Intonations                                                                                                                        Meaning of Chinese Names

There are about four to five hundred words used as surnames. Over the centuries list of top 100 surnames "Baijiaxing" has been compiled and updated. (In reality more than 100 surnames are often listed).

The family name or surname is so important that when two Chinese get together, they introduce each other by (or seek to find out) the surnames, by saying ‘What is your surname?’ [xiansheng guixing] , rather than finding out their given names!

Due to the sheer population size and numbers, this listing would not have been too precise. It was not until recently, with the advent modern computers that it is possible to compile accurate data.

The Hereditary Research Institute of Chinese Academy of Sciences, compiled a list of the most common surnames. The top one hundred surnames are tabulated in as follows. (Source: Xinhuahet 1 Oct 2006, www://news.xinhuanet.com/society/2006-01/10/content_4031873.htm.

Click on any word to view the characters in both simplified and traditional writings, pronunciation in pinyin as well as other dialects, as well as meanings of a particular word.