Chinese Naming Customs

Contrary to popular belief, a Chinese surname is very different from a Westerner's first name. The Chinese surname is placed before the person's name while the latter is placed after. Take the names Woo Teck Hwa and Jason Smith, for example. "Woo" is the surname of the person named Teck Hwa, while "Smith" is Jason's surname. There is a difference in the positioning.

Like most Asian surnames, Chinese surnames are passed down from generations and hold the family history in perpetuity. Chinese surnames tell others about the person's history and are always retained even though the name may change. The surname is often looked upon as a symbol of a man's pride and honor. It depicts the past glorious deeds the ancestors have achieved through "blood and sweat."

According to legends, Chinese surnames originated from the Emperor Fu Xi (2852 BC). He standardized all Chinese surnames and defined matrimonial relationship. Thus a proper system of population census was established. It was also believed that there is a close relationship between surnames and totem worship. The early Chinese adopted the names or symbols of certain animals as their surname (e.g., Long, which means dragon.)

A song in the Shi Jing, recounting the birth of Hou Ji, the earliest ancestor of the Zhou people, shows clearly the link between surnames and totem worship. Jiang Yuan the consort of the fiery Emperor prayed to God for a son. She followed his footprints for a distance and became pregnant. The giant footprints actually belonged to a bear the Zhou people then worshipped. They gave themselves the surname "Ji," which was made up of the characters "Nu" and "Chen." These characters represented Jiang Yuan and the bear, respectively.

A book of one hundred surnames (Bai Jia Xing) was complied during the 10th century. It recorded about 500 odd Chinese surnames and was one of the earlier surname books written. The surnames are arranged in rhymed lines without repetitions. In the original copy, which was lost, pictures of famous historical figures were illustrated on the upper part of every page, while the text was printed on the lower part. The unknown author successfully combined the study of family names, philology, sociology, and pedagogy into one book, making it one of the most popular books in history.

Origins of Names
According to Mr. Kiang Kang Hu, author of the book On Chinese Studies, there were 18 sources from which surnames were derived:


 * The name of a dynasty (Tang)
 * Feudal territory or division (Chiang, Huang)
 * Political district (Hong)
 * Town (Yin, Su)
 * Rural villages (Lu, Yen)
 * Cross-roads and stations (Mi)
 * Suburbs of direction (Tung-shiang, Xi-men)
 * Historical personage (Chin, Fu)
 * Use of a man's social name for a family name (Fang, Kung)
 * A custom of adopting the appellation applied to a relative (Meng, Mi)
 * Clans or tribes (So, Chang)
 * Official posts (Shih, Shuai)
 * Titles of nobility (Wang, Hou)
 * Occupations of trades (Wu, Tao)
 * Objects (Chu, Pu)
 * Posthumous titles of rulers (Wen)
 * Adding a diminutive to the parent name (Wang-tsu, Gong-sun)
 * Name of contempt applied to an evil-doer by a ruler (Fu, Mang)

To find out more about the Chinese surnames, we suggest you browse the Book Of Hundred Surnames and Chinese Surname on Wikipedia.

Histories of Chinese Surnames in Wikipedia
Wikipedia has a number of very useful articles about Chinese surnames, detailing their origins, histories, and distribution in present-day China and sometimes beyond. You can view this example to see what one of the articles may have in it.

Yuan (surname)

Many other pages about Chinese surnames can be found on this category listing page on Wikipedia.

Chinese language surnames

Not all the pages have (surname) after them, since it is more obvious that the article is about a surname. There will be no specific genealogical data in these articles, only details of how the surname developed, and other historical matters.

To find a page for a surname that for some reason is not listed there, type the URL shown for the Yuan surname as shown above, substituting the surname you wish to see if there is an article about it where you see Yuan in the URL above. If that does not turn up any results that look right, take off the _(surname) part of the URL, and it is possible that it might be found that way. However, it is possible that articles about some surnames are not on Wikipedia yet.