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Chinese Surnames Used To Be Very Complicated
Over the centuries, Chinese surnames were a privilege denied a great many commoners. As recently as 2,000 years ago in China, using a family name was an honor reserved for nobility. Even when those restrictions were eased, mere commoners were only allowed to call themselves by certain names. Elite names were reserved for the aristocracy.
Cumbersome rules were imposed when commoners were permitted to take family names. Quite a few elite Chinese names were allowed only to those of high birth or current power. For centuries, only the blue-bloods of the currently reigning houses could give themselves what were called "xing" -- royal names. The prevailing warlord might reward the family of a village chieftain by allowing their clan to attach a xing to their given Chinese names. Over the centuries sub-surnames came into being as well. They were called "shi" and denoted seniority, rank and importance.
The most commonly occurring Chinese family names today are written with a single Chinese character. Many double-character family names were simplified during the Cultural Revolution and by the Communist government, however about 20 have survived into modern times, including Sima, Zhuge and Situ. Even more rare are surnames with three characters or more, such as Aixinjueluo, which was the surname of the Qing dynasty's Manchurian royal family.
Expressing Chinese surnames in English or other Western languages raises a number of transliteration issues, not the least of which is pronunciation. The surname Zheng is occasionally pronounced in English as Chang, Cheng, Chung, Tsang, Zeng and Zheng. While more than 14,000 surnames are on record, thousands have become extinct, the result of a family having no heir to perpetuate their name.
In the 1980s, almost 500 distinct family names were in use in Beijing. Today, among the most commonplace are Li, Wang, Zhou, Zhang, Zhu and Zhao. Wang is shared by 9 percent of northern Chinese. Chen is prevalent in the former British enclave of Hong Kong, formerly Portuguese Macao and what was Japanese-occupied Formosa, today's Taiwan. Li is commonplace along the Yangtze River's major crossing points. Fong, which is only the 47th most commonplace on the mainland, is prevalent in San Francisco's Chinatown.
Today most Chinese families utilize the father's birth surname, but not necessarily in traditional order -- with the family name first, the given name last. For example, Chinese human rights activist Henry Wu, puts his surname after his given name -- in Western fashion.
Today, most Chinese families use the father's birth surname and most Chinese brides take the family name of their new husband. However, the tradition of using Chinese surnames first and given names second has been influenced by the Western tradition of using surnames last. On the mainland, most Chinese continue the traditional sequence. However, Chinese living in the West not only use their surnames last, but frequently take nicknames that are more western -- such as Cheng Yu-chieh going by the name Jack Cheng whenever in the US.
Chinese names are romanized in China using Pinyin. However in other parts of the world such as Malaysia and Singapore, the methodology is less stringent. Many times the name is spelt as it is pronounced. Due to the number of dialects names like Lin and Mei (meaning beautiful) can end us a Lim, Lam, Lum etc and May, Meei, Bee etc.
Wung Nam Karng Ep.3(3/9) [Eng Sub]
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