The word "名字" is formed by combining two distinct but related characters: "名" (míng), which originally referred to the personal name given at birth or one's reputation, and "字" (zì), which historically meant the courtesy name taken upon adulthood in classical Chinese tradition. Together, they merge into a single concept, where "名" provides the core idea of "name" and "字" expands and solidifies it, resulting in a compound that comprehensively means "name" in the modern sense, encompassing the full identifier of a person or thing.