姓

姓 is a Noun or Verb, which means “family name; surname; to be surnamed”.

Chinese names

The name of a Chinese person has two parts: the family name and the personal or first name. The family name always comes before the personal name. Most family names consist of one character, and few have two. Personal names can be of one character or of two characters.

姓名 = 姓（family name）  + 名 （first name）

         王                                明
 

         张                                大伟
 

        司马                              光
 

        欧阳                              兰兰
 

Common Chinese surnames:

张 (zhāng)

王 (wáng)

李 (lǐ)

赵 (zhào)

刘 (liú)

马 (mǎ)

陈 (chén)

孙 (sūn)

黄 (huáng)

高 (gāo)

贵姓,  May I ask what your (family) name is?

This is a very polite way of asking people about their family names.

When Chinese people meet for the first time, they usually ask each other’s last name by saying 您贵姓 or simply 贵姓 instead of asking for a full name. Here 您 is the polite form of 你 (you) and 贵姓 is literally translated as “honorable last name” to show respect. The old-fashioned reply is “免贵……” whose literal meaning is “not honorable” as a modest response. Nowadays most people simply reply by saying “我姓……”。

For example:

（1）A：您贵姓？（OK） 你贵姓？（NOK）  B：免贵姓张。/ 我姓张。

（2）A：你姓什么？（OK） B：我姓张。（OK）

Note:

You may also ask someone's surname by saying 你姓什么？

To answer this question, you can NOT say 我贵姓……

他姓什么？What’s his name? It is used for asking another person's name. One shouldn't say 他贵姓？