Sima (surname)

Sima (surname)

Sima (simplified Chinese: 司马; traditional Chinese: 司馬; pinyin: Sīmǎ; Wade–Giles: Ssu-ma) is a Chinese family name. Unlike most single-character Chinese family names, it is one of the rare two-character family names. It is an occupation name, literally meaning "control" (sī) "horses" (mǎ). The surname originated from one of the offices of the Three Excellencies of the Zhou Dynasty. Coincidentally, this name has almost the same meaning as the common English surname Marshall, which is derived from the Frankish: "mare" (horse) + "skalkoz" (master).