A person’s surname indicates his family blood relationship. Each surname has a unique origin and has a rich cultural connotation behind it.
In China, surnames are something we’d never give up.
The ancient surname culture has a long history in China.
During the Northern Song Dynasty, some people compiled the most commonly used surnames into the Hundred Family Surnames (百家姓).
- 百家姓 (bǎi jiā xìng): Bai Jia Xing; the Book of Family Names; various surnames
In this compilation, the top surnames were the most commonly used surnames, such as Li (李), Wang (王), and Zhang (张).
However, some rare surnames, although not included in the Book of Family Names, they have been used by some people.
No one has been able to establish the exact number of Chinese surnames. However, it is considered to be “approximately” 4100. Some scholars argue that there are nearly 8,000 surnames (depending on how to count the surnames).
That said, the following surnames are rare in China.
Jiang (酱, jiàng)
Mainly distributed in Hubei, Hunan, Taiwan.
There are just 14 people with Jiang surname.
In an investigation, through persistent search, only 14 people were finally found to have 酱 surname. This included 6 males and 8 females. They are all born in the 80s. Further, two of these 14 are named as Jiang Dou Fu (酱豆腐), literally “Sauce Bean Curd.”
Well, the surname 酱 is so rare that many of us wouldn’t encounter a person with 酱 in our lifetime.
Kunag (贶, kuànɡ)
Mainly distributed in Henan province.
The population of the Kuang surname is very small. There are no more than 100 people with Kuang surname in the whole country.
Si (死, sǐ)
Distributed in Luoyang/Kaifeng in Henan Province, and Wuzhong in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
There are about 1,000 people with 死 surname.
Si (姒, sì)
姒 is one of the eight ancient surnames.
Mainly distributed in Shaanxi, and Zhejiang provinces.
There are only 2,000 people with the surname Si in the whole country.
Mu (母, mǔ)
Distributed in Shandong, and Henan provinces.
The “母” surname has a long history! There are probably no more than 30,000 people in the mainland China.
In 1978, statistics from Taiwan’s household registration card showed that there were only 94 people with 母 surname in Taiwan.
Ning (难, nìng)
Mainly distributed in Luoyang and Jiaozuo in present-day Henan Province.
There are about 7,140 people with this surname.
Dian (点, diǎn)
This is a new surname; it was created in 1991 in Jiangsu province (Nanjing). The story is interesting, but out of scope of this article.
