Chinese Surnames

Strange Chinese Surnames

When Chinese people greet each other for the first time, they will ask, “May I please know your family name?” The Chinese also have a saying, “Whether I’m away or at home, my name stays the same.” Indeed, surnames are very important to the Chinese people.

Chinese surnames include all sorts of strange ones. There are many surnames that even many Chinese people can’t understand. Some of the most common strange surnames include, “zi (子 sons),” “chou (丑 ugly),” “shen (申 Shen),” “jin (金 gold),” “chai (柴 firewood),” and “mi (米 rice).” There are also some unusual, strange surnames, such as “si (死 death),” “nan (难 difficulty),” “du (毒poison).”

Many people do not believe that people still have strange surnames such as “毒.” However, they do but are in extreme scarcity.

The origin of the surname “poison” dates back to the early Tang Dynasty when everybody was pitted against each other. When Emperor Xuanzong was still in his minority, his Prime Minister, called Dou Huaizheng, rebelled. After he was defeated, he committed suicide by jumping into a river. After his death, the Emperor would not forgive him and bestowed on him the surname “Poison.” The event is recorded in the New and Old Books of Tang.

The surname “毒” is rarely seen today. According to public statistics, there are only nine people whose surname are Du (Poison) amongst the 23 million Taiwanese people. And there are only three people on the mainland. So, of course, this surname most definitely exists.

The surname “Nan (Difficult)” is also rare. It existed during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period and was, in fact, the name of a chieftain of an ethnic minority. He was called Nan Lou. He also used a Chinese surname. Because it was uncommon for people in ethnic minorities to have surnames and the first character of their chieftain’s name was Nan, so the rest of the clan took “Nan” as their surname. During an archeological dig, people found an epitaph which contained the surname, Nan. The name was Nan Yuanqing. People may wonder whether this name still exists today. In fact, it does. More than 300 people use this surname on the mainland, and most of them live in Linquan, Anhui Province.

It doesn’t matter if one is named du (毒Poison) or si (死 Death), because he or she would simply change it. Nobody wants to have a strange surname, especially one whose meaning is rather negative. Sometimes the surname itself is a punishment.

In our daily life, we occasionally hear some interesting surnames, some of them are very long. It is reported that the longest surname has seventeen words. It’s called, “Lunalouyugumuzheshuduotumuku’a’debu’a’xi” (鲁纳娄于古母遮熟多吐母苦啊德补啊喜). This kind of name usually belongs to the multiple character names in an ethnic minority. These names all have a special meaning.

According to the rules it follows, it is most likely a Yi surname. It contains the character for “mother,” and the character for “ancient.” It seems to either be double-syllabled or triple-syllabled. It might be part of the full name of a father and son. So the names of a father and son are linked together. The surname comes from Qiaojia County, Yunnan Province. They have another surname, An, the second character of the Chinese word for Peace. They use this surname in their dealings with the Han people. The kind of long name was very popular originally.

In fact, there are not many people whose surnames are as long as this one. But its creation is because of familial links. In the future, it’s possible that the surnames of ethnic minorities will become even longer. This phenomenon is not unusual, as it is primarily related to the polysyllabic nature of their languages. Up to now, this surname has been verified as having the most number of characters. The one character surname that contains the most strokes in one character is probably Cuan (爨), a variety of the word “Cook”. The word is not simplified. If you wanted to write it, it would take some memorizing, because it has 30 strokes.

In the course of our lives, we may get the pronunciation of somebody else’s name wrong from time to time. With the surname Wu (吴), one might mistake it for the character referring to martial arts as their pronunciations are very similar. It’s the same with the surname Wen (文 Culture). They’ve both been passed down through many generations. With the passage of time, a king’s posthumous appellation can become the surname of the people formerly under the rule.

The Origin of Chinese Surnames

The origin of Chinese surnames is interesting. When talking about the origin of Chinese surnames, we can put Chinese surnames on a tree. The root of the tree has a name—Fu Xi, a God in China. It is the ancestor of the Chinese nation. His surname is the wind, so the wind is the first surname in China. Fuxi and Nvwa are before the times of the Yan and Huang Emperors, Chinese people’s cultural ancestors. If one looks beneath the ground, he will find that people have no written records about these roots, which means that people are not clear about the conditions of that time.

The main trunk above the ground is where people start to know more about history. There are the Huang Emperor, the Yan Emperor, and Chi You. Every leaf of the tree represents one surname. The higher up the tree you go, the closer you come to the modern era, the newer the surnames are.

Usually, in Chinese people combine the characters xing and shi to mean “surname.” Actually, from a historical perspective, there is a difference between these two characters. There was “姓xing” first and “氏shi” came later. There are many surnames that originated from a matrilineal society. Those Chinese surnames which have an nv (female) radical are usually from the time of these matrilineal societies. The advent of “氏shi” reflects the beginning of patrilineal societies. The “氏shi” points to the clans of patrilineal societies. In such societies, if a man has status and a certain amount of power, he may be granted a fief.

By the time of the start of the Western Zhou Dynasty, China had become a patriarchal society, one with a settled clan structure and settled names. It was a rigorous patriarchal system, and people of the same surname could not marry each other. “氏” implies matrilineal blood lineage. If a prince was granted a fief, it could be the size of Henan province, or half of it, like the region of Shangqiu. If he had children, the outstanding ones were to be granted a fief, too, only a region-level one. If the prince had grandsons, they would be granted county-level fief. But the fief granting could only continue to the fifth generation according to the patriarchal system. It is like China’s “Wufu” system. When fief reached the village-level, no other fief would be granted.

From the Spring and Autumn period in Chinese history to the end of the Warring States period, the two characters of the Chinese word for the surname, “xing” and “shi,” gradually fused into one. When Qin united China, the Emperor decided that he did not want to allocate fiefs to others. At this time the meaning implied by these names was different. The total number of “xing” was probably no more than several dozens, while there was more than a thousand “shi.” Xing served mostly as a symbol. It was mainly used to tell about your ancestors, your blood lineage. For instance, the surname of the Huang Emperor was Ji. And Emperor Yao had the surname Qi. After Yao, there was Liu. The Lius would say Qi if they were asked about their surname. Then Liu was their “shi.” So xing and shi were separated since Emperor Yao. The surname of his ancestors should be Qi.

The surnames we use at present originated from the names of clans under the surname system used after Western Zhou. But ordinary people did not have these kinds of names; they were not granted fiefs. If that country was eliminated, conquered by neighboring states, then when these ordinary people went elsewhere they might say that they are Song people which would then become their name. If a member of the nobility took his clan with him, then the clan name would become their surname, and it would pass down in this way. For example, people might think that the surname Ma (马 Horse) has some relation to actual horses, but that’s not the case. The Ma surname has a long history and derives from a place name. The place, called Mafudi, is not too far from modern Handan.

In the final part of the Warring States period, Handan was the capital of Zhao. Zhao had a general called Zhao Wu. One of his descendants was called Zhao She, a very capable man. Zhao She was given the fief of Mafu and was called the Lord of Mafu. His descendants took Ma as their surname. Therefore, Ma (马) is a classic Chinese surname, it doesn’t derive from the animal itself, but from the place name. There are also surnames that are derived from posts of office. Such as Sima (司马).

Some surnames derive from people’s jobs, such as surname Zhang (张). The surname Zhang (张) derives from the word “archer” and is related to archery. Zhang (张) is the third major surname in China. Ancient Chinese people think it necessary to have a courtesy name along with their everyday name. People with a high status get a posthumous appellation after their death. For example, when King Zhuang (庄) of Chu was alive, he was not called King Zhuang of Chu. He was only called this after he was dead. So Zhuang is his posthumous appellation. Therefore, the surname Zhuang (庄) comes from King Zhuang of Chu. Surnames derived from the posthumous appellation of kings are fairly common.

People can create their surnames. At the moment most people have one child. The news once reported a story. In Suzhou, Jiangsu province, a young couple with the surname Jiang (蒋) had a baby boy. But the boy’s paternal grandmother had the surname Shen (沈), his maternal grandfather the surname Bian (卞), and maternal grandmother the surname Zhu (朱). They all wanted the boy to use their surname. So they linked them all together. Now, of course, the paternal grandfather was opposed to this, he said that the boy was the grandson of the Jiang family.

The young couple were very clever, and they didn’t want to offend anybody, so they decided to change the surname so that maybe everybody could be happy. They came up with the perfect solution. Their baby was so small, like a dot, which made them think of the character for the dot in Chinese, “dian” (点). The Chinese character has four dots below its main part, which could represent the four surnames. The top section of the character can mean “constitute,” which explains the dots below. So the surnames of all the concerned parties were all incorporated in. When they asked everybody if this method was OK, they never imagined how happy it would make them all. So the character Dot, “dian” became the child’s surname, which the child has now been using for nearly twenty years.

Change Surnames

People have the freedom to choose their names. Throughout Chinese history, every dynasty has placed restrictions on different things. However, there have never been any restrictions on name selection. But if you have already registered the name, after reaching maturity, you are by law only allowed to change your name once; and there must be a valid reason behind the name change. So if you do not have a valid reason, you cannot change your name. This is because upon becoming an adult, there need to be continuity in a person’s activities and records, which can be difficult if you change your name.

Simplification of the Surnames

After China started using simplified characters, there were some problems with the simplification. The surname Xiao (萧), as in the Han Dynasty Prime Minister, Xiao He (萧何), has the grass radical in its traditional form. Now they generally use the simplified Xiao, with the character Xiao (小small) at the top and Yue (月moon) at the bottom. The traditional character form of Xiao was the first major surname. In its simplified form which is mainly comprised of a small moon, it is a surname that almost nobody over the course of history has had. There were only a select people who had it. In the 3rd census, the traditional form is only used by around 100,100 people or less. The registrar can’t ask the person concerned whether the surname should be grass radical or small moon form. Owing to this issue, some people, who had the new simplified form of this character, changed it back to the complicated grass radical form. Chinese surnames change fairly easily, but it has to follow the regulations.

Naming a Child

Chinese people are very erudite, and after a child is born, they make great efforts to find a good name. In the course of history, there have been some very famous people who have great names, including famous scholars like Li Bai (李白), Li Qingzhao (李清照). The characters of Wuxia fiction also have great names, such as Linghu Chong (令狐冲) or Zhang Wuji (张无忌). A good name is necessary because a person must keep his name for his whole life. Since so many good names are used by many people, many people share the same given name. Therefore, they can only be distinguished by their surnames. For instance, Li Qingzhao (李清照), Wang Qingzhao (王清照) and Zhang Qingzhao (张清照). So name selection is a big task for anybody.

There are three key factors in choosing a name. The first one is the age that you live in. For example, people born in 1949 might be called Jiefang (liberation), Jianguo (the founding of a country). Now, given names have diversified, there is everything now. When choosing a name, it’s important to think about the effect on the child. If he has a good name, with characters that are easy to recognize, people probably won’t give him a nickname. If it’s easy to say and has a pleasing sound, then teachers would like it. Teachers usually like enthusiastic children most. So, it’s possible that a name can give children more possibilities in life. So it’s necessary to think it over before naming a child.

A popular way to name a child in Taiwan and Hong Kong is to give a child an English name, such as Mary Zhang and David Liu. Yu Guangzhong, the famous Taiwan poet (余光中), once said, “how can you write a poem of “Pusaman” (菩萨蛮), the name of a kind of Chinese poem, if your girlfriend is called Mary?” With such a sentence he expressed his concerns about the current child-naming trend.

The “Book of the Family Names”

The “Book of Family Names” is a famous book in China. Its first line “Zhao (赵), Qian (钱), Sun (孙), Li (李), Zhou (周), Wu (吴), Zheng (郑), Wang (王)” is very catchy and many Chinese people have memorized it since childhood. The “Book of Family Names” was written in the early Northern Song Dynasty. It came from Qiantang, a region in the Kingdom of Wuyue and Hangzhou Bay of today. In that region, the “Book of Family Names” was used as a book of enlightenment, along with “Three Character Classic” and “Thousand Character Classic.” The three books of the classic were then passed around in the regions of Zhejiang and Jiangsu for children’s enlightenment. The words in them are easy to pronounce, catchy and easy to remember.

As Zhao was then the surname of the emperors of the Song Dynasty, the first surname in the book had to be Zhao. The second is Qian because the book was from Qiantang and the surname of their king was Qian. The third is Sun, the surname of the queen of the state. The fourth is Li. Southern Tang, one of the ten kingdoms, is also known as Li Tang. After the Tang Dynasty declined, its last successive reign was Southern Tang. And the king’s surname was Li. So we can see the four surnames are not only major surnames but influential ones at that time. And the family names recorded in the “Book of the Family Names” have been chanted by everyone for over a thousand years. The four surnames took the first place in the book not because they had most members but because of some historical reasons.

History of Chinese Surnames

The written records of Chinese surnames could be traced back to the Warring States period. In this period, there was a book called “Shiben,” with one character Shi, meaning the world, and the other character Ben, meaning book. With a history of 2300 years, it is the earliest book that recorded Chinese surnames. Chinese surnames themselves, however, can be traced back to another one thousand years earlier. Such a long history means the research of Chinese surnames has great scientific value. The Western European surnames had a history of only one thousand years. Among them, British surnames are the earliest to be seen in history. In 1875, a British scientist, Darwin discovered the problem of cousin marriages among the British, through the names registered in churches when people are married. He found the diseases often occurred in families with cousin marriages. So that was an example of surnames helping solve a scientific problem.

Chinese Surnames Today

For 5000 years China had been an agricultural society. But now we are becoming an industrial society, and it would certainly have a great impact on traditional cultures. And maybe no one would write their family trees in 200 years. Then the Chinese would forget their roots just like the Americans in the last century. While the roots of 5000-year China are always there, part of the Chinese civilization might be lost in a few generations of people who don’t keep it well by cultivating surname culture and family culture.

It is said that people with the same surname came from the same family five hundred years ago. This saying is a kind of recognition of traditional cultural concepts. It means people of the same surname have the same ancestor. 500 is just a general number. It might not be 500 years exactly.