摘要

绰号是别于一个人的官方姓名或洗礼姓名的第二个名字。它是人的第二身份证，能表现亲疏关系，并有利于建立良好的社交关系。中西方绰号存在四个方面的差异：1）、中方绰号存在细微的地域差异；2）、中方绰号好同音近音，而西方绰号好玩字母转换游戏；3）、中西方存在相同的绰号但意义差别大；4）西方绰号可作为正式姓名使用。现有的中西方姓名研究，有从修辞角度对歌迷绰号的研究，还有从认知角度对称呼形式的研究，但从跨文化角度对比研究中西方绰号的文献资料却凤毛麟角。
绰号在外贸交易中起着重要作用，若绰号使用不当会直接导致交际失败，从而使中西贸易以失败而告终。因此，从跨文化交际角度对中西方绰号进行对比研究，有助于促进文化交流和沟通，并促进外贸交易。

关键字：绰号；对比研究；跨文化；中西文化

Abstract

Nickname is a name given to a person over and above his/her legal or baptismal name. It has the function of signifying one’s informal identity, showing the degree of intimacy and establishing membership. There are four differences in Chinese and Western nicknames: 1) Chinese nicknames have tiny regional differences; 2) Chinese nicknames are fond of playing pronunciation game, while Westerners like letter swapping in their nicknames; 3) Chinese and English nicknames share the same linguistic form but with different meanings; 4) English nickname has the trend of turning into family name or personal name. There are current researches of Chinese and English names from the perspective of figure of speech or from the perspective of cognition, but studies about nicknames from the perspective of cross-culture both in Chinese and English are seldom.
Therefore, we can see that nickname plays an important role in foreign business trading and it is necessary to do some researches on Chinese and English nicknames to have a better understanding of their cultures and to promote cross-cultural businesses.

Key Words: Chinese and English nicknames; cross-culture; comparison;
Chinese and Western Cultural

1. Introduction
What is the difference between a name and a nickname? A name is an address while a nickname is more than that; it is a birth mark that allows others to recognize who you are and therefore helps remember who you are. In many occasions, a nickname gets itself a public image during face-to-face communications, even in the first meeting. There are many kinds of nicknames, nicknames for persons, places, cities, town lands, streets, storms, typhoon, and transportations.
This paper mainly studies persons’ nicknames. It starts from the discussion of the classification of collected nicknames and then a cultural comparison of nicknames is to be conducted in an effort to explore a proper application of nicknames in real life cross-cultural communication.