We know you’ve had it marked on your calendar for months now, but March 1 was Fun Facts About Names Day. Yep. But wait, wait, before you get out there and start belatedly celebrating this most important of days, let us hit you with some Chinese name knowledge.
Wang is the World’s Most Common Surname
An incredible 76 million people share the surname Wang, making it the most popular family name in the world. Here’s one of our favorite Wangs to tell you more and to tell you why you really shouldn’t be getting the pronunciation wrong:
Aside from Wang, you’re also likely to bump into someone whose surname is Li, Zhang, Liu or Chen in China, as more than 433 million people or 31% of the country’s population fall into this group.
Some of these groups are even bigger than they first appear as well, as MyChinaRoots — a site that helps you trace your Chinese ancestry — points out, a Chinese surname can have as many as 30 different spellings thanks to different romanization systems and dialects: “Huang, Wong, Ng, Ong, Vong, and even Oei can all refer to the same Chinese surname: 黄.”
Perhaps thanks to the commonality of surnames, people can get pretty creative with first names. From historical to poetic to astrological choices, parents often want to name their kids in the hopes of a better future. The most commonly-used characters to name newborns last year in mainland China were 梓 Zi (a catalpa tree), 子 Zi (seed), 宇 Yu (universe), 辰 Chen (time), and 一 Yi (one and only).
You Can Track China’s Development Via Names
Although naming conventions got a little spiritual and poetic in 2020, that’s not always been the case — far from it. In fact, to some extent you can trace the changes that have affected modern China by looking at the most popular names from various years.
The 1950s: Patriotic Names
A whole generation was named to commemorate the establishment of the People’s Republic in 1949, with common names such as 建国 Jianguo, 建华 Jianhua, and 国强 Guoqiang all referring to the inauguration of the new China and hopes for a prosperous country. Today, more than 960,000 Chinese people share the name Jianguo, among which about 24% were born between 1949 and 1959.
Another major historic moment, the Korean War (1950-1953), gave tens of thousands of babies names such as 援朝 Yuanchao (support North Korea), 抗美 Kangmei (resist the US), and 卫国 (guard the homeland).
Read More at https://radiichina.com/chinese-names/