Hou Yi means the person who manages the matter of archery.
Yi originally meant to spin and fly upward. But unlike the rotation of the wing, Yi refers to the rotation of the flyer itself, not around the circle. It's like there are bullets that spin at high speed during flight. On the basis of this meaning, the use of the word Yi to refer to the arrow is an extension of the meaning.
According to the Shuowen Jie Zi, Hou Yuan and Si are the same character, consisting of a human character and a spoken character, which means that the person gives an order. Later, it was extended to be a person who manages something. However, when writing concretely, or when the oracle bone inscription or bone inscription is depicted, some people are writing in the right direction, and some people are writing in reverse, and the position of the two words is different.
And these two different ways of writing were later extended into two words, the word written in the front is the back, and the word written in the reverse is the division. Although it has evolved into two words, the meaning is the same, and it is the meaning of the person who manages something. The word Hou Yi means the person who manages the matter of archery. In antiquity there were also wars. Bows and arrows are used in war, arrows are Yi, management is Houyi, and together they are Houyi.
So it's an official name, not a real personal name. But in ancient times, there were many people who called official names directly by human names. For example, the well-known co-worker is actually an official name, but people also call the person who is the official a co-worker. Just like today's people are called Director Zhang and Director Wang. In the historical record, it was also called co-worker, so it led to multiple co-workers in ancient history, with the same title, but the specific people in different eras were different.
Of course, sometimes the latter word is omitted and directly called Yi. Just like Houji is sometimes called Ji. In fact, millet is one of the five grains, not the name of the person. So Yi and Hou Yi also represent the same person. At least in the same era. And because there are two different names in ancient books, Yi and Houyi, some people think that these are two people, and a big Yi is derived out of thin air. This is wrong, at least in terms of the origin of the name.
There is another character in ancient Chinese characters that expresses the order after writing. After the liberation, the Chinese characters were simplified, and the two characters were merged into one character, that is, the latter character.
Enjoy the New Year