stylistic:style_transfer, linguistic:voice_change, linguistic:translation, linguistic:paraphrasing
Name

The city's present name, Shijiazhuang (Chinese: 石家庄), first appeared during the Ming dynasty. Its literal meaning is " Shi family's village". The word Shijiazhuang was generally used after construction of the Shijiazhuang station of the Zhengtai Railway in 1907.

The origin of the name is heavily disputed. One story claimed that the Wanli Emperor sent 24 officers and their families to the area, after which the group splits into two settlements consisting of 10 and 14 families. The imperial court then named the settlements "village of 10 families" (十家庄) and "village of 14 families" (十四家庄), respectively. Since the Chinese characters for ten (十; shí) and stone (石; shí) are homophones, it is speculated that the city name gradually evolved into its current spelling. Another explanation is that the settlement was named after the highest-ranking official amongst the groups, who was surnamed Shi. However, a county named Shiyi (Chinese: 石邑; lit. ' stone city '), in present-day Luquan District, was already present during the Warring States period, suggesting that the name, or its elements, have even older origins.

At first, the settlement was officially known only as "Shijia", as the "zhuang" was solely used to denote the nature of the settlement being a village, instead of being part of its name. This was further evidenced on June 24, 1925, when the Republican government ordered the village to be established as an autonomous city under the name Shijia. The city ended up being renamed as Shimen (石门) when it was officially incorporated on August 29, 1925, after the merger with another village, Xiumen (Chinese: 休门; lit. ' auspicious gate '). Despite being renamed, however, many documents and war plans from the Second Sino-Japanese War and the Chinese Civil War still referred to the city as "Shijiazhuang" or "Shizhuang". To avoid confusion and association with the Japanese Army, the Chinese Communist Party ultimately reverted the city's name back to Shijiazhuang on December 26, 1947. Since then, many terms regarding the city have been stemmed from the "zhuang" suffix, including its nickname "international village" (国际庄), and the colloquial demonym, "villagers" (庄里人). Jokingly, people also call it "Sky Home Town" or "Rocksville" from its Chinese translating into English.