Chinese Dynasty Name Generator

Most took the name of the founder's earlier fief or title: Liu Bang was King of Han, Li Yuan was Duke of Tang, Zhao Kuangyin governed Songzhou. From the Yuan onward founders chose meaningful words instead: Yuan means origin, Ming means bright, Qing means pure. The official form added Da, 'Great', as in Da Ming.

Because the same state names were reused again and again, historians distinguish them by the capital's location or their order in time. Western and Eastern Han were one line with different capitals, Northern and Southern Song the same, while Former Yan, Later Yan, Northern Yan, Southern Yan and Western Yan were separate Sixteen Kingdoms states that all claimed the old name Yan.

Keep it to one auspicious or geographic character (Yong, Sheng, Xuan, Jing, Heng) and write it as Great X in formal use, optionally with a directional or Former/Later prefix. Names such as Great Liang, Great Zhou and Northern Yan are used by popular dramas and novels precisely because they follow the historical pattern.

A dynasty is a ruling house that claimed the imperial title over all China, such as Tang or Ming. A kingdom or state (guo) was a regional power whose ruler used the title king, as with Wuyue and Min in the Ten Kingdoms or the Warring States before unification. The same name, Chu for instance, can be a Zhou-era state, a Ten Kingdoms kingdom and a rebel dynasty at different times.