What's In A Chinese Name?

Four-letter names

Updated: 2011-11-25 07:35

By Chen Yingqun (China Daily)

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Personal names in China are different compared with Western cultures, with the family name coming first followed by the given names. Most Chinese family names have only one character, while given names generally have one or two.

In ancient times after a child was born the family would first go to the ancestral temple and burn joss sticks in a tribute to their forefathers. Then the child's father, or grandfather, or some knowledgeable person in the clan, would name the child according to his or her offshoot and connection to the family.
There were about 20,000 family names in ancient times, but now there are only about 4,000, Wang says. However, only about 100 family names are used by 85 percent of the population, he says.

The top 10 most commonly used family names are: Wang, Li, Zhang, Liu, Chen, Yang, Huang, Zhao, Wu and Zhou.