Surnames in China
中国的姓氏
Ruofu Du 杜若甫

Abstract 摘要
Surnames in China have a history over 3000 years long. The number of Chinese surnames collected from literature is over 6000. Among these the Han surnames used today might number around 2000. The overwhelming majority of today’s surnames have their root-stock in shi 氏, not xing 姓 in ancient times. The implications of surnames are related to dynasty or state name, residential place, official position, occupation, posthumous title, style, an event, etc. Factors of selection on surnames in China are not clear. There are two kinds of mutation of surname: one produces new surnames while the other only changes surnames into other previously existing ones and thus influences the frequencies of surnames; the latter happens much more frequently than the former. Among 55 national minorities in China, about 30 have surnames while the others have only given names, or given names plus father’s, grandfather’s or tribe’s name–but some people, especially cadres and pupils, are now adopting surnames from the Han ethnic group.

中国的姓氏至少已有三千年以上的历史。历史上曾出现过的姓有六千个以上，汉族目前使用的姓约有两千个左右，这些姓大部分来自古代的氏，而不是姓。氏主要起源于朝代名，国名，地名，官职，职业，谥号，字，事件等。对姓氏的选择并不明显。姓氏的突变有两类，一类产生新的姓，另一类则只变为原有的另一姓，因而只影响姓的频率；前一类较少见，后一类则较常见。在中国五十五个少数民族中，三十多个民族已有姓，二十多个民族则原来只有名字，或名字加父名，祖父名或部落名，但其中有少数（尤其是干部和学生）现在正在逐渐自动地采用汉族的姓。

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