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114-567: Tuo is a Chinese surname ( Chinese : 庹 ; pinyin : Tuǒ ), and a given name in various cultures. 柁 is pronounced Tuó in Mandarin. Notable people with the surname include: Notable people with the given name include (characters differ): Chinese surname Two distinct types of Chinese surnames existed in ancient China, namely xing ( Chinese : 姓 ; pinyin : xìng ) ancestral clan names and shi ( Chinese : 氏 ; pinyin : shì ) branch lineage names. Later,

228-459: A given name (simple or composite) followed by two family names (surnames), the father's and the mother's. Any children whom a couple have together take both first-surnames, so if "José Gómez Hevia" and "María Reyes García" had a child named "Andrés", the resulting name would be "Andrés Gómez Reyes". Law 11/1981 in Spain , enacted in 1981, declared among other things that children, on turning 18, now had

342-1071: A stage name . The Civil Code also states that children as the result of the marriage will take the mother's surname and the father's surname. To illustrate this, the children of a married couple named Maria Josefa Lopez Mañego-Luansing and Juan Candido Luansing will take the middle name Mañego and the surname Luansing , so, one daughter with a given name of Juliana will be named Juliana Mañego Luansing . Married women in professional circles (e.g. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo , Korina Sanchez-Roxas , Vilma Santos-Recto ) typically join their maiden and married surnames in both professional and legal use (e.g. Maria Isabella Flores Garcia-Dimaculangan / Ma. Isabella F. Garcia-Dimaculangan ). This allows them to be identified as married, and keep track of their professional achievements without being confused for any similarly named individuals (e.g. Maria Isabella Flores Garcia / Ma. Isabella F. Garcia, as against Maria Isabella Garcia Dimaculangan / Ma. Isabella G. Dimaculangan) An older scheme based on Spanish naming customs add

456-404: A 1990 study, the top 200 family names accounted for over 96% of a random sample of 174,900 persons, with over 500 other names accounting for the remaining 4%. In a different study (1987), which combined data from Taiwan and China (sample size of 570,000 persons), the top 19 names covered 55.6%, and the top 100 names covered 87% of the sample. Other data suggest that the top 50 names comprise 70% of

570-420: A capital if it is a noun; if it is an affix like van or de the affix remains uncapitalized; this is an exception to the general rule for surnames that are capitalized when standing alone ). Both men and women may make this choice upon registering to get married or entering into a registered partnership. If the marriage or registered partnership ends, one may continue to use the ex-partner's last surname unless

684-459: A cluster were conterminous with one another. The one exception to this pattern could be explained by demic migration observed where the Han Chinese migrated to Northeastern China . A study by geneticist Yuan Yida has found that of all the people with a particular surname, there tends to be a population concentration in a certain province, as tabulated to the right. It does not show, however,

798-458: A college degree. In Austria , since 1 April 2013, marriage does not automatically change a woman's name; therefore a name change can only take place upon legal application. Before that date, the default was for a married woman's name to be changed to that of her husband, unless she legally applied to opt out of this. In France , by executive decision since 2011 and by law since 2013, any married person may officially use their spouse's name as

912-446: A common name by substituting or compounding it to their own. Before this it was common for married women to use their husband's name in everyday life, but this had no legal recognition. A common name does not replace a person's family name as written on their birth certificate. From 4 March 2002 to 4 December 2009, children given both parents' names had to have them separated by a double dash (ex: Dupont--Clairemont). On 4 December 2009,

1026-526: A common-law relationship. In the province of British Columbia, people have to undergo a legal name change if they want to use a combined surname after marriage. Their marriage certificate is considered proof of their new name. The custom in Québec was similar to the one in France until 1981. Women would traditionally go by their husband's surname in daily life, but their maiden name remained their legal name. Since

1140-504: A commoner could receive the Mandate of Heaven and become emperor. Upon becoming emperor, the emperor would retain his original surname. Also as a consequence, many people also had the same surname as the emperor, but had no direct relation to the royal family. The Tang dynasty was the last period when the great aristocratic families, mostly descended from the nobility of pre-Qin states, held significant centralized and regional power. The surname

1254-586: A couple of millennia, passing from father to children. This system of patrilineal surnames is unusual in the world in its long period of continuity and depth of written history , and Chinese people may view their surnames as part of their shared kinship and Han Chinese identity. Women do not normally change their surnames upon marriage, except sometimes in places with more western influences such as Hong Kong . Traditionally Chinese surnames have been exogamous in that people tend to marry those with different surnames. The most common Chinese surnames were compiled in

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1368-534: A double name, and the partner adopts that name. Double names then must be hyphenated. All family members must use that double name. Since 1983, when Greece adopted a new marriage law which guaranteed gender equality between the spouses, women in Greece are required to keep their birth names for their whole lives. Spouses keep their original surnames. According to the Italian Civil Code (article 143 bis),

1482-548: A factor of almost 4:1 (about 75%) reduction. A 2019 figure however put the total number of Chinese family names at 6,150. Of Han Chinese surnames, the largest number ever recorded was 6,363 (3,730 single-character surnames, 2,633 multiple-character surnames), around 2,000 of which are still in use. Chinese Surname extinction is due to various factors, such as people taking the names of their rulers, orthographic simplifications, taboos against using characters from an emperor's name, and others. A recent example of near surname extinction

1596-483: A fairly comprehensive survey of 296 million people in 2006, and by the 1982 census . The top 100 surnames cover 84.77% of China's population. The top 10 surnames each have populations greater than 20 million. The MPS survey revealed that the top 3 surnames in China have a combined population larger than Indonesia, the world's fourth-most-populous country. The 2019 report by Chinese Ministry of Public Security gives

1710-410: A gender-neutral or masculine substitute for maiden name), whereas a married name is a family name or surname adopted upon marriage. In some jurisdictions, changing names requires a legal process. When people marry or divorce, the legal aspects of changing names may be simplified or included, so that the new name is established as part of the legal process of marrying or divorcing. Traditionally, in

1824-477: A legal option to choose whether their father's or mother's surname came first. If a family did not exercise an option to change the order of the names in their surname, the law defaulted to the father's surname as the first. Also in Spain, a 1995 reform in the law allows the parents to choose whether the father's or the mother's surname goes first, although this order must be the same for all their children. For instance,

1938-566: A name change if: This law does not make it legal for a woman to change her name immediately upon marriage, as marriage is not listed among the reasons for a name change. There were some early cases in the United States that held that under common law , a woman was required to take her husband's name, but newer cases overturned that (see "Retain the birth name" above). Currently, American women do not have to change their names by law. Lindon v. First National Bank , 10 F. 894 (W.D. Pa. 1882),

2052-454: A newly married wife to adopt the husband's family name. However, as Russia is not a common law country, any name change requires a formal procedure including an official application to the civil acts registrar . As the same registrar also records marriages, for the convenience sake it is often done during the marriage proceedings, as governed by the Federal Law #143-FZ "On Civil State Acts", and

2166-505: A number of dialects and languages which often have different pronunciations of their surnames. The spread of the Chinese diaspora into all parts of the world resulted in the Romanization of the surnames based on different languages and Chinese dialects. Countries that have adopted the system of Chinese surnames such as Vietnam and Korea also spell them according to their own pronunciations. As

2280-561: A person with an uncommon name moving to an unsettled area and leaving his family name to large number of descendants. After the Song dynasty , surname distributions in China largely settled down. The Kuàng ( 邝 / 鄺 ) family, for example, migrated from the northern capital and settled in Guangdong after the Song dynasty revolts. Villages are often made up of a single patrilineage with individuals having

2394-614: A result, it is common for the same surname to be transcribed differently. For example, the Chen (陳) surname can appear as Chan ( Cantonese , e.g. Jackie Chan ), Tan (Hokkien), Tang ( Teochew ), Chin ( Hakka ), Trần ( Vietnamese ) and others; the Li (李) surname may appear as Lee (an example is Lee Kuan Yew ), the Zhou (周) surname can appear as Chou, Chew, Jew and many others (e.g. Wakin Chau and Jimmy Choo ); while

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2508-405: A ruling dynasty such as the various titles and names of rulers, nobility and dynasty, or they may be place names of various territories, districts, towns, villages, and specific locations, the title of official posts or occupations, or names of objects, or they may be derived from the names of family members or clans, and in a few cases, names of contempt given by a ruler. The following are some of

2622-572: A whole: the top ten comprise 52.63% of the Taiwanese population and the top hundred 96.11%. There were also only 1,989 surnames recorded by the Ministry's survey, against China's four or five thousand. As is typical of China as a whole, these surnames conflate many different lineages and origins, although tradition may bind them to the same ancestral temples and rituals or ban intermarriage . For example, some Taiwanese converts to Presbyterianism adopted

2736-822: A woman who marries keeps her surname and has the option of adding her husband's surname after hers. Non-Italian citizens getting married in Italy will not have their surname changed in Italy. However, brides or grooms can request their surname change in their home country. In the Netherlands , persons who have been married in the Netherlands or entered into a registered partnership will remain registered under their birth name. They are, however, permitted to use their partner's last name for social purposes or join both names. Upon marriage or registered partnership, one may also indicate how one would like to be addressed by registering one's choice at

2850-472: Is Maya Soetoro-Ng , formerly Maya Soetoro. Farrah Fawcett was known as Farrah Fawcett-Majors during her marriage to Lee Majors until their separation in 1979. Shirley Phelps-Roper was formerly known as Shirley Phelps prior to her marriage. Activist Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson was known as Ruby Doris Smith prior to her marriage. Although less common than name joining, a growing trend is the blending of two surnames upon marriage. This means adding parts of

2964-548: Is Lunalouyugumuzheshuduotumuku'adebu'axi ( Chinese : 魯納婁于古母遮熟多吐母苦啊德補啊喜 ; pinyin : Lǔnàlóuyúgǔmǔzhēshúduōtǔmǔkǔ'ādébǔ'āxǐ ), an extremely rare surname reportedly used by members of the Yi ethnic group in Yunnan province, with seventeen characters in total. Transliteration of Chinese family names (see List of common Chinese surnames ) into foreign languages poses a number of problems. Chinese surnames are shared by people speaking

3078-414: Is believed to have been originally transmitted through women of noble birth, while noble men have shi . Scholars such as Edwin G. Pulleyblank , however, are unconvinced by the matriarchy theory of Chinese surnames due to a lack of independent evidence. An alternative hypothesis has been proposed, suggesting that the use of female radical in xing may have arisen from the clan exogamy system used during

3192-516: Is customary to use the father's surname. The Civil Code currently provides several options for married women on what surname to take upon marriage: On 21 March 2023, the House of Representatives allowing a bill for a woman to keep her maiden name, as Philippine law does not require a woman to take her husband's surname at marriage. This is commonly done for professional reasons, as a woman may want to retain her maiden name among her business circles or as

3306-702: Is founded on the principle that white men are lords of all." Later, when addressing the judiciary committee of the state legislature of New York in 1860 in a speech called "A Slave's Appeal", she stated in part, "The negro [slave] has no name. He is Cuffy Douglas or Cuffy Brooks, just whose Cuffy he may chance to be. The woman has no name. She is Mrs. Richard Roe or Mrs. John Doe, just whose Mrs. she may chance to be." The feminist Jane Grant , co-founder of The New Yorker , wrote in 1943 of her efforts to keep her name despite her marriage, as well as other women's experiences with their maiden names regarding military service, passports, voting , and business . More recently,

3420-554: Is generally practiced. Surname identity and solidarity has declined markedly since the 1930s with the decline of Confucianism and later, the rise of Communism in Mainland China. During the Cultural Revolution , surname culture was actively persecuted by the government with the destruction of ancestral temples and genealogies. Moreover, the influx of Western culture and forces of globalization have also contributed to erode

3534-468: Is less common for women, especially in the United States and Canada, to add their spouse's name and their own birth name. There are examples of this, however, in U.S. senator Cindy Hyde-Smith and U.S. sitting congresswomen Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick and Mariannette Miller-Meeks , as well as U.S. former congresswomen Lucille Roybal-Allard , Ileana Ros-Lehtinen , and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell . Former U.S. president Barack Obama 's only maternal half-sibling

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3648-465: Is less common than name blending. In most of Canada, either partner may informally assume the spouse's surname after marriage, so long as it is not for the purposes of fraud. The same is true for people in common-law relationships , in some provinces. This is not considered a legal name change in most provinces, excluding British Columbia. For federal purposes, such as a Canadian passport , Canadians may also assume their partner's surname if they are in

3762-721: Is one of the very earliest precedent-setting US federal court cases involving common law name change . A woman who had changed her last name to one that was not her husband's original surname was trying to claim control over her inheritance . The court ruled in her favor. This set forth many things. By common law, one may lawfully change their name and be "known and recognized" by that new name. Also, one may enter into any kinds of contracts in their new adopted name. Contracts include employment (see Coppage v. Kansas 236 U.S. 1), and one can be recognized legally in court in their new name. In 1967 in Erie Exchange v. Lane , 246 Md. 55 (1967)

3876-525: Is said about wife's surname change, but it is silent about husband's surname change. Currently, it is very unusual that either spouse change his/her surname after marriage in Iran. Japanese law does not recognize married couples who have different surnames as lawful husband and wife, which means that 96% of married Japanese women take their husband's surname. In 2015, the Japanese Supreme Court upheld

3990-496: Is sometimes referred to as Nikki R. Haley; the "R" stands for Randhawa, her birth surname. Examples are Brooklyn Peltz Beckham and John Ono Lennon . When British author Neil Gaiman married American musician Amanda Palmer , he added his wife's middle name to his, becoming Neil Richard MacKinnon Gaiman. Another example is Marie Gluesenkamp Perez . Some couples will create an entirely new surname for themselves upon marriage, with no ties to either's original surname. This practice

4104-556: Is the rare surname Shan (𢒉). The character may not be displayed on computer systems used by government officials, and people born after the system change as well as people who want to avoid possible problems changed their name to another character such as Xian (冼). The name is still used by the older people, but some people from the village are concerned that future generations will forget their name origin. While new names have arisen for various reasons, this has been outweighed by old names disappearing. The most significant factor affecting

4218-477: Is therefore traditional for Korean women keep their surnames after marriage, based on traditional reasoning that it is what they inherited from their parents and ancestors. Colloquially, Koreans consider the name of an individual as a singular entity, and changing the family name syllable would make the name sound strange with the other syllables of the given name. Nowadays, women still keep their names after marriage. Children can have either parent's surname, but it

4332-551: Is usually romanized as Tan, and is also common in Taiwan , where it is romanized as Chén. Fāng ( 方 ), which is only the 47th most common overall, is much more common in San Francisco's Chinatown in the United States, although the surname is more often than not romanized as Fong, as based on the Yue dialect. As with the concentration of family names, this can also be explained statistically, as

4446-553: The Anglophone West , women are far more likely to change their surnames upon marriage than men, but in some instances men may change their last names upon marriage as well, including same-sex couples . In this article, birth name , family name , surname , married name and maiden name refer to patrilineal surnames unless explicitly described as referring to matrilineal surnames . Women changing their own last name after marriage encounter little difficulty in doing so when

4560-466: The Conseil d'État ruled that a space can be used instead of the double dash. As a result, forms asking for the choice of family name for a child ( nom de famille ) do so on two lines (" 1ère partie : ..... ", " 2e partie : ....") In Germany , since 1977, a woman may adopt her husband's surname or a man may adopt his wife's surname. As an alternative, one of them may adopt a name combined from both surnames;

4674-521: The Qin dynasty (3rd century BC), China was largely a fengjian (feudal) society. As fiefdoms were divided and subdivided among descendants, so additional sub-surnames known as shi were created to distinguish between noble lineages according to seniority, though in theory they shared the same ancestor. In this way, a nobleman would hold a shi and a xing . Xing , however, was more important than shi . The difference between xing and shi became blurred in

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4788-450: The Qin dynasty , name usage was standardised, commoners started to acquire a surname or xing , and the shi also became xing . By the Han dynasty , families only had xing or xing-shi . The great majority of Han Chinese surnames (now called xing or xingshi ) that survive to modern times have their roots in shi rather than the ancient xing . In modern usage, xing is the surname, but

4902-475: The Song dynasty work Hundred Family Surnames , which lists over 400 names. The colloquial expressions lǎobǎixìng (老百姓; lit. "old hundred surnames") and bǎixìng ( 百 姓 , lit. "hundred surnames") are used in Chinese to mean "ordinary folks", "the people", or " commoners ". Chinese surnames have a history of over 3,000 years. Chinese mythology, however, reaches back further to the legendary figure Fuxi (with

5016-530: The Spring and Autumn period starting with women. For example: Chunqiu referred to Duke Xuan of Lu 's consort Lady Mujiang (穆姜), who bore the clan name (姓, xing ) Jiang, as Jiangshi 姜氏, "[lady of the] Jiang shi " (!). After the states of China were unified by Qin Shi Huang in 221 BC, surnames gradually spread to the lower classes. Most surnames that survive to the present day were originally shi . According to

5130-452: The Zheng surname (鄭/郑) can be romanized into Chang, Cheng, Chung, Teh, Tay, Tee, Tsang, Zeng or Zheng (in pinyin , Chang, Cheng, Zheng and Zeng are all different names). In certain dialects, different surnames could be homonyms so it is common for family names to appear ambiguous when transliterated. Translating Chinese surnames from foreign transliteration often presents ambiguity. For example,

5244-518: The Zhou dynasty (the words xing and shi also did not exist in the Shang dynasty oracle bones ). In ancient times, people of the same xing were not permitted to marry each other and a woman married into an aristocratic clan needed to be of a different name. Based on observation of the evolution of characters in oracular scripture from the Shang dynasty through the Zhou : the 女 radical seems to appear during

5358-402: The noble clans . They generally contain a "female" ( Chinese : 女 ; pinyin : nǚ ) radical , for example Ji ( 姬 ), Jiang ( 姜 ), Yao ( 姚 ) and Yíng ( 嬴 ). This is taken as evidence that they originated from matriarchal societies based on maternal lineages . The character for xing itself is composed of a female radical and the character for "give birth" (生, shēng ). Xing

5472-501: The second-round in 1977, which has long been abolished, merged 萧 and 肖 into 肖. Despite the retraction of the second round, some people have kept 肖 as their surname, so that there are now two separate surnames, 萧 and 肖. Chén ( 陈 / 陳 ) is perhaps the most common surname in Hong Kong and Macau , where it is romanized as Chan. It is the most common Chinese surname in Singapore , where it

5586-549: The 21st century. According to a Pew Research Center survey published in September 2023, nearly 4 out of every 5 women in heterosexual marriages in the United States changed their last names to those of their husbands. On the other hand, 92% of all men in these marriages kept their last names. In 2007, Michael Buday and Diana Bijon enlisted the American Civil Liberties Union and filed a discrimination lawsuit against

5700-613: The Chinese immigrant communities around the world and those who have acquired a Christian or Western first name, have adopted the Western convention when giving their name in English, placing their surname last. Examples of those commonly known in the West include Jackie Chan (Chinese name Chan Kong-sang), Jimmy Choo (Chinese name Choo Yeang Keat), and Yo-Yo Ma . Those with a Western first name can write their name in English in various ways – some may add

5814-681: The English-speaking provinces of Canada and the United States. Often there are variations of name adoption, including family name adoption. Usually, the children of these marriages are given their father's surname. Some families (mainly in the US) have a custom of using the mother's maiden name as a middle name for one of the children— Franklin Delano Roosevelt received his middle name in this way, as did Isambard Kingdom Brunel in Britain. Some even use

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5928-566: The Hong Kong media mogul 邵逸夫 Run Run Shaw 's surname 邵 is spelt as Shaw (Shao in pinyin). The use of different systems of romanization based on different Chinese language variants from 1900~1970 also contributed to the variations. Some examples: by Wu of Zhou with the surname Lin Malaysia/Singapore/Indonesia/Philippines: various spellings are used depending on name origin. See List of common Chinese surnames for

6042-576: The Maryland Court of Appeals held that a married woman can lawfully adopt an assumed name, even if it is not her birth name or the name of her lawful husband, without legal proceedings. In the United States, only eight states provide for an official name change for a man as part of their marriage process, and in others a man may petition a court or—where not prohibited—change his name without a legal procedure (though government agencies sometimes do not recognize this procedure). The practice remains popular in

6156-490: The Municipal Basis Administration (Basisregistratie Personen), although their birth name does not change. One may choose to be called by one's own name, one's partner's name, one's own name followed by one's partner's name (hyphenated), or one's partner's name followed by their own name (hyphenated; this was the prevailing convention up to very recently. In this case the maiden name following the hyphen only uses

6270-755: The Philippines, Singapore, or Taiwan. Generally, people of Mainland descent will have their surnames and names in pinyin . Those from Taiwan use Wade-Giles romanization. People from Southeast Asia (mainly Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines) and Hong Kong usually base their romanization of surnames and names on the Min , Hakka and Cantonese languages. The younger generation from Singapore often has their surname in dialect ((Hokkien, Teochew, Hainanese, Cantonese, and Hakka) and given names in English, Mandarin, or both. Some people use non-standard romanizations, e.g.

6384-491: The Song dynasty, ordinary clans began to organize themselves into corporate units and produce genealogies. This trend was led by the poet Su Shi and his father. As competition for resources and positions in the bureaucracy intensified, individuals used their common ancestry and surname to promote solidarity. They established schools to educate their sons and held common lands to aid disadvantaged families. Ancestral temples were also erected to promote surname identity. Clan cohesion

6498-455: The Tang also choronyms before stating beforehand, for example Lǒngxī Lǐshì 隴西李氏, meaning Li of Longxi. These were generally the names of commanderies used prior to the reorganization during the Tang, so that they became exclusively associated to clans as their common use had died out. Cadet branches were also listed for further differentiation, such as Gūzāng Fáng 姑臧房, meaning Clan Li of Guzang. During

6612-438: The U.S. Because of her, women who choose not to use their husbands' surnames have been called "Lucy Stoners". The feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton took her husband's surname as part of her own, signing herself Elizabeth Cady Stanton or E. Cady Stanton, but she refused to be addressed as Mrs. Henry B. Stanton. She wrote in 1847 that "the custom of calling women Mrs. John This and Mrs. Tom That and colored men Sambo and Zip Coon ,

6726-401: The Western first name in front and the Chinese given name last (the surname is therefore in the middle), or fully Westernised with both the Western and Chinese given names before the Chinese surname. Examples include Carrie Lam , originally named Cheng Yuet-ngor (Cheng is the surname), but who has acquired her husband's surname Lam and a Western first name as Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor. Due to

6840-451: The Zhou period next to Shang sinograms indicating a clan or a tribe. This combination seems to designate specifically a female and could mean "lady of such or such clan". The structure of the xing sinogram could reflect the fact that in the royal court of Zhou, at least in the beginning, only females (wives married into the Zhou family from other clans) were called by their birth clan name, while

6954-406: The article 38 of the law on Civil Registration in 1940, but there is another article (43) that says "If the couple separate legally, maintaining husband's surname is allowed if the husband allows, and if the husband has taken wife's family name, maintaining wife's surname is allowed if the wife allows." In the last related article (the article 42 of the law on Civil Registration in 1976) the same thing

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7068-519: The chapter on surnames in the Han dynasty work Fengsu Tong – Xingshi Pian (風俗通姓氏篇), there are 9 origins of Chinese surnames: dynasty names, posthumous titles, ranks of nobility, state names, official positions, style names, places of residence, occupations, and events. Modern scholars such as Kiang Kang-Hu proposed that there are 18 sources from which Chinese surnames may be derived, while others suggested at least 24. These may be names associated with

7182-626: The claim. Names in Taiwan ;– both among the immigrant ethnic Chinese and indigenous Taiwanese people  – are similar to those in southeast China but differ somewhat from the distribution of names among all Han Chinese. According to a comprehensive survey of residential permits released by the Taiwanese Ministry of the Interior 's Department of Population in February 2005,

7296-543: The common sources: Many also changed their surnames throughout history for a number of reasons. Chinese surnames or family names are written before the first name or given name . Therefore, someone named Wei ( 伟 ) from the Zhang ( 张 ) family is called "Zhang Wei" ( 张伟 ) and not "Wei Zhang". Chinese women generally retain their maiden name and use their name unchanged after marriage, but in modern times in some communities, some women may choose to attach their husband's surname to

7410-449: The couple's marriage certificate has an option of having one common family name, or both spouses going by their original surname. However, the law is entirely gender neutral, and the couple may adopt either of their surnames (a husband adopting his wife's family name is an uncommon but by no means unheard-of practice, which is generally accepted and carries little to no social stigma), or even a completely different one. The law also recognizes

7524-413: The couple's right to use the combined family name, and for the either of the spouses to reclaim their original surname in the case the marriage is dissolved. In the lowlands of Scotland in the 16th century, married women did not change their surnames, but today it is common practice to do so. Spouses have always kept their original surnames. Following Spanish naming customs , a person's name consists of

7638-512: The different spelling conventions and dialects as well as the different spelling preferences in the various countries these Chinese find themselves in, many people of the same Chinese surname can appear differently when written in English, for example the Lin surname (林) may also appear as Lam ( Cantonese ) or Lim ( Hokkien ). Some Chinese surnames that appear to be the same written in English may also be different in Chinese due to different characters having

7752-425: The different spellings and more examples. Throughout most of Chinese history, surnames have served sociological functions. Because of their association with the aristocratic elite in their early developments, surnames were often used as symbols of nobility. Thus nobles would use their surnames to be able to trace their ancestry and compete for seniority in terms of hereditary rank. Examples of early genealogies among

7866-491: The ex-partner disagrees and requests the court to forbid the use of the ex-partner's surname. Before the birth or adoption of a first child, married parents may choose the child's surname (mother's or father's but not both). If no choice is made, the child automatically bears the father's surname. Any further children will also go by this name. If the parents are not married, the children will automatically have their mother's name unless otherwise indicated. Wives usually append

7980-427: The family name of their spouse to their legal name, although there is a recent trend of women keeping their maiden names. Following Portuguese naming customs , a person's name consists of a given name (simple or composite) followed by two family names (surnames), the mother's and the father's. Any children whom a couple have together, take both second-surnames. There is a widespread, though not universal, custom for

8094-467: The father only upon "the concurrent submission of a sworn application to that effect signed by both parents." In Massachusetts , a Harvard study in 2004 found that about 87% of college-educated women take their husbands' name on marriage, down from a peak before 1975 of over 90%, but up from about 80% in 1990. The same study found women with a college degree were "two to four times (depending on age) more likely to retain their surname" than those without

8208-478: The father's surname. Korea used to be relatively gender equal as of inheritance and familial duties up until at least the late 17th century. Often, family genealogy books would keep track of the daughters and their spouses and offspring too. As such, it was the norm for women to keep their maiden name and they were considered to be part of the family even after marriage. Before modern times, people were very conscious of familial values and their own family identities. It

8322-654: The feminist Jill Filipovic 's opposition to name change for women who marry was published in The Guardian in 2013 as "Why should married women change their names? Let men change theirs", and cited as recommended reading on the theory of social construction of gender in Critical Encounters in Secondary English: Teaching Literacy Theory to Adolescents by Deborah Appleman (2014). When Filipovic married in 2018, she kept her last name. It

8436-447: The front. Chinese surname is patrilinear where the father's surname is passed on to his children, but more recently some people have opted to use both parents' surnames; although this practice has increased in recent times, it is still relatively uncommon in China, with those who adopted both parents' surnames numbering at only 1.1 million in 2018 (up from 118,000 in 1990). Some Chinese outside of mainland China, particularly those from

8550-407: The heads of families had the right to choose their family members' (including the wife) surname. It is stated in the article four of the law on Civil Registration in 1925, that "Everybody should choose his/her own name. The wife... maintains her family name that was called by." The same thing has been restated in the article three of the law on Civil Registration in 1928. There is not much difference in

8664-462: The last Han emperor in his favor, claimed descent from the Yellow Emperor . Chinese emperors sometimes passed their own surnames to subjects as honors. Unlike European practice in which some surnames are obviously noble, Chinese emperors and members of the royal family had regular surnames except in cases where they came from non-Han ethnic groups. This was a result of Chinese imperial theory in which

8778-564: The marriage law explicitly states that a child may use either parent's surname. It is also common for two children born to the same parents to take different surnames, one after the father and the other after the mother. It is also possible, though far less common, for a child to combine both parents' surnames. Amongst the Chinese diaspora overseas, especially in Southeast Asia, women rarely legally adopt their spouse's surname. Due to British influence, some people in Hong Kong have also adopted

8892-529: The marriage officer or the civil registry office. In 2014, the Constitutional Court ruled that prohibiting married women from retaining only maiden names is a violation of their rights. Traditionally, unlike in Anglophone Western countries, a married woman keeps her name unchanged, without adopting her husband's surname. In mainland China a child inherits their father's surname as a norm, though

9006-408: The men were usually designated by their title or fief. While people of the same xing were not permitted to marry each other, those with the same shi can. By the Han dynasty when everyone had xing and the surname was transmitted paternally, the practice continued, but it had changed to marriage between families of men on the paternal side being prohibited, but not on the maternal side. Prior to

9120-460: The more ancient surname that referred to the ancestral tribe or clan, while shi denoted a branch of the tribe or clan. For example, the ancestors of the Shang had Zi (子) as xing , but the descendants were subdivided into numerous shi including Yin (殷), Song (宋), Kong (空), Tong (同) and others. The distinction between the two began to be blurred by the Warring States period . During

9234-532: The most common surnames in any one province. The 55th most common family name "Xiào" ( 肖 ) appears to be very rare in Hong Kong. This is explained by the fact Hong Kong uses traditional Chinese characters rather than simplified Chinese characters . Originally, the surname 蕭 (Xiāo) was rather common while the surname 肖 (Xiào) was extremely rare, if not non-existent (it is mentioned only sporadically in historical texts). The first round of simplification in 1956 simplified 蕭 into 萧 , keeping 蕭/萧 and 肖 distinct. However

9348-448: The mother's maiden name as a first name, such as Spessard Holland , a former governor of Florida and former senator, whose mother's maiden name was Virginia Spessard. Women who keep their own surname after marriage may do so for a number of reasons: The feminist Lucy Stone (1818–1893) made a national issue of a married woman's right to keep her own surname (as she herself did upon marriage) as part of her efforts for women's rights in

9462-500: The name Kai (偕, pinyin Xié ) in honor of the Canadian missionary George Leslie Mackay (馬偕, Pe̍h-ōe-jī Má-kai ). Maiden name When a person (traditionally the wife in many cultures) assumes the family name of their spouse , in some countries that name replaces the person's previous surname , which in the case of the wife is called the maiden name (" birth name " is also used as

9576-442: The name of the son of the couple in the example above could be "Andrés Gómez Reyes" or "Andrés Reyes Gómez". In some Spanish-American countries it is customary for women to unofficially add the husband's first surname after her own, for social purposes such as invitation letters or event announcements. The couple above may introduce themselves as José Gómez Hevia and María Reyes de Gómez. It is also common to name, in formal settings,

9690-518: The name-change law, ruling that it was not unconstitutional, noting that women could informally use their maiden names, and stating that it was the parliamentarians who should decide on whether to pass new legislation on separate spousal names. In 2024, six couples recognized International Women's Day by suing the government of Japan for the right of a wife and husband to have different last names. Traditionally, Korean women keep their family names after their marriage, while their children usually take

9804-462: The only daughter of Liao San-Jiou-Lang who had no son, and he took the oath that he should be in the name of Liao when alive and should be in the name of Chang after death." In some places, there are additional taboos against marriage between people of the same surname, considered to be closely related. Conversely, in some areas, there are different clans with the same surname which are not considered to be related, but even in these cases surname exogamy

9918-437: The opportunity is included in the legal process of marrying. Unless the statutes where the marriage occurred specify that a name change may occur at marriage (in which case the marriage certificate indicates the new name), courts following common law officially recognize it as the right of a person (man, woman, and sometimes child) to change their name. However, men encounter more difficulties in changing their last names. In

10032-504: The passage of a 1981 provincial law intended to promote gender equality, as outlined in the Québec Charter of Rights , no change may be made to a person's name without the authorization of the registrar of civil status or the authorization of the court. Newlyweds who wish to change their names upon marriage must therefore go through the same procedure as those changing their names for other reasons. The registrar of civil status may authorize

10146-542: The past, a woman in England usually assumed her new husband's family name (or surname) after marriage; often she was compelled to do so under coverture laws. Assuming the husband's surname remains common practice today in the United Kingdom (although there is no law that states the name must be changed) and in other countries such as Australia , New Zealand , Pakistan , Gibraltar , Falkland Islands , India , Philippines ,

10260-449: The population. Most commonly occurring Chinese family names have only one character; however, about twenty double-character family names have survived into modern times. These include Sima ( 司 馬 , simp. 司 马 ), Zhuge ( 諸 葛 , simp. 诸 葛 ), Ouyang ( 歐 陽 , simp. 欧 阳 ), occasionally romanized as O'Young , suggesting an Irish origin to English-speakers, and Situ (or Sito 司 徒 ). Sima, Zhuge, and Ouyang also happen to be

10374-405: The population. The three most common surnames in Mainland China are Li , Wang and Zhang , which make up 7.9%, 7.4% and 7.1% respectively. Together they number close to 300 million and are easily the most common surnames in the world. In Chinese, the phrase "third son of Zhang, fourth son of Li" ( Chinese : 张 三 李 四 ; pinyin : Zhāng sān Lǐ sì ) is used to mean "just anybody". In

10488-571: The population. Next are Lǐ (李), Huáng ( 黄 / 黃 ), Lín ( 林 ) and Zhāng (张/張). Around the major crossing points of the Yangzi River , the most common surname is Lĭ (李), taking up 7.7%, followed by Wáng (王), Zhāng (张/張), Chan/Chén (陈/陳) and Liú (刘/劉). A 1987 study showed over 450 family names in common use in Beijing, but there were fewer than 300 family names in Fujian . Furthermore, a 2012 study found that there

10602-489: The previous sociological uses of the Chinese surnames. According to a comprehensive survey of residential permits released by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security on 24 April 2007, the ten most common surnames in mainland China are Wang (王), Li (李), Zhang (张), Liu (刘), Chen (陈), Yang (杨), Huang (黄), Zhao (赵), Wu (吴), and Zhou (周). The same names were also found (in slightly different orders) by

10716-414: The remaining unchanged surname is the "family name" ( Ehename ), which will be the surname of the children. If a man and woman both decide to keep and use their birth names after the wedding (no combined name), they shall declare one of those names the "family name". A combined name is not possible as a family name, but, since 2005, it has been possible to have a double name as a family name if one already had

10830-454: The royalty can be found in Sima Qian 's Historical Records , which contain tables recording the descent lines of noble houses called shibiao ( Chinese : 世表 ; pinyin : shìbiǎo ). Later, during the Han dynasty, these tables were used by prominent families to glorify themselves and sometimes even to legitimize their political power. For example, Cao Pi , who forced the abdication of

10944-480: The same ease as a woman. As a result of the lawsuit, the Name Equality Act of 2007 was passed to allow either spouse to change their name, using their marriage license as the means of the change; the law took effect in 2009. In the United States, some states or areas have laws that restrict what surname a child may have. For example, Tennessee allows a child to be given a surname that does not include that of

11058-434: The same or similar pronunciations, dialectal differences, or non-standard romanizations (see section on variation in romanization below). Surnames are not evenly distributed throughout China's geography. In northern China, Wáng ( 王 ) is the most common surname, being shared by 9.9% of the population. Next are Lǐ ( 李 ), Zhāng ( 张 / 張 ) and Liú ( 刘 / 劉 ). In the south, Chén ( 陈 / 陳 ) is the most common, being shared by 10.6% of

11172-475: The same surname, often with a common male ancestor. They usually intermarry with others from nearby villages, creating genetic clusters. Of the thousands of surnames which have been identified from historical texts prior to the modern era, most have either been lost (see extinction of family names ) or simplified. Historically there are close to 12,000 surnames recorded including those from non-Han Chinese ethnic groups, of which only about 3,100 are in current use,

11286-502: The state of California . According to the ACLU, the obstacles facing a husband who wishes to adopt his wife's last name violated the equal protection clause provided by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution. At the time of the lawsuit, only the states of Georgia , Hawaii , Iowa , Massachusetts , New York and North Dakota explicitly allowed a man to change his name through marriage with

11400-407: The surname " Li " are all Mandarin-based pinyin transliteration for the surnames Lí ( 黎 ); Lǐ ( 李 , 理 and 里); and Lì ( 郦/酈 , 栗 , 厉/厲 , and 利 ) depending on the tone which is usually omitted in foreign transliterations. Due to the different pronunciations and romanizations, it is sometimes easy to tell whether a Chinese person has origins in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, Malaysia,

11514-436: The surname Feng), who was said to have established the system of Chinese surnames to distinguish different families and prevent marriage of people with the same family names. Prior to the Warring States period (fifth century BC), only the ruling families and the aristocratic elite had surnames. Historically there was a difference between ancestral clan names or xing ( 姓 ) and branch lineage names or shi ( 氏 ). Xing may be

11628-488: The surname frequency is other ethnic groups identifying as Han and adopting Han names. In recent centuries some two-character surnames have often dropped a character. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China, moreover, some surnames have been graphically simplified. Although there are thousands of Chinese family names, the 100 most common, which together make up less than 5% of those in existence, are shared by 85% of

11742-499: The surnames Wang and Li as the most common ones, with each shared by over 100 million people in China. Each of the most common 23 surnames in China has more than 10 million users. A commonly cited fact from the 1990 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records estimated that Zhang was the most common surname in the world, but no comprehensive information from China was available at the time and more recent editions have omitted

11856-556: The surnames of four extremely famous premodern Chinese historical figures. There are family names with three or more characters, but usually those are not ethnically Han Chinese. For example, Aixinjueluo ( 愛 新 覺 羅 , also romanized from the Manchu language as Aisin Gioro ), was the family name of the Manchu royal family of the Qing dynasty . The longest recorded surname written using hanzi characters

11970-578: The ten most common surnames in Taiwan are Chen (陳), Lin (林), Huang (黃), Chang or Zhang (張), Lee or Li (李), Wang (王), Wu (吳), Liu (劉), Tsai (蔡), and Yang (楊). Taiwanese surnames include some local variants like Tu (塗), which do not even appear among the Hundred Family Surnames , as well as a number of relatively recently created names like Changchien (張簡) and Chiangfan (姜范). However, names in Taiwan show less diversity than China as

12084-466: The tradition of tracing their ancestry to the distant past as a matter of prestige. Most of these origin myths, though well established, are spurious. As a result of the importance of surnames, rules and traditions regarding family and marriage grew increasingly complex. For example, in Taiwan, there is a clan with the so-called "double Liao" surname. The story is that "Chang Yuan-zih of Liao's in Siluo married

12198-418: The tradition of women changing their English last name, or prepending their husband's Chinese surname to their own in official occasions or business cards but rarely on resident identification or travel documents. An example is former chief executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor , who prepended her husband Lam Siu-por 's surname to hers. It became mandatory in 1918 to use surnames in Iran, and only in this time,

12312-774: The two names. An example is Dawn O'Porter (from Porter and O'Dowd ). Examples include Amy Coney Barrett , Maryanne Trump Barry , Vera Cahalan Bushfield , Marguerite Stitt Church , Hillary Rodham Clinton (dropped maiden name in 2007), Ruth Bader Ginsburg , Katherine Gudger Langley , Ruth Hanna McCormick , Nelle Wilson Reagan , Edith Nourse Rogers , Sarah Huckabee Sanders , Debbie Wasserman Schultz , Margaret Chase Smith , and Jada Pinkett Smith . During their respective marriages, Kim Kardashian and Robin Wright were known as Kim Kardashian West (from Kanye West ) and Robin Wright Penn (from Sean Penn ). Politician Nikki Haley

12426-423: The two terms began to be used interchangeably, and in the present day, xing refers to the surname and shi may refer either the clan or maiden name. The two terms may also be used together as xingshi for family names or surnames. Most Chinese surnames ( xing ) in current use were originally shi . The earliest xing surname might be matrilinear , but Han Chinese family name has been exclusively patrilineal for

12540-522: The wife of a man as "señora de", followed by her husband's first surname. Since 2014, women in Turkey are allowed to keep their birth names alone for their whole life instead of using their husbands' names. Previously, the Turkish Code of Civil Law, Article 187, required a married woman to use her husband's surname; or else to use her birth name in front of her husband's name by giving a written application to

12654-502: The word shi survives as a word to refer to the clan. The term shi may be appended to the surname of a person; for example, a man with the Zhang surname may be referred to respectfully as Zhang- shi instead of his full name. It is used in particular for the paternal surname of a married woman, therefore in this case shi means maiden name , which a Chinese woman would continue to use after marriage. The ancient xing were surnames held by

12768-423: Was the lowest amount of isonymy in surnames among the population around middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River both on the provincial and county levels. Additionally, it was found that counties with the highest values of isonymy were distributed in the provinces with high proportions of ethnic minorities. According to the dendrogram of surname distances, several clusters could be identified. Most provinces in

12882-447: Was used as a source of prestige and common allegiance. During the period many genealogical records called pudie ( simplified Chinese : 谱牒 ; traditional Chinese : 譜牒 ; pinyin : pǔdié ) were compiled to trace the complex descent lines of families or clans and their marriage ties to other families or clans. Many of these were collected by Ouyang Xiu in his New History of Tang . To differentiate between different surnames,

12996-548: Was usually encouraged by successive imperial governments since it aided in social stability. During the Qing dynasty surname associations often undertook extrajudicial roles, providing primitive legal and social security functions. They played important roles in the Chinese diaspora to South-East Asia and elsewhere, providing the infrastructure for the establishment of trading networks. In southern China, however, clans sometimes engaged in armed conflict in competition for land. Clans continued

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