Why are most of the figures in the Three Kingdoms period "single names"?

Speaking of the Three Kingdoms, almost everyone knows that everyone can tell several stories. If we look closely, we will find an interesting feature. Most of the characters in the Three Kingdoms are single names, such as Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, Zhao Yun, Cao Cao, Sun Quan and Zhou Yu. Some people will say that Zhuge Liang, Sima Yi and others are three words. In fact, these are compound surnames, first names or words.

According to the tradition of surname culture in China, there are few single names. When naming a family, the word "generational" is often added, which was set by ancestors and cannot be changed. The whole name should be composed of "surname+generation+first name". In ancient times, people paid attention to their origins. Whether a person is a noble family or not, you can tell which faction you belong to and which generation you belong to by signing up.

Then, why were there so many single names in the Three Kingdoms period? Such an abnormal thing was actually done by an emperor, who was Wang Mang of the new dynasty.

Wang Mang was a controversial figure in the Han Dynasty, because he carried out many reforms that were not in line with the actual situation and made many jokes. For example, Wang Mang once promulgated a law that "going to the second place", that is, two-word names are not allowed, and added that once a person commits a crime, the name of one word has to be changed back to two words. According to the book of the former Han Dynasty, when he was a clown, China was not allowed to have two. Because he let the messenger ride the wind alone, he should write a book to admire him. As one, Han will increase his reward. Khan is obedient to it.

It can be understood that those who have not made mistakes are all single names, and those who have made mistakes are all two-character names. For example, Wang Zong, the eldest grandson of Wang Mang, committed suicide in violation of the law, but Wang Mang still did not let go and changed his name back to "Wang". In this way, this provision of follwed influenced an era. Although the new dynasty was overthrown, this trend continued until the Three Kingdoms period.

Of course, not all the characters in the Three Kingdoms have a single name, except for two kinds of people. One is women, such as Zhuge Liang's wife Huang Yueying and Sun Quan's sister Sun Shangxiang; Second, men with low social status. It can be said that during the Three Kingdoms period, almost all men with some status were single names.

References: The Book of the Later Han Dynasty and Hundred Family Names.