{"id":8667,"date":"2023-05-15T18:30:19","date_gmt":"2023-05-15T10:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pinyin.info\/news\/?p=8667"},"modified":"2023-05-15T20:50:27","modified_gmt":"2023-05-15T12:50:27","slug":"two-syllable-chinese-family-names","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pinyin.info\/news\/2023\/two-syllable-chinese-family-names\/","title":{"rendered":"Two-syllable Chinese family names"},"content":{"rendered":"

By far the most common two-syllable Chinese family name in China is Ouyang (NB: this should not<\/em> be written Ou-yang, Ou-Yang, or Ou Yang), with it representing more than twelve times as many people as the next most common name on the list: Shangguan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Surname <\/th>\n Fùx\u00ecng (複姓\/复姓)<\/th>\nNumber of people in China with this surname<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Ouyang<\/td>\n欧阳<\/td>\n1,112,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Shangguan<\/td>\n上官<\/td>\n88,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Huangfu<\/td>\n皇甫<\/td>\n64,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Linghu<\/td>\n令狐<\/td>\n55,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Zhuge<\/td>\n诸葛<\/td>\n48,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Situ<\/td>\n司徒<\/td>\n47,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Sima<\/td>\n司马<\/td>\n23,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Shentu<\/td>\n申屠<\/td>\n19,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Xiahou<\/td>\n夏侯<\/td>\n11,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Helan<\/td>\n贺兰<\/td>\n10,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Wanyan<\/td>\n完颜<\/td>\n6,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

Those figures for the most common two-syllable Chinese family names (commonly called “two-character” family names) total 1.495 million, or about 1.5 million, which is not an inconsiderable number but still just a drop in the bucket compared with China’s population of some 1.41 billion. Only about one tenth of 1 percent (0.11%) of people in China have such names. <\/p>\n

The percentage is a bit less in Taiwan. The most common doubled surname in Taiwan, however, is Zhangjian (張簡\/张简), which doesn’t appear at all on the list of the most common disyllabic family names in China. In Taiwan, Ouyang is second. <\/p>\n

Further reading: <\/p>\n