List Of Common Chinese Surnames
These are lists of the most common Chinese surnames in the Republic and People's Republic of China, as well as among the Chinese diaspora overseas, as provided by authoritative government or academic sources. Chinese names also form the basis for many common Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese surnames in both translation and transliteration into those languages.
The conception of China as consisting of "the old 100 families" (老百姓, Lǎobǎixìng) is an ancient and traditional one, the most famous tally being the Song-era Hundred Family Surnames. Even today, the number of surnames in China is a little over 4,000, while the year 2000 US census found the number of American surnames held by at least 100 people to be more than 150,000 and more than 6.2 million surnames altogether.
The Chinese expression "Some Zhang, some Li" (张三李四, Zhāng sān, Lǐ sì) is used to mean "anyone" or "everyone", but the most common surnames are currently Wang in mainland China and Chen or Chan in Taiwan. A commonly cited factoid from the 1990 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records estimated that Zhang was the most common surname in the world, but no comprehensive information from China was available at the time and more recent editions have not repeated the claim. However, Zhang Wei (张伟) is the most common full name in mainland China.
Read more about List Of Common Chinese Surnames: Greater China Region
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list and/or common:
“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“My list of things I never pictured myself saying when I pictured myself as a parent has grown over the years.”
—Polly Berrien Berends (20th century)
“This is really the common mentality of prisoners: they read with great attention all the articles that deal with illnesses and send away for treatises and “be your own doctor” or “emergency treatments” and end up by discovering that they have at least 300 or 400 illnesses, whose symptoms they are experiencing.”
—Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937)