CHINESE NAMES

A complete Chinese name can consist of two or three characters. The first character is the family or clan name known as the surname name in English while the personal name may contain a middle and last character. Notice that the surname location is the reverse order to English practice, e.g. Mao Zedong (毛澤東), whereMao (毛) was his surname and Zedong (澤東) was his given name.  Sometimes, a complete name can consist of only two characters, e.g. Chen Yu (陳豫) where the surname is Chen (陳) and the given name is Yu (豫). Even a double or compound surname can have one single given name, e.g. Sima Qian (司馬遷) where Sima (司馬) is a double surname and Qian (遷) the given name.

Surnames

According to Dr. K. C. Wu (“The Chinese Heritage" ) from the past the Chinese have always venerated their ancestors, and they believed that the well being of the ancestors and the descendants were directly linked to each other. Their interest was also mutually inseparable, and it gradually became the foundation for the creation of the family system. This phenomenon led to the early appearance of family names in China because they were needed to separate and distinguish people from one another in accordance with their parentage. Without surnames it would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for men to trace back their lineal descent. The Chinese have used surnames even before recorded history. In Chinese, the Western term surname also means a family name or a clan name.

Ancient China was a matriarchal society (muxizhidu [母系制度] ormuxishehui [母系社會]) as evidenced by the early family names (commonly referred to as surnames in Western term) that invariably contain the root or radical for "woman" (女) which is depicted on the left hand side of a complex surname character or embedded elsewhere within it, e.g. E (娥), E (婀), Gui (媯), Ji (姬),Jiang (姜), Lao (嫪), Lou (婁), Si (姒), Shi (始), Wei (委), Wei (威),Yan (偃), Yao (姚), Ying (嬴), Yun (妘). Such family names are therefore limited in number today. A family name is called Xing(姓) and notice this word in essence means "born of woman" as it contains a combination of both the "woman" (nu) (女) and "born" (sheng) (生) characters. The Xing (姓) was inherited by the children (sons and daughters) came onlyfrom the mother's surname and was thus designated as a family name. There are also other ancient family names which do not contain the "woman" (nu) (女) radical like Cao (曹), Dong (董), Feng (風), Gui (歸), Ji (吉), Jian(芊), Kui/Wei (隗), Man (曼), Mi (羋), Qi (祁), Qi (漆), Ren (任), Zhi(子).

However, in ancient times a clan name, called Shi (氏) was originally only applied to aristocrats (guizu [貴族 ]). These clan names do not contain the "woman" (女) radical within the complex character structure and was given by decree to an aristocrat upon enfeoffment on the basis of his fief. Hence, an aristocrat may possess a clan name, Shi (氏) as well as a family name, Xing (姓).Shi (氏) clan names now predominate over Xing (姓) family names.

Eventually China slowly morphed into a patriarchal society (zongfazhidu [宗法制度] or fuxishehui [父系社會]). Xing (姓) and Shi(氏) became synonymous terms to mean both a family and/or clan name.

Over time Shi (氏) later became a unique term which is only applicable for women in a special connotation as by Chinese custom women retain their own surnames even after marriage. This is often seen in family and clan genealogy records as well as inscriptions on tombstones. Unfortunately, this term has often been misinterpreted to mean Mrs or Ms in English which is incorrect.The only English equivalent explanation can be found in the French word "nee" which means "surname at birth". The first surname shown under Column 1 is 配黃氏 and this means "Married to (配)Huang (黃) nee (氏) ". This Western practice is commonly found in published obituaries for women.

Of course, Shi (氏) is also commonly used to depict a surname, eg. in a banquet invitation or displayed banner given by a family, say by the Yang Family which is shown as Yang Shi (楊氏) which looks and sounds more elegant than Yang Xing (楊姓) plus it was not one of the original Xing (姓) but rather a Shi (氏).

When expressed in its combination form as Xingshi (姓氏) it encompasses all family names and clan names of old and in today's parlance would mean surnames in the Western sense.

Surnames can contain a single character or two or more characters. Single character surnames are the most common, like Kong (孔),Yang (楊), Zhou (周), et al. There are also a small number of two character surnames, like Ouyang (區楊), Sima (司馬), Situ (司徒), etc. Some ethnic minorities have three character surnames but these are very small in number.

Clan names, Shi (氏), were derived in several ways. For example:

1. Countrynames__like Qin (秦), Song (宋), Zheng (鄭), Wu (吳), Zhao (趙), Cao (曹), Zhou (周). These are all the names of past feudal states (countries).
2. Fiefdoms__ an emperor bestows a fief upon a minister whose later descendants retained the fief name, like Su (蘇), Peng(彭), Xiao (蕭), Chen (陳).
3. Ancestor’s name__like Hu (胡) from ancestor Hu Gongman (胡公滿).
4. Titles and official positions__like the compound surname Sima(司馬) which was the title for the Minister of War, or Situ (司 徒) the title for the Minister of Education.

According to the Chinese Public Security Bureau, as of April 24, 2007 the most populous surname in China is now Wang (王) with a population of 92,881,000 or 7.25% of the total population. This displaced the previous leading Li (李) surname to second place.