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Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC 
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC 
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC 
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC 
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC 
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD 
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC 
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD 
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD 
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD 
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD Regular Modern
Changed to iconic components
Changed fields: hint, components
Depicts identifying oneself at night (夕) by saying (口) their name because is too dark for others to see them.
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | mjieng | C.meŋ | name |
說文解字
《說文》：“名，自命也。从口，从夕。夕者，冥也。冥不相見，故以口自名。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)