Chinese surnames are used by Han Chinese and Sinicized ethnic groups in Greater China, Korea, Vietnam and among overseas Chinese communities around the world such as Singapore and Malaysia. Written Chinese names begin with surnames, unlike the Western tradition in which surnames are written last. Around 2,000 Han Chinese surnames are currently in use, but the great proportion of Han Chinese people use only a relatively small number of these surnames; 19 surnames are used by around half of the Han Chinese people, while 100 surnames are used by around 87% of the population. A report in 2019 gives the most common Chinese surnames as Wang and Li, each shared by over 100 million people in China. The remaining eight of the top ten most common Chinese surnames are Zhang, Liu, Chen, Yang, Huang, Zhao, Wu and Zhou.
Jin is the Hanyu pinyin transliteration of a number of Chinese surnames. The most common one, Jīn 金, literally means "gold" and is 29th in the list of "Hundred Family Surnames". As of 2006, it is ranked the 64th most common Chinese surname and is sometimes transliterated as Chin.
Jī was the ancestral name of the Zhou dynasty which ruled China between the 11th and 3rd centuries BC. Thirty-nine members of the family ruled China during this period while many others ruled as local lords, lords who eventually gained great autonomy during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. Ji is a relatively uncommon surname in modern China, largely because its bearers often adopted the names of their states and fiefs as new surnames.
Xing is a Chinese surname. There are two hypothesized sources for the extant catalogue of surnames:
Mei is a romanized spelling of a Chinese surname, transcribed in the Mandarin dialect. In Hong Kong and other Cantonese-speaking regions, the name may be transliterated as Mui or Moy. In Vietnam, this surname is written as Mai. In romanized Korean, it is spelled Mae. The name literally translates in English to the plum fruit. The progenitor of the Méi clan, Méi Bo, originated from near a mountain in ancient China that was lined at its base with plum trees.
Yao, also romanized as Yiu in Cantonese, is one of the most ancient Chinese surnames, the "Eight Great Xings of High Antiquity". It is also unique that, along with Jiang 姜 it is still in common use in the modern day. It is listed 101st in the Hundred Family Surnames, and as the 51st most common surname in Mainland China.
Meng is a Chinese surname. Meng is a shi surname or clan name (氏), as opposed to the xing (姓) category of surname, ancestral name. Meng is of the type of surname which was a member of the list of names denoting seniority within a certain family: in ancient usage, the characters of meng (孟), zhong (仲), shu (叔) and ji (季) were used to denote the first, second, third and fourth eldest sons in a family. These were sometimes adopted as surnames. Of these, Meng is the best known, being the surname of the philosopher Mencius. It is the 94th name on the Hundred Family Surnames poem.
Zeng is a Chinese family name. In Cantonese, it is Tsang; In Wade–Giles, such as those in Taiwan, Tseng or Tzeng; in Malaysia and Singapore, Tsen, Chen or Cheng; in the Philippines, Chan; in Indonesia, Tjan; in Vietnam, Tăng. The surname Zeng is the 32nd most common surname in Mainland China as of 2019. It is the 16th most common surname in Taiwan. It meant "high" or "add" in ancient Chinese. Zeng was listed 385th on the Hundred Family Surnames.
Xi is the 14th letter of the Greek alphabet.
In ancient China, the patriarchal clan system of the Zhou cultural sphere was a primary means of group relations and power stratification prior to the Western Zhou and through the first half of the Eastern Zhou dynasty. This method of social organisation underlay and prefigured the political workings of the Zhou state. The patriarchal system was based on blood relations, with firstborn succession at its core, and played a role in maintaining the Western Zhou political hierarchy and stabilizing social order. Together with the ritual and music system it is seen as having been the foundation of Zhou society.
Yíng is an ancient Chinese surname. It was the noble house name of the Qin state during the Eastern Zhou dynasty, and the royal name of the subsequent Qin dynasty. Yíng Zheng was the first emperor of the unified Chinese empire.
Gui is an ancient Chinese surname. It was the xing surname of the rulers of the State of Chen and of Tian Qi. The Gui (媯) clan was said to have descended from the legendary sage king Emperor Shun.
Li or Lee is a common Chinese surname, it is the 4th name listed in the famous Hundred Family Surnames. Li is one of the most common surnames in Asia, shared by 92.76 million people in China, and more than 100 million in Asia. It is the second-most common surname in China as of 2018, the second-most common surname in Hong Kong, the most common surname in Macau and the 5th most common surname in Taiwan, where it is usually romanized as "Lee". The surname is pronounced as in Cantonese, Lí (poj) in Taiwanese Hokkien, but is often spelled as "Lee" in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Thailand and many overseas Chinese communities. In Macau, it is also spelled as "Lei". In Indonesia it is commonly spelled as "Lie". The common Korean surname, "Lee", and the Vietnamese surname, "Lý", are both derived from Lee and written with the same Chinese character (李). The character also means "plum" or "plum tree".
The Chinese surname 魯 is listed 49th in the Song dynasty classic text Hundred Family Surnames. As of 2008, 魯 is the 115th most common surname in China.
Lan is the Mandarin pinyin and Wade–Giles romanization of the Chinese surname written 兰 in simplified Chinese and 蘭 in traditional Chinese. As of 2008, it is the 154th most common surname in China, shared by 840,000 people. Lan 蘭 is not listed in the Song dynasty classic text Hundred Family Surnames.
Jiang is one of the oldest Chinese surnames, being one of the original xing (姓) surnames. It was one of the "Eight Great Xings of High Antiquity", along with Jī (姬), Yáo (姚), Yíng (嬴), Sì (姒), Yún (妘), Guī (媯) and Rèn (妊), though some sources quote Jí (姞) as the last one instead of Rèn. Of these xing, only Jiang and Yao have survived in their original form to modern days as frequently occurring surnames. It is the 32nd surname listed in the Song dynasty-era Hundred Family Surnames poem. It is the 60th most common surname in China (2007), roughly 0.34% of the Han Chinese population. The Lu clan of Fanyang stem from this surname before taking on the Lu (盧) surname. Derivative surnames of Jiang include Zhang, Lü, Qiu, Shen., These originated:
