List of common Chinese surnames

These are lists of the most common Chinese surnames in the Republic of China, People's Republic of China, and 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" (百家姓) is an ancient and traditional one, the most notable tally being the Song-era Hundred Family Surnames. Even today, the number of surnames in China is a little over 4,000,^[1] while the year 2000 US census found the number of American surnames held by at least 100 people to be more than 150,000^[2] and more than 6.2 million surnames altogether.^[3]

The Chinese expression "Three Zhang, four Li" (simplified Chinese: 张三李四; traditional Chinese: 張三李四; pinyin: Zhāng Sān Lǐ Sì) is used to mean "anyone" or "everyone",^[4] but the most common surnames are currently Wang in mainland China^[5] and Chen (or Chan) in Taiwan.^[6] 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,^[7] 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.^[8]

China, Hong Kong and Macau

This list of the 100 most common Chinese surnames derives from comprehensive surveys from 2007 and 1982. The first is derived from a report on the household registrations released by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security on April 24, 2007.^[5] The second is derived from the 1982 Chinese census whose zero hour was 00:00 on 1 July 1982. Although no list of surnames was published with the initial summaries, the State Post Bureau subsequently used the census data to release a series of commemorative stamps in honor of the then-most-common surnames in 2004.^[9][10] Previous partial surveys proved less accurate, as many surnames are clustered regionally.

The summary of the 2007 survey revealed China had approximately 92,881,000 Wangs (7.25% of the general population), 92,074,000 Lis (7.19%), and 87,502,000 Zhangs (6.83%). These top three surnames alone accounted for more people than Indonesia, the fourth most populous country in the world.^[11] Detailed numbers for the other surnames were not released, but it was noted that seven others – Liu, Chen, Yang, Huang, Zhao, Wu, and Zhou – were each shared by more than 20 million Chinese and twelve more – Xu, Sun, Ma, Zhu, Hu, Guo, He, Gao, Lin, Luo, Zheng, and Liang – were each shared by more than 10 million. All together, the top hundred surnames accounted for 84.77% of China's population.^[5][12] By way of comparison, the 2000 census found the most common surname in the United States – Smith – had fewer than 2.4 million occurrences and made up only 0.84% of the general population. The top 100 surnames accounted for only 16.4% of the US population,^[2] and reaching 89.8% of the US population required more than 150,000 surnames.^[3]

Notes

Other surveys

• 2006 multi-year survey and study conducted by Yuan Yida, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences's Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, using a sample size of 296 million spread across 1,110 counties and cities and recording around 4,100 surnames.^[18]
• 1990: Ji Yuwen Publishing House, based on a sample size of 174,900.
• 1987 study conducted by Yuan Yida with a sample size of 570,000.
• 1977 study published by Li Dongming, a Chinese historian, as "Surname" (《姓》) in Dongfang Magazine.

Taiwan

Taiwanese surnames by frequency:

  陳 Chen (11.06%)

  林 Lin (8.28%)

  黃 Hwang (6.01%)

  張 Chang (5.26%)

  李 Lee(5.11%)

  王 Wang (4.12%)

  吳 Wu (4.04%)

  劉 Liu (3.17%)

  蔡 Tsai (2.91%)

  楊 Yang (2.66%)

  Other (47.4%)

According to a comprehensive survey of residential permits released by the Taiwanese Ministry of the Interior's Department of Population in February, 2005,^[6] Taiwan has only 1,989 surnames. The top ten surnames in Taiwan accounted for 52.62% of the general population, and the top 100 accounted for 96.11%.^[6]

Other common surnames in Taiwan are listed by rank below. This report is based on the 2005 study. The ranking in the PRC (based on the 2007 study) is listed in the parenthesis. The Wade–Giles romanization is also listed first in the brackets, and the Hanyu Pinyin romanization is listed second in the brackets.

Other surveys

• 1994–2011: The American researcher Chih-Hao Tsai has compiled unauthoritative annual surveys of the most common surnames on Taiwan^[19] based on published lists of all successful applicants taking Taiwan's Joint College Entrance Exam.^[20] The test was mandatory for college entrance until 2002 and is still quite common, with more than a hundred thousand successful applicants a year and a pass rate for all test takers between 60 and 90%.^[20]

Canada

Statistics Canada has not released a list of common surnames for any of its recent censuses, but much of the Canadian Chinese population is clustered in Metro Vancouver and Greater Victoria in British Columbia and the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area and the Ottawa-Gatineau Area in Ontario, as well as in some emerging major clusters, such as the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor in Alberta, Montreal, and the Communauté métropolitaine de Québec (Quebec Community Metropolitan Area) in Quebec.

Ontario

A 2010 study by Baiju Shah & al data-mined the Registered Persons Database of Canadian health card recipients in the province of Ontario for a particularly Chinese-Canadian name list. Ignoring potentially non-Chinese spellings such as Lee (49,898 total),^{[21]:Table 1} they found that the most common Chinese names in Ontario were:^[21]

Indonesia

Nearly as large is the Chinese Indonesian community. The 2010 Indonesian census reported more than 8.8 million self-identified Chinese, making up 3.7% of the general population.^[22] Just as in Thailand, though, previous legislation (in this case, 127/U/Kep/12/1966) had banned ethnic Chinese surnames throughout the country. This law was abolished after the removal of Suharto, but Chinese names remain a mix of Indonesian, pinyin, and Dutch-influenced Hokkien.

Malaysia

During the 2010 Malaysian Census, approximately 6,960,000 Malaysians – self-identified as "Chinese".^[23] They are among the few Malaysians who have a continuous surname, as most Malaysians go by patronymics instead.

Singapore

Singaporean surnames by frequency:

Tan (9.5%)   Lim (6.6%)   Lee (4.5%)   Ng (4.2%)   Ong (2.7%)   Wong (2.6%)   Goh (2.2%)

Chua (2.2%)   Chan (1.9%)   Koh (1.9%)   Teo (1.9%)   Ang (1.7%)   Yeo (1.5%)   Tay (1.4%)

Chong (0.9%)   Chia/Seah (0.9%)   Other (48.8%)

Ethnic Chinese make up almost three-fourths (2009) of Singapore's resident population of nearly four million (2011).

According to Statistics Singapore, as of the year 2000, the most common Chinese Singaporean names were:^[24]

Thailand

The largest Chinese diaspora community in the world are the Chinese Thais (or Sino-Thais), who make up 12–14%^[25][26] of the total Thai population. However, very few of the Chinese Thais have Chinese surnames, after the 1913 Surname Act that required the adoption of Thai surnames in order to enjoy Thai citizenship. Moreover, the same law requires that those possessing the same surname be related, meaning that immigrant Chinese may not adopt the surname of their clansmen unless they can show actual kinship.

United States

The 2010 US Census found 3,794,673 self-identified Chinese Americans and 230,382 self-identified Taiwanese Americans,^[27] up from 2,734,841 Chinese Americans and 144,795 Taiwanese Americans in 2000.^[28]

Although the Chinese make up the largest segment of America's Asian and Pacific Islander population,^[29] the most common Chinese-derived surname during the 2000 census was not itself Chinese but the Vietnamese Nguyễn (Chinese: 阮, Ruǎn).^[2]

During the 2000 census, the 10 most common Chinese American names were:^[30]

Other surveys

• 2002: study by Matthew Falkenstein, data-mining the 2000 US Census for a particularly Asian & Pacific Islander name list,^[32] omitting those like Lee that are common among other ethnicities
• 2000: study by Diane Lauderdale, et al., data-mining Social Security card applications by persons born abroad before 1941 for a particularly Chinese-American name list^[31]

See also

References

External links

• Lin Yutang's Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage, hosted at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. (~700 surnames)
• Netor's Ten-Thousand Families (Chinese)
• 中國姓氏人口排序 [China's Surname Population Rankings], lists of the most popular surnames under the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties (Chinese)