来发

[Altair]

I am currently reading a short story about a retarded person called 我没有自己的名字. In it, the words 来发 appear in a passage where I am not sure if this is meant to be a name or just some sort of expression said to fill out a sentence. Can someone help?

One passage, said by the person's father, goes “来发、把茶壶给我端过来……来发、你今年五岁啦……来发、这是我给你买的书包……来发…。 What is going on here?

[shibo77]

I think it is a proper name, but I'm not sure.

-Shìbó

[Altair]

Thanks for your help. I read more of the story, and it does appear to be the person's name. I really need to get more familiar with Chinese names to make my reading more fluent. I was half expecting a given name to have some heroic or noble meaning and 来发 did not seem to fit the bill. Maybe it is from some poem.

[eastt]

Thanks for your help. I read more of the story, and it does appear to be the person's name. I really need to get more familiar with Chinese names to make my reading more fluent. I was half expecting a given name to have some heroic or noble meaning and 来发 did not seem to fit the bill. Maybe it is from some poem.

Ha, you are right 来发 doesn't have any noble meaning, in fact, it is a popular nickname in east part of China, e.g. Zhejiang province. You could find this name in many lower class comedies based on Wu dialect. It means "(you) come 来, enrich me 发".

[RobinChase]

just a name like 来宝，来喜

but 来发 is less common I never heard.

Chinese folks use these names expressing good wishs

[shibo77]

I have never heard of the book until your post, so I don't know. 来发 is a strange name...

-Shìbó

[zhwj]

来发 is not really that unusual - it's a nice positive sounding name. Out of context it might seem confusing, but right before the section you quoted, 陈先生 mentions that 来发 is the narrator's name.

In this story it's probably meant to contrast ironically with the character's situation - his parents name him 来发 to "bring good fortune" into his life, but the one point the other characters call him by his name, it brings only tragedy.

[gato]

In this story it's probably meant to contrast ironically with the character's situation - his parents name him 来发 to "bring good fortune" into his life,

Do people use "发" to mean fortune/luck, or do they usually mean more specifically money, i.e. "发财"？

[skylee]

If it is in a name, then usually it means prosperity/progress. Consider actor Chow Yun-fat's name 周潤發 ...

I know people with names like 啟發, 宏發, etc, so 來發 is not really that strange ...

[Altair]

Thanks everyone for the comments. They have definitely been helpful.

In this story it's probably meant to contrast ironically with the character's situation - his parents name him 来发 to "bring good fortune" into his life, but the one point the other characters call him by his name, it brings only tragedy.

This is an excellent point that, of course, originally went right over my head. I actually briefly considered that 发 meant 发财, but stupidly dismissed it, especially because I missed the combination meaning with 来. This is what I mean about giving some thought to how Chinese names are generally expected to "work" and not simply dismissing them as strings of random characters.

I think I would like to pursue this name issue a little further. To obey Roddy's frequent pleas to keep things nice and tidy, I will look for a subtle thread on Chinese names or start a new thread.

[gato]

Altair, try this thread: http://www.chinese-forums.com/showpost.php?p=37182&postcount=14

Are you named for Altair, the old PC, by the way?

[Altair]

Wow, great links. I will definitely explore them. Thanks. Somehow I had missed this post.

"Altair" is from one of the stars in the constellation Aquila the eagle. It means the "flying bird" in contrast to the star Vega in the same constellation, which means the "falling bird." How's that for obscure trivia? I was thinking about Chinese folk tales relating to this constellationg, concerning the Weaver Girl (织女?) and the Herdsman.