BEIJING: While most Chinese people’s surnames are only one character long, there are also millions of people who have compound surnames which are considered rare and precious.
You might have come across some Chinese celebrities with surnames more than one character, such as Taiwan-born actress and cellist Ouyang Nana, Hong Kong-American stand-up comedian and actor Jimmy O. Yang.
In fact, these two celebrities have the same compound surname, Ouyang, which is currently China’s most used compound surname, with over 1.1 million people using it, according to the 2020 National Name Report by the Ministry of Public Security.
China currently has fewer than 100 compound surnames. The second most popular one is Shangguan, used by 88,000 people, followed by Huangfu, Linghu, Zhuge, Situ and Sima.
There are only millions of people with compound surnames today, but in ancient times China used to have over 1,000 compound surnames.
The compound surnames have various origins.
Some were ancient official titles. Some came from professions. Others were hereditary names of the region, like Ouyang and Dongguo. Some were adapted from surnames of ethnic minority tribes.
Most compound surnames disappeared.
Some were changed to one-character surnames. Taking Ouyang for example, people today with the surname Ou or Yang are believed to be offspring of the Ouyang family.
Some were simply lost, as Chinese people traditionally inherit fathers’ surnames.
One compound surname, Xushi, reportedly only has one inheritor left today.
The surname was created by a Ceylon prince, who visited China in the 15th century but could not return due to a coup in his country.
He remained in Quanzhou in southeastern China’s Fujian province, and adapted the first syllable of his name into his Chinese surname, Shi.
When there was only female offspring in one generation, one woman combined her surname with her husband’s surname, Xu, and invented the compound surname Xushi.
Over hundreds of years, the family had been keeping their origin a secret, until her family’s graveyard named Shijiakeng, meaning “pit of Shi family”, was discovered in Quanzhou in the 1990s.
The family’s last offspring, Xushi Yin’e, also revealed her identity as a Ceylon princess then.
She was reported to be the last person who is still using the surname Xushi.
In fact, nowadays some women are fighting for the right for their children to inherit their surnames instead of their husbands’.
One reason, according to some, is to keep their rare and precious surnames.
Compound surnames are romanticised today as a name with antique and poetic beauty.
This is partly because many celebrities with compound surnames are ancient literati, such as Han dynasty (206BC-220) historian Sima Qian, Song dynasty (960-1279) poet and politician Ouyang Xiu.
Famous strategist during the Three Kingdoms period (220–280), Zhuge Liang, also had a compound surname.
Compound surnames are also often used in wuxia novels. Famous characters with compound surnames include Linghu Chong, Ouyang Feng, Dongfang Bubai, created by Jin Yong, and Ximen Chuixue, Sikong Zhaixing created by Gu Long.
Having two characters in their surname does not necessarily mean it is a compound surname.
Some parents today blend both sides’ surnames for their children as a symbol of fairness or love. - South China Morning
