If You Have An Extra Surname You're Not Using, Please Donate It To China

[DeSwiss]

Chinese surname shortage sparks rethink

AFP
Tue Jun 12, 3:31 AM ET

BEIJING (AFP) - With more than a billion people now sharing just 100 surnames, Chinese authorities are considering a landmark move to try to end the confusion, state media reported Tuesday.

Current Chinese law states that children are only allowed take the surname from either their mother or father, but the lack of variety means there are now 93 million people in China with the family name Wang.

In a country of around 1.3 billion people, about 85 percent share only 100 surnames, according to a nationwide survey conducted by the Ministry of Public Security in April and published in the China Daily newspaper on Tuesday.

The survey found 92 million people shared the surname Li, while 88 million were called Zhang. A further seven surnames -- including Chen, Zhou and Lin -- are held by at least 20 million Chinese.

more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070612/lf_afp/lifestylechinasocietynameoffbeat_070612065246

*** - "Bueller, Bueller, Bueller....."

[kickysnana]

1. I think Hitler, Mousolini, Amin,Tito and soon Cheney are available. n/t

[lies and propaganda]

2. i find Santorum fitting as well

;)

[Richard Steele]

3. 93 million Wangs? ***insert Paris Hilton joke -HERE-***

:hide:

[Bluebear]

5. Oh no you didn't.

:spray:

[Ghost in the Machine]

7. Too bad they're Chinese and not Brazillian...

... oh, how the jokes would flow then... <insert Brazillian Wangs joke here> ...

[Ghost in the Machine]

4. Xu Chow Machine doesn't sound too good, does it?

but they can use it if they want...

[krispos42]

6. According to the Census Bureau...

The last name "ANDRUSZKIEWIC" is hideously misused, ranking only 88,509th.

Interestingly, to get the top 85% of the American population you have to share some 44,600 last names, not the palty 100 or so the Chinese are. And 90.483% of our population is sharing some 88,799 last names.

Di-ver-sit-y! Cha-cha-cha!

<on edit: here's a link: http://www.census.gov/genealogy/names/dist.all.last >

[Solly Mack]

8. interesting

I'll be keeping up with this just to see how it plays out.

Thanks for posting.

China. Surname lack. Anthropological/cultural significance and impact. (for my Journal)

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. Compare with Wales: 40 surnames cover 38% of the population

as determined by phone directory entries - http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=1279868 (ignore the unsourced '95%' claim - not really believable).

The recent high point of Welsh surname commonness: 6 out of the starting fifteen for a rugby match against Australia were called 'Jones'.

[Maeve]

12. My maiden name was Jones and I married a Smith

So I can relate....

[Matsubara]

10. Wow. With 40,000 or so written Chinese Characters...

You would think they would designate a thousand or so more for use as surnames, then people with similar-sounding ones could change their name to one of their choosing.

I don't know about China, but Japan is very peculiar about lineage, with family heritage traced back many hundreds of years - records have been kept scrupulously for a very long time.

I guess this would make people hesitant to change a family name going back hundreds of years.

You still have to keep your name registered at the ward office, still sign all documents with a seal of your family name - all these traditions were derived from Chinese ones.

Here in Japan, it seems like half the people are named Suzuki, Tanaka, Watanabe, Yamamoto etc. But there are definitely some unusual ones that pop up. Often they have a common chinese character, but with a creative reading/pronunciation....

[tomreedtoon]

11. I Hear John Mellenkamp will donate "Cougar."

What they need to do is to add nicknames to their official names, kind of like Mafia bigwigs. You'd never mistake Chen "The Stitcher" Zhou and Chen "Job-Taker" Zhou and Chen "Putty-Nose" Zhou.

[On the Road]

13. The Chinese Have Many Unusual First Names

meaning all sorts of exotic things even though their last names are all the same, like Liu, Chang, and Hu. Americans have millions of unusual last names but the same first names like Bob, Dave, and Mary.

So what do the Chinese call each other? Mr. Liu, Ms. Chang, and Mr. Hu.
And what do Americans call each other? Bob, Dave, and Mary.

All we have to do is switch traditions. Problem solved.