區 Au, Aun, Ou

歐 Au, Aun, Ou

白 Bai, Bak, Pak, Pek, Pack

費 Bei, Bi, Fai, Fay, Fei

薄 Bo, Bok

蔡 Cai, Choi, Choy, Toy, Tsai

曹 Cao, Chao, Cho, Tsao

陳 Chan, Chen, Chin, Chinn, Tan, Tran (Vietnam)

張 Chang, Cheung, Jeung, Zhang

章 Chang, Cheung, Jeung, Zhang

蔣 Chiang, Chung, Jiang

周 Chau, Chow, Jew, Joe, Zhou

謝 Che, Der, Hsieh, She, Sheih, Tsia, Tse, Tze, Xie, Ze

程 Cheng, Ching

鄭 Cheng, Zheng

趙 Chiu, Zhao, Jiu

莊 Chong, Chuang, Jong, Zhuang

朱 Chu, Zhu

簡 Con, Gan, Gann, Jian, Kane

鄧 Dang, Deng, Tang

謝 Der, Che, Hsieh, She, Sheih, Tsia, Tse, Tze, Xie, Ze

杜 Doe, Du, Tao, To Tu

董 Dong, Dung, Tong, Tung

伍 Eng, Wu

斐 Fai, Fay, Fei, Bei, Bi

費 Fai, Fay, Fei

方 Fang, Fong

馮 Feng, Fung

傅 Foo, Fu

甘 Gam, Gan, Gum

高 Gao, Gou, Kao, Ko

荊 Geng, Jing, King

甄 Gean, Gen, Gene, Gin, Ginn, Gyn, Chin, Jen, Jin, Yan, Yen, Ying, Zhen

江 Gong, Jiang

龔 Gong, Gung, Kung

鞏 Gong, Gung

古 Goo, Gu, Koo, Ku, Kuo

顧 Goo, Gu, Koo, Ku, Kuo

關 Guan, Kwan, Quan

郭 Guo, Gwok, Kwok

韓 Han, Hon

郝 Hao, Kwok

侯 Hau, Hou, Howe

何 He, Ho

覃 Hom, Hum, Tan, Thom, Tom

譚 Hom, Hum, Tan, Thom, Tom

洪 Hong, Hung

熊 Hong, Hung, Xiong

康 Hong, Kang

項 Hong, Xiang

謝 Hsieh, Der, Che, She, Sheih, Tsia, Tse, Tze, Xie, Ze

徐 Hsu, Tsui

薛 Hsueh, Seid, Sit, Xue

華 Hua, Wa, Wah

胡 Hu, Woo, Wu

許 Hui, Xu

孔 Hung, Kong

葉 Ip, Yap, Yeh, Yip

任 Jen, Ning, Ren, Yam, Yum

江 Jiang, Gong

井 Jing, Zeng

姚 Jiu, Yao, Yiu

莊 Jong, Chuang, Chong, Zhuang

鄺 Kan, Kong, Kwong

高 Kao, Ko, Gao, Gou

柯 Ke, Orr, Or

古 Koo, Ku, Kuo, Goo, Gu

顧 Koo, Ku, Kuo, Goo, Gu

龔 Kung, Gong, Gung

關 Kwan, Guan, Quan

郭 Kwok, Guo, Gwok

郝 Kwok, Hao

黎 Lai, Li

厲 Lai, Li

林 Lam, Lim, Lin Lum

柳 Lau, Liu

劉 Lau, Liu, Lou

羅 Law, Lo. Low, Lowe, Luo

李 Lee, Le, Li, Ly (Vietnam)

梁 Leung, Liang, Liong

廖 Lew, Liao, Liu

練 Lian

勞 Loa, Lou

陸 Lok, Luk

龍 Long, Loong, Lung

盧 Loo, Lou, Lu

呂 lu, Lui

馬 Ma, Mah, Mar, Marr

麥 Mack, Mak, mark, Mei

墨 Mack, Mak, mark, Mei

文 Man, Mann, Moon, Wen

閔 Man, Mann, Moon, Wen

聞 Man, Mann, Moon, Wen

孟 Mang, Meng

梅 Mei, Mui

穆 Mu. Muk

吳 Ng, Wu

顏 Ngan, Yan

牛 Ngau, Niu

任 Ning, Jen, Ren, Yam, Yum

區 Ou, Au, Aun

歐 Ou, Au, Aun

潘 Pan, Penn, Poon, Pun

彭 Pang, Peng, Phang

關 Quan, Guan, Kwan

丘 Qiu, Yau

邱 Qiu, Yau

任 Ren, Jen, Ning, Yam, Yum

沙 Sa, Sha, Shah

沈 Sam, Shen, Shum, Sum

岑 Sam, Sham, Shen, Shum, Sum

佘 Se, She, Sheh

薛 Seid, Sit, Hsueh, Xue

司徒 Seeto, Seto, Situ, Szeto

謝 She, Sheih, Der, Che, Hsieh, Tsia, Tse, Tze, Xie, Ze

商 Sheng, Xiang

施 Shi, Si, Sze

蕭 Siew, Siu, Xiao

蘇 So, Soo, Sou, Su

宋 Song, Soong, Sung

孫 Suen, Sun, Syun, Xuan

雪 Syut, Xue

覃 Tan, Thom, Tom, Hom, Hum

譚 Tan, Thom, Tom, Hom, Hum

唐 Tang, Tong

湯 Tang, Tong

田 Tian, Tien, Tin

董 Tong, Tung, Dong, Dung

曾 Tsang, Tseng, Tzeng, Zeng

謝 Tsia, Tse, Tze, Der, Che, Hsieh, She, Sheih, Xie, Ze

華 Wa, Wah, Hua

韋 Wai, Way, Wei

衛 Wai, Way, Wei

溫 Wan, Won, Wun

王 Wang, Waung

屈 Wat, Watt

翁 Weng, Yong

汪 Wong

黃 Wong, Huang, Hwang

項 Xiang, Hong

商 Xiang, Sheng

蕭 Xiao, Siew, Siu

謝 Xie, Der, Che, Hsieh, She, Sheih, Tsia, Tse, Tze, Ze

熊 Xiong, Hong, Hung

許 Xu, Hui

薛 Xue, Hsueh, Seid, Sit

雪 Xue, Syut

任 Yam, Yum, Jen, Ning, Ren

甄 Yan, Yen, Ying, Chin, Gean, Gen, Gene, Gin, Ginn, Gyn, Jen, Jin, Zhen

嚴 Yan, Yim

顏 Yan, Ngan

羊 Yang, Yeung, Young

楊 Yang, Yeung, Young

姚 Yao, Yiu, Jiu

葉 Yap, Yeh, Yip, Ip

丘 Yau, Qiu

邱 Yau, Qiu

岑 Yau, You

余 Yee, Yu, Yue

庾 Yee, Yu, Yue

俞 Yee, Yu, Yue

阮 Yuan, Yuen, Nguyen (Vietnam)

袁 Yuan, Yuen

謝 Ze, Che, Der, Hsieh, She, Sheih, Tsia, Tse, Tze, Xie

井 Zeng, Jing

曾 Zeng, Tsang, Tseng, Tzeng

甄 Zhen, Yan, Yen, Ying, Chin, Gean, Gen, Gene, Gin, Ginn, Gyn, Jen, Jin

莊 Zhuang, Chuang, Chong, Jong

朱 Zhu, Chu

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Of the four which is the most common? Again there is no clear cut answer. I’ve read articles quoting statistics which had ranked Lee, Wang or Zhang at the top. We’ll just have wait till publication of China’s next census results. However with the nature of statistics even then one can’t be certain.

Let’s continue with this number business. The next six most common surnames: Chen (陳), Yang (楊), Ng (吳), Lau (劉), Wong (黃), Chow (周) account for another 15% of China’s total population. In another word forty percent or 520 million of China’s population share ten surnames only.

The next 35 big surnames account for another 30% of China’s population. This means that 70% of its population or 910,000,000 people share forty-five surnames only. What does this mean? Just imagine tripling the total population of the USA but with only 45 surnames to go around. Kind of mind bogging isn’t it? Wait, don’t go yet! One last though, now try to image the entire USA population is made of four surnames only? Am I smoking anything funny? No, because that’s how many people China’s four most common surnames work out to be.

Trying to get a handle on the number of Chinese in a Western country through official records such as census is very difficult. This due to China’s countless number of dialects each surname can have multiple spelling when translated into English. It also depended upon the whim of the immigration official at the point of entry. Then there is the Chinese tradition of surname first and given name last which some immigration officials had mistakenly took the given name as surname. To complicate this further two major systems for transition have been in use: the Wade-Giles and the more recent pinyin. Each system producing entire different spelling for the same surname. Then there are cases where people or the immigration official deliberately took a more mainstream sounding surname. Some examples are:

梁 from Leung to Long

駱 Locke instead of Lok

羅 from Lo to Law, Low, Lowe

雷 Louie instead of Lui

馬 From Ma or Mah to Marr

麥 from Mak to Mack or Mark

邵 from Shao to Shaw

The Pinyin system in China has its benefita and drawbacks. The major benefit is that it standardizing spelling the surnames of people coming from China. its biggest drawback is that Pinyin is based on the dialect spoken in Beijing which is vastly different from the dialects of the established overseas Chinese. It then adds to the list of variations. For example in Pinyin Mak is Mei or Ho becomes He.

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The best known source for Chinese surnames is The Book of Hundred Family Surnames (百家姓) which was compiled during the Northern Song Dynasty has 438 surnames. Why was it titled hundred when its list is more than a hundred? With the old Chinese the word hundred was generally used to mean many not the actual number itself.

Dictionary of Modern Chinese (現代漢語辭典) listed 930 or just slightly more than double the number in the Book of Hundred Surnames. Another Song publication, Surnames Explained (姓解), collected 2,568 surnames or 8 times more than its better known counterpart. To muddy the water further, Key to Surnames, complied by Chen Sie-yuan (陳士元) during the Ming dynasty has 3,625 surnames.

Now LateLineNews (夜光新聞) reported that Chen Lipu (陳歷甫), a Chinese surnames specialist, after 30 plus years had collect 15,142 Chinese surnames. His recent published Chinese Surnames Dictionary (中華姓氏書法大辭典) is a collection of 10,129 surnames. Of this total over 8,000 are Han surnames and the balance belongs to the varies minorities living in China. This would be an interesting book to have since it would certainly would broaden any person’s knowledge of Chinese words.

Of course this doesn’t mean all these surnames are in use today. Or it is such a rarity that one may never encounter such a person. Of the 400-odd surnames in The Book of Hundred Family Surnames at least 76 are not in use and exist in the book only. An example of which is the surname Hung (紅) as in the colour red not Hung (洪) which means big. Just trying to remember when was the last time I encountered somebody with such as surname. Can anybody out there help?

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