Compound Chinese surnames come from historical figures, ancient states; now fewer than 100 remain
From celebrities to ordinary folk, millions of Chinese have such family names, which are considered rare and precious
While most Chinese people’s surnames are only one character long, there are also millions of people who have compound surnames which are considered rare and precious.
You might have come across some Chinese celebrities with surnames more than one character, such as Taiwan-born actress and cellist Ouyang Nana, Hong Kong-American stand-up comedian and actor Jimmy O. Yang.
In fact, these two celebrities have the same compound surname, Ouyang, which is currently China’s most used compound surname, with over 1.1 million people using it, according to the 2020 National Name Report by the Ministry of Public Security.
China currently has fewer than 100 compound surnames. The second most popular one is Shangguan, used by 88,000 people, followed by Huangfu, Linghu, Zhuge, Situ and Sima.
There are only millions of people with compound surnames today, but in ancient times China used to have over 1,000 compound surnames.
The compound surnames have various origins.
Some were ancient official titles. Some came from professions. Others were hereditary names of the region, like Ouyang and Dongguo. Some were adapted from surnames of ethnic minority tribes.