Chinese names: surnames, given names and politeness

A Chinese name starts with the family name (姓, xìng), followed by the given name (名, míng). French Wikipedia gives an example: "Jean-Paul Dupond" would become "Dupond Jean-Paul" in Chinese. For the basketball player Yao Ming (姚明), Yao is therefore the family name: he is "Mr Yao", not "Mr Ming". Chinese people also readily call each other by their full name, especially when it has only two characters.

The family name almost always has a single character. About twenty two-character surnames (复姓) have survived to the present day, such as Sima (司马), Zhuge (诸葛) and Ouyang (欧阳). In pinyin, family name and given name are written as two words, each with a capital letter: 王秀英 is written Wáng Xiùyīng, not "Wang Xiu Ying" or "Wangxiuying".

The character 姓 itself combines the woman radical (女) with 生, "to be born". Several very old surnames carry the same radical, such as Ji (姬), Jiang (姜) and Yao (姚). According to French Wikipedia, Chinese scholars often see in it the trace of clan names originally passed down through women; but the hypothesis is disputed, and the sinologist Léon Vandermeersch explained it differently: at the Zhou court only women were referred to by their clan name, men being named after their fief or office.

China has thousands of surnames, but a few dominate. In January 2020, the household registration research centre of China's Ministry of Public Security published its report on names for 2019: Wang (王), Li (李), Zhang (张), Liu (刘) and Chen (陈) still held the top five places, and the hundred most frequent surnames covered 85.9% of the registered population. According to English Wikipedia, the next five are Yang, Huang, Zhao, Wu and Zhou. At the end of 2018, Wang and Li were each borne by more than 100 million people, and Wang was ahead of Li by only 610,000.

Rankings vary between surveys: a 2006 study of 296 million people put Li ahead of Wang. In Taiwan, official statistics (2003 and 2016) put Chen first. And according to 2007 figures cited by English Wikipedia, the most common full name in mainland China was Zhang Wei (张伟).

Two of these common surnames make up an expression: 张三李四 (Zhāng Sān Lǐ Sì), "third Zhang, fourth Li", means anybody at all, like "Tom, Dick and Harry".

The most famous collection of surnames is the Hundred Family Surnames (百家姓, Bǎijiāxìng), compiled early in the Northern Song by an unknown author, a scholar from Qiantang (钱塘) according to Chinese Wikipedia. Despite its title it lists 504 surnames, 444 single and 60 double (411 in the original version, according to the same source). It is a rhyming poem, and the names are not ordered by frequency. It begins: 赵钱孙李，周吴郑王.

According to Wang Mingqing, a Southern Song scholar, the order is political, because the book was composed in the kingdom of Wuyue, still ruled by the Qian family:

• Zhao (赵) is the surname of the Song emperors;

• Qian (钱), that of the kings of Wuyue;

• Sun (孙), that of Queen Sun Taizhen, principal consort of Qian Chu, the last king of Wuyue;

• Li (李), that of the rulers of the Southern Tang.
The next four, Zhou, Wu, Zheng and Wang, are said to be the surnames of consorts of the Wuyue kings.

Together with the Three Character Classic and the Thousand Character Classic, the Hundred Family Surnames was used to teach children to read: whoever knew all three by heart knew about 2,000 characters. The idea of a people made of "a hundred surnames" is old: ordinary people are called 百姓 (bǎixìng) or 老百姓 (lǎobǎixìng), literally "the hundred surnames", "the old hundred surnames"; 老百姓 is in the HSK 3 vocabulary.

Given names have one or two characters. In recent decades two-character names have dominated: studies in the 2000s and 2010s estimated that over three-quarters of the population had one, almost all the others having a single character. It was not always so: according to Wikipedia, about 70% of given names had one character in the early Han, and more than 98% after the usurper Wang Mang banned two-character names outright. The present custom only became settled under the Ming.

A given name is chosen for its sound and tones, its positive associations or the beauty of its characters; according to Wikipedia, boys' names are often linked with strength and firmness, girls' names with beauty and flowers. In many families a "generation name", one of the two characters of the given name, is shared by siblings and paternal cousins of the same generation (daughters were not always included). On the other hand, children are rarely named after a relative, since younger family members would then have to use an elder's given name, or after a famous person. Before the official name is chosen, parents often give the baby a "milk name" (小名, xiǎomíng), with 小 or a doubled character.

Marriage does not change your name: traditionally a married woman keeps her own surname rather than taking her husband's, and this is still the norm in mainland China. Children usually take the father's surname, but the marriage law allows either parent's. In Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macau a woman may put her husband's surname before her own on official documents, a practice French Wikipedia says is rare among women under 60.

To ask someone's surname politely, you say 您贵姓？ (Nín guìxìng?), "what is your honourable surname?", or, more politely still, 请问您贵姓？. 您 (nín) is the polite "you" and 贵 (guì) an honorific prefix. Between equals, or to a child, 你姓什么？ (Nǐ xìng shénme?) will do. To answer, 姓 is used as a verb: 我姓王 (Wǒ xìng Wáng), "my surname is Wang". And to give your full name: 我叫王秀英 (Wǒ jiào Wáng Xiùyīng), "my name is Wang Xiuying".

To address people, Wikipedia describes several customs:

• 老 (lǎo, "old") or 小 (xiǎo, "little") before the surname: 老王, 小李. 老 is not disrespectful, since old people are respected; but Wikipedia advises foreigners to use these forms only if the people around already do;

• the surname followed by a title: 王老师 (Wáng lǎoshī), "Teacher Wang", is more respectful than "Mr Wang". Students always address their teachers this way, and a junior may address a more experienced colleague the same way; 李总 (Lǐ zǒng) is used for a company head;

• the surname followed by 先生 (xiānsheng, "Mr"), 女士 (nǚshì, "Ms") or 小姐 (xiǎojiě, "Miss"): a relatively neutral form that is unlikely to cause offence.

Within the family, on the other hand, people avoid calling older relatives by their given names: they use a kinship title instead, such as "big sister" or "second sister".