Chinese given names with 3 or more characters?
Traditionally, naming is mostly based on family tree. But in recent years, we are given more freedom to name our children. From people I know with 3+ given names, I understand that there are several considerations from their parents.


  1) Literal translation from original names in their ethnic groups other than
  ethnic Han.


I've seen people with 4 or even 6 characters in their given name.


  2) Add mother's surname in it.


I have some friends whose name structure look like father's surname + mother's surname + 2 characters. This is not the traditional way like adding husband's name before wife's whole name, it's more based on some casual reasons like "It means I'm the love of my dad and mom", or "It sounds good".


  3) Surname happens to be the initial character of a 4-character
  phrase/idiom.


One of my friend told me her grandpa loves an idiom so much and the initial character happens to be her surname, so she got her name as it is right now.