Compound Chinese surnames come from historical figures, ancient states; now fewer than 100 remain

In China, compound surnames are rare and valued.

Once over a thousand existed, but now fewer than a hundred remain.

Photo: SCMP composite/Shutterstock 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.

Getting together: Three generations of one family pose for a happy photograph.

Photo: Shutterstock 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.

A family in China celebrate the birthday of the grandfather of the group at home.

Photo: Shutterstock most compound surnames disappeared.

Some were changed to one-character surnames.

Taking Ouyang for example, people today with the surname Ou or Yang are believed to be offspring of the Ouyang family.

Some were simply lost, as Chinese people traditionally inherit fathers’ surnames.

One compound surname, Xushi, reportedly only has one inheritor left today.

The surname was created by a Ceylon prince, who visited China in the 15th century but could not return due to a coup in his country.

The striking photograph above shows an ancient Chinese public official, with moustache, and his wife and children.

Photo: Getty Images He remained in Quanzhou in southeastern China’s Fujian province, and adapted the first syllable of his name into his Chinese surname, Shi.

When there was only female offspring in one generation, one woman combined her surname with her husband’s surname, Xu, and invented the compound surname Xushi.

Over hundreds of years, the family had been

原文链接: 南华早报