In ancient times, when a girl was in her thirties, she had to comb two "steamed buns" on her head, standing apart from each other symmetrically, like a "ya", so she was called a "girl". Liu Yuxi's poem "Send a Gift to Fan Xiao" in the Tang Dynasty said: "The girl with a painted face is thirteen or fourteen years old. When spring comes, she is graceful to people."

In addition, ancient handmaids often combed buns, so "girl" became the name of handmaids. In the Song Dynasty, Wang Yang wrote in the poem "Shantou Rock Title in the Middle Section of Dayang Road": "It's not that this state is not beautiful, but the name is too rough." He said to himself, "Wu Chu people call their handmaids maids maids." Perhaps because "girl" is popular in Wu, northerners don't understand it, so Wang Yang wrote a poem as an annotation. Since then, the word "girl" has been widely popular and is still used in some areas.