning emperor as Tennō Heika (天皇陛下; his Majesty the Emperor) orKinjō Heika (今上陛下; his current Majesty).See alsoposthumous name.
Historically, it was considered very rude among upper class to call someone else's real name, even if it was the lord calling his vassals. Calling someone else's real name was equivalent to picking a fight. Titles or pseudonyms were often used when calling others in place of their real names.

In Vietnam, naming taboos were also observed since the beginning of Vietnamese independence. Characters in texts avoid taboos by omitting strokes (such as in the case withHồ Thị Hoa 胡氏華 where the last stroke of 華 was not written), using variant characters (such as with Lê Lợi 黎利, 利 was written as [⿱⿰巜巜⿰刂禾]), and using similar characters (such as in the case with Tự Đức, the character 辰 thần/thìn was used to write 時 thì; it also has the meaning of "time").^[7] Similar to Southern China, the taboos also applied to pronunciation as well. One such example is the name of rice paper,bánh đa (Northern dialect), originally named bánh tráng, it was renamed due to it being homophonous withTrịnh Tráng 鄭梉. This is also the reason why some chữ Hán have multiple readings due to naming taboos. The character 武 has two readings unlike in Mandarin where it only has one. The character 武 is a surname pronounced asVũ in the north, but is known as Võ in the South due to the naming taboo of Nguyễn Phúc Miên Vũ (阮福綿宇).^[8]

• 
  辰 thần/thìn was used to write 時 thì to avoid the naming taboo of emperorTự Đức.
• 
  Omission of the last stroke of 華 to avoid writingHồ Thị Hoa's name
• 
  A variant character of 利 lợi to avoid writingLê Lợi's name
• 
  Naming taboos shown in the book, Hà Nam trường hương thí văn (河南場鄕試文選), an anthology of essays from the 1894 provincial examination.

• Imperial examination in Chinese mythology, example
• Names of God in Judaism, similar taboo
• Taboo on rulers, similar taboo
• Taboo against naming the dead, similar taboo in many cultures
• Damnatio memoriae, not naming as a mark of disrespect.

• 陳垣 [Chen Yuan],《史諱舉例》 [Examples of Taboos in History] - the pioneering work in the field, written during the early 20th century, numerous editions

• Chinese culture
• Naming
• Taboo
• East Asian traditions

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