生, originally growing seedling or sprout, serves as a phonetic component to form characters.
In modern Chinese, 生 means:
1.to give birth to
2.to produce
3.to grow
4.to live
5.life
6.living
7.uncooked
8.not ripe
9.unfamiliar
10.unprocessed; unrefined
11.a student; a pupil
Characters formed by the phonetic component 生
牲 甥 笙 苼 泩 珄 殅 狌 鼪 the same pronunciation shēng
性 姓 the same pronunciation xìng
胜 shèng
旌 jīng