Origin of 《百家姓》

Everybody has a name. Names and surnames are symbolic representations and they are means of information transfer. In China, names and surnames have undergone a long period of transformation to develop into nowadays names. Every name has its unique cultural meaning, breeding off springs, prosperity, to name but a few. In addition, every surname has its historical representative, for instance, Sun Yat Sen and Ye Jian Ying.

When it comes to Chinese surnames, people will definitely think of “The Book of Family Names” as it is listed as an enlightening book for children, along with the book “Triple Word Couplet”. “The Book of Family Names” was written in The Song Dynasty. When it was first written, it consisted of 411 surnames, then the number increased to 504. However, in the big family of China, surnames are certainly not limited to 504, even solely the number of surnames of the Han clan exceeds 504. With reference to some official documents, the recorded number of Chinese surnames are more than 5600. Among them, there are single-character-surnames, double-character-surnames, three-character-surnames, four-character-surnames and five-character-surnames.